I'm getting fed up with the poor old CDS being written off as a kind of Brit immigrant colony populated by either beer-drinking pizza-eating tattooed types who want Blackpool with sun or a load of tarts and gangsters.. When I told friends we were moving from Prague to the CDS their reactions were raised eyebrows, comments along the lines of 'But it's full of tarts, gangsters and chavs'...comments more revealing of the ignorance of the person making them than anything else. Then you get the comments along the lines of 'Well, it's not really Spain, is it...' or 'It's so ugly. Totally spoilt by all the construction in the last decade'. Beneath these comments lies ignorance, snobbery and a kind of cultural superiority, itself a kind of snobbery. I've lived for four years in a small village on the coast road between Marbella and Estepona. You couldn't find a more 'Spanish' ambiance. Yes, there are a few British immigrants, not many,but then where in Spain will you not find them? The towns along the Costa are as different as the proverbial chalk and cheese. Some I like, some I loathe. Sobre los gustos no hay disputos. But they are all recognisably Andalucian and Spanish. I prefer small quiet places but like to be within easy reach of towns. I like the beach and I like the Sierras. The CDS offers all kinds of countryside, most of it beautiful. Yes, there are some ugly developments....but not only on the CDS. I'm getting a tad tired of my chosen part of Spain being written off as 'not really Spain' or as somehow being radically culturally different in a non-Spanish way from other parts. Spanish culture and the Spanish people are strong and self-confident enough to maintain their essential Spanishness whatever. So Mods...perhaps we should have a sweary filter whenever the phrase 'real Spain' or anything similar crops up?
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