Málaga

So I had a long weekend, Thursday to Sunday, and decided to meet my friend, Kirsten, in Málaga for a short side trip. We had some problems with communicating - apparently my phone didn´t work and she didn´t know exactly when she could leave. So I left for Málaga early Thursday morning not knowing when or even if I would meet Kirsten at all. The bus ride was crazy - there was this guy who was definitely high on something and mumbling and shouting pretty much the whole way. I don´t really know exactly what he was saying, just that he was cussing up a storm. He was sitting right behind me too! I was too scared to even look at him! Elise, it reminds me of our near death bus ride in Mexico!! Ok, not really, the dude was just threatening to throw the bus driver out the window...It was driving me crazy though, cause I didn´t get to sit by the window and everyone had the curtains closed. We were driving right along the coast too. I have to have my window seat...

Right when I arrived I went to the hostel to book reservations since no one would answer the phone, dropped my stuff off and went out to explore the city. These are some of the things that I saw. I really love Málaga! It is more of the typical European/Spanish city. The downtown has the narrow streets and plazas. It is also very green with lots of tropical plants. Two things that aren´t like Almería at all! Downtown reminded me a lot of Florence. There is an old fortress connected to a castle, a Roman amphitheater, the Cathedral, the beach, plaza de toros, palace, museum, tons of stuff...

I pretty much just walked around all Thursday afternoon and evening. I went to a Contemporary art museum just to pass some time. Why? I don´t know...how can they even call that art? When I was walking around, a Spanish dude asked me if I knew where a certain restaurant was and we ended up talking for like a half hour. He was really nice and didn´t even know that I was American! He wanted to meet me the next night, but don´t worry Mom, I decided against it. You just never know...So I figured that there was only enough left to do for one more day and I didn´t want to do anything without Kirsten. The next morning, she still hadn´t arrived so I decided to go to Ronda for the day, a small town about 2 hours away. But that´s the next entry....

Well, Friday night after an adventurous day in Ronda, I woke up to a knock on the door at midnight...It was Kirsten!! She had finally arrived!! I´m glad she finally made it. I felt bad, cause since she lives in such a small town, the bus and train schedules are very sporadic. We had an exciting day on Saturday together exploring the city. We went to a museum about fiestas in an old palace, went to a Picasso (he was born in Málaga) museum, ate lunch in the plaza right next to the Cathedral, walked along the beach, climbed to the Castle and fortress on the hill (spectacular views!!), and ended the day with a delicious döner kebab!! Nothing beats Ali Babba´s though...We were so exhausted after walking so much again. We had a third roommate that night in the hostel who thought she had the privilege of leaving the light on for however long she wanted just to read, after we were already in bed!! Then she decided to eat the most noisy snack she could find...I finally put an end to that!

This morning Kirsten and I both left to go back. Hopefully she made it back alright without too much trouble. This time, I sat by the window at the very front of the bus and so had 2 good views!! Can´t beat that - made my day in fact!! In all my bus rides, we drove through tunnels, over bridges, saw a few castles to the side and drove all along the coast. It was great! Seriously, some points, I would look down and there would be the ocean at the bottom of the cliff. Andalucia is a beautiful part of Spain in its own way. There are mountains that just drop into the ocean, cliffs, small old villages...Málaga is definitely greener than Almería, which is the sunniest and driest part of Spain. Also around Almería, there are lots of greenhouses that dot the landscape. The have everything from vegetables to fruits. They are makeshift though, just bars and plastic...kind of interesting.

It was definitely a good weekend though, especially to get out of Almería and meet Kirsten. I hadn´t seen her in over a year or more.