Spain is beautiful. The terrain, the climate, the buildings, the traces of history that lie around every corner, the people, the food. Let it be known that I do not dispute the beauty of the country, nor do I have any harsh words for the people. But there is filth everywhere, at least here in Malaga. Cigarette butts litter every sidewalk. It’s stone streets, squares, parks and alleys are specked with planted trees, at whose roots lie old newspapers, empty bottles, unwanted receipts and more cigarette butts. 

The drive to Nerja was beautiful, a trek through hills as well as along the coast. In an area I believe is known as Velez-Malaga, along the highway was a small field, piled high with old trash bags. It didn’t appear to be any sort of landfill, nor did it appear to be any official site at all, just a place where they dump their trash.

I don’t understand. One of our professors said she would rather there was trash everywhere, as opposed to dirty air (one of the students brought up LA - yeah, everyone knows the air in LA is dirty, a very small part of the US, let’s move on). But in places where rubbish lines the streets and clutters the roots of every tree, don’t you think that it is bound to dirty the air as well? And honestly, I get that Europeans like to smoke, and I don’t mind, but why can’t you leave the remains in an ash tray, or put it out properly and throw it in the trash?

I don’t want to attack Spain or Spaniards in any way, I’m just trying to understand why they wouldn’t be more invested in keeping such a beautiful, historical part of the world clean.s