OPX writing competition winner (11 and under)

By Queenie Molly Argent, age 11

WHEN I was four I moved from London to a little village in Andalucia called Zuheros. We just moved to Marbella and I am going to tell you how the two parts of Andalucia are so different….

Zuheros is a very old village and Marbella is posh and new. My house there was very old and was falling down but it was the biggest house I had ever lived in. The house where I live now isn’t as big but very posh.

The cars in Zuheros are small and cheap and the cars in Marbella are big and expensive.

When I first came to Puerto Banus I saw Ferraris, Porsches and other cool cars but in Zuheros there were just Renaults, Seats and boring cars like ours. When me and my brothers see a Ferrari or a Lamborghini we go mad.

My friends in Marbella are from lots of different countries but my friends from Zuheros are all Spanish.  A lot of English people don’t speak Spanish here. When I first came to Andalucia I couldn’t say anything. It was scary but I learnt it really quickly.

I could go out on my own in Zuheros.  Everybody knew me. Now my mum has to drive me everywhere because there are more funny people around.  Also, I was special there because I was the English girl, ‘La Rubia’ with blue eyes but here I’m not so special because there’s lots of other people like that.

It snowed in Zuheros. It never snows here.

My Daddy lives in the village. Now he’s far away.  He’s the best thing about Zuheros. And our cat, Bob.

People say Hola in the street in Zuheros, even if they don’t know you.  In Marbella if you say Hola to people they ignore you or look at you funny.

We had fruit trees growing in our garden in Zuheros, like figs and pomegranates and lots of walnuts.  Now we’ve only got a Bonsai tree and it’s dying.

So, that’s how different two places can be so in Andalucia.  Which one do you like best?

Queenie won 100s euros of book tokens from Books4Spain – congratulations from the Olive Press!