Shopping for the things that I don’t currently know that I’ll need??? You are going to have to explain that one to me.
Gladly! We all have our little habits, and needs, and when you go away during the winter for a couple of months, they go with you. 🙂 To be a little bit more specific, typically, small items that you use every day or semi-regularly have become indispensable in your day-to-day life… even if you don’t realize that. And of course, they are likely things that you would not be inclined to take with you on a trip abroad. We are talking – kitchen gadgets, small hand tools (P.S. I always travel with my Swiss Army Knife and my Leatherman multi-tool), personal grooming aids, electronic accessories, entertainment materials (e.g. books), etc.
You don’t know that you will miss having them around until you go away for a couple of months and suddenly, they are not there. And, because these things are typically not that expensive to buy, you will end up going out and picking up replacements. That is what this piece is all about. Telling you about the places here where you can go buy these missing necessities… inexpensively.
Let me provide some examples. In my last post where I wrote about the apartments, we have rented this year I mentioned that a shower stall in Apartment #1 is a bit slippery. This is relevant for me because you may have read that I have wonky feet now and that a slip resistant shower is important to me. I often find that slippery showers are the norm when we are away from home; so, when I discover that, I will head out and buy myself a bathmat for the shower.
In the kitchen, I like to use tongs to cook with because they’re great extensions for my wonky hands. Another kitchen example that pops up all the time for us is that sometimes you arrive in a rental apartment and no containers are available to store leftover food. In the past, we have tried making do by purchasing food products in plastic containers (e.g. small pail of Yoghurt) that we can repurpose for storage. Now we just buy cheap plstic containers.
The simple solution to these missing items is to head out and buy them right away. In some instances, you can try asking the folks you are renting from to provide them for you, but how they respond to your request will vary, of course.
We have been through this process so many times now that we actually have a few items that we purchased in Spain, took home with us, and then brought back with us. One of the places we rented in Nerja offers a storage service for returning renters. if you box-up all your personal stuff, they will hang onto it for you until you return the next year… Nice!
This may have already got you thinking about things that you know you will need while you’re away and get you thinking about developing a list even before you leave home. There is nothing wrong with packing up a few small items that you can’t really live without if you are going away for two months. But, that is not always feasible.
So, the big question becomes where do you buy all this stuff? Today, you find out. 🙂
I’m going to be using photo carousels here again in places, so please remember that to have each collection pop up into a much larger view. You simply click on the first image on the left-hand side and then sift your way through the pictures.
Chinese Bazars
Most of the things that you will end up needing can probably be found at a “Chinese Bazaar”. That may seem a tad racist to you, but honestly, these places are definitely a thing here. I think it’s safe to say that most of the people who work in these retail outlets are of East Asian descent, but I’m not sure they’re all Chinese. Our equivalent at home would be a “dollar store”, but many here are considerably larger.
You will often see the words China or Chinese or Bazar in the store name. So Chinese Bazar is just not some sort of derogatory designation. You can find lots of references or descriptions of them on various websites like this one – or if you search on Google maps for them in the town you are visiting. They pop up all over the place in virtually every community we have stayed in.
I’m not sure how this all ended up happening, but I think it would be safe to speculate that some of the manufacturing over-production in China ends up in these stores . :-)They have just about anything you will need at VERY reasonable prices, so for many folks… us included… they are a go to destination. This first collection of photos is from the one that we have been frequenting here in Estepona, “Cash China”. It is huge! 🙂
So, what have we been buying, you are probably asking yourself? I’ll show you, but I cannot recall exactly how much every item cost.
Here are photos taken at a second Chinese Bazaar here in town that we have popped into. I am sharing these here so that you will see how prevalent they are, and that there really is a wide variety of stuff in these stores. And these photos are pleasingly colorful. 🙂
Other Retail Outlets You Will End Up Going To
Next, a look at some of the other retail outlets you will probably find yourself looking for if you are here for a couple of months. You may be thinking that some of these things I’m about to mention you could find at a Chinese Bazar, and that is probably true. But sometimes, you need a little bit of professional advice or help to go along with it. First up Ferreterías.
Ferretería
No real mystery here, Ferreterías are simply hardware stores. There hasn’t been a year that we’ve been in Spain that we didn’t end up at a hardware store at some point. Something always pops up. And this year it was a specialized wafer battery for the meat thermometer I had purchased. I have to tell you our first visit this year produced a very special hardware moment that could only take place here in Spain… never at home.
After I explained to the woman running the store what I needed, she went behind the counter for a few minutes and came back with the little packet of two batteries you can see in the image below. She showed it to me. I agreed to buy it, and she asked me a question that really startled me.
She said, “would you like just one of these batteries or do you need both”? This would never happen at home, of course. I hemmed and hawed a bit because I really didn’t want to appear to be cheap or to stick her with just a single battery in an opened package to sell. But she sincerely seemed to be totally all right with just selling me one of the batteries so that is what I asked for. So, out came the scissors and she snipped off one of the two batteries for me and charged me half price. I love this country. 🙂
Farmacias
A farmacia is of course a pharmacy. You probably didn’t even really need me to tell you that. You may be thinking, “I loaded up on my prescriptions and personal hygiene products before I left home, so I’m not gonna need any of those.” You’ll have to trust me on this one. There will be something that you will need to search out a drugstore for. It may be for Band-Aids, or throat lozenges, or something to deal with indigestion, or some other simple ailment that you want attended to.
They operate a little differently than the pharmacies at home in that in most cases you end up needing to talk to someone. Like the Ferreterías most of these stores don’t have a huge number of things on display and you will have to ask the pharmacist or clerk to get it for you from behind the counter. The good news is that there is usually someone who speaks English in these businesses. I believe I am correct when I say that most farmacias in Spain will have a green cross sticking out from the building so they can be identified from a distance. Similar to the one I’m pointing to with the red area arrow below, sometimes the crosses also provide information like the current temperature.
Book Stores
The other thing that we try and find in any town we stay in is a local bookstore that sells English books, Librería La Pluma. Sadly, this year there is only the one and it has a single shelf of English books … that the love of goddess is pouring over while I rest my feet. This precipitated a road trip up to Puerto Banus to the great English bookstore there a couple of weeks ago.
Not True Shopping … But Useful Spending
You may very well end up seeking out some other “storefronts” to spend some money because they provide “services” that you may want, or end up thinking that you need, while living on the Costa. Here are a couple that the Love-goddess goes in search of every year.
Yoga and Fitness Studios
First and foremost, shortly after we arrive in Spain, the Love-goddess goes out in search of a yoga studio or a place to do Pilates. I can assure you they are everywhere and most offer sessions in English. This is the place she found this year.
Language Schools
The other thing you may want to do when you are here on the Costa del Sol is to find a language school where you can go and learn some Spanish. The Love-goddess is taking lessons again this year. She is receiving Spanish instruction at the “Spanish lessons in Estepona” centre which is just around the corner and down the street from us. They specialize in both teaching Spanish to English and other language speaking individuals as well as helping Spanish speakers learn English. She goes three times a week for lessons. The weekly rate is €45, which works out to be €15 per lesson, so not terribly expensive. It’s also a great way to meet other English speaking people visiting or living in a Spanish community.
The Major Shopping Streets … For the Other Things You Want to Buy 🙂
In this case “the other stuff” are probably things you are much more interested in spending your money on, like decorative items for your home, gifts, souvenirs… and especially clothes I am thinking. 🙂
Now that I am retired most of my clothing purchases are at Costco or at Mark’s, so I’m not really looking for fancy clothing shops, even here in Spain. And the Love-goddess only rarely will look for clothes here because like me, in retirement her wardrobe is much more casual than it used to be. But I think I can point you in the right direction.
I’m going to tell you where to find most of the shops where people would actually want to spend their money here in Estepona. There may be other great shopping areas that I haven’t come across yet but at this point, I would say it appears as though there are two streets where I see a lot of retail therapy outlets, and shoppers milling around in the area.
Fortunately, those two streets intersect one another so you’re not running all over town looking for shopping opportunities. Those two streets are Calle Real and Calle Terraza. I will provide you with a quick walk-along those streets, but not really dwell on too many individual places you might want to shop. Here they are in all their glory.
Calle Real and Calle Terraza
Let’s begin with another map. I have circled both Calle Real and Calle Terraza so that you get a general sense of where they are in town and see exactly where they cross over one another… near my central “Red Star” location.
This first small collection of photos shows you the point exactly where Calle Real crosses over Calle Terraza. Then it shows you what it looks like look eastward on Real, and then a few more images “walking” along the westbound section of Calle Real. Hopefully this will give you a bit of a small sense of what the shopping experience is like on this particular street.
Next, we return to the intersection and head straight up Calle Terraza. It is a little narrow in the beginning, but then opens up to a lovely wide pedestrian promenade. The street has not been a pedestrian area for a long time. If you look in Google Maps in Street View, the images are still from when Calle Terraza was set up for vehicular traffic.
As I said, I won’t be talking too much about individual shops on the way up, but this next one is a particular favourite of mine. It is the Granier, coffee shop and bakery. They make what I consider to be the best cup of coffee in Estepona… that said, I haven’t actually been to any other coffee shops. It is primarily a takeout place and is strictly counter service. There is a bit of seating inside and as you will see lots of seating outside.
Wandering further up the street, we come across a couple of other useful retail locations. As you can see in the next photo, this is just past the Granier. What I wanted you to see here is Estepona’s Orange telecom retail outlet. This is one place where you can easily get a SIM installed in your phone.
A little further up the street is the Ferretería (hardware store) where I found the battery I needed.
OK, here is one clothing shop that is common here in Spain, MANGO. It offers both women and men’s clothing.
I threw this image in just to show you there is probably a second location where you could get a SIM for your phone on Calle Terraza, CIAO MOBILE. I say that assuming that is true, I didn’t go in to check it out. It is a mobile phone retail outlet, so they should have them.
As you walk up, Calle Terraza, you will come across several small green areas and plazas that offer pleasant spots to sit, or to grab a bite, or just generally pause and enjoy the sights and sounds. Right at the end of the pedestrian area you come to “Orchidarium Estepona” a tourist destination in town. It hosts a profusion of interesting and beautiful orchids.
Leaving the pedestrian area and carrying on up the street, you come to a cluster of the 70+ murals painted on buildings here in town. They are definitely worth searching out while you are here. You can get a map guide for the murals at the tourist information office in Plaza de las Flores.
All those types of shopping activities taken care of, next up, perhaps the most boring but most essential of shopping activities here in Estepona, grocery shopping. I say boring but two of the most amazing grocery stores we have come across on the Costa del Sol are here in Estepona.
