My Last Spanish City (for now...), Malaga!

Alright, catching up two days in a row!

So, Malaga.  I chose it because, when looking at a map of Spain, I saw it was in the South, and South generally equals warmer.  As I have since discovered, Seville is actually the hottest city in Europe, but that being said Malaga was not shabby weather-wise.  Definitely warmer than Portugal.  

But back to business.

First impression of Malaga: not super impressed.  Perhaps it was the bad directions provided by my hostel, or the 30 minute walk lugging my heavy backpack from the train station, or the dried out (and frankly quite ugly) riverbed after several cities full of fountains and gorgeous rivers.  To follow includes a complete 180 degree shift of opinion in just three days.

I finally made it to the hostel, and set myself up in a coveted bottom bunk before heading out to get an orientation of the neighborhood.  It's pretty much the first thing I do when I arrive anywhere; I do a circle around home so I know, of all else fails, I can make it back to square one.  So I dawdled a bit befored deciding it was time for some dinner, so I set myself up at a patio table right on the square near my hostel and ordered a selection of croquettes and something called chanquetes, which are fried baby fish.  Chanquetes are tasty, but it's basically just fried batter because the fish are so small you can't really taste the flavor.  In my humble opinion.  Anyway, they're a local delicacy and I can knock it because I've tried it.

Here's the main square in Malaga where I had dinner.

I turned in early the first night, and the next morning considered going on the walking tour, but skipped out in lieu of going to the beach.  On the way I found these absolutely stunning garden pathways, and this is when I started thinking, yeah, I like it here.

Then I got to the beach.  I wound up spending several hours walking up and down.

Made friends with this kitty.

It was more than a little windy.

By the time it got around lunchtime, I started heading back.  I stopped at a bench to enjoy the ocean for a minute before heading inland and while spacing out heard a British accent say, "are you ok there love?"  I never did get his name, but we chatted for a few minutes, and for some reason it sticks in my mind.  He came to Spain to teach English, but failed the certification, so he's been stuck trying to figure out where to go from there.  Despite all this he had such a positive attitude and faith that the universe would work itself out as long as he maintained good energy about it all.  I really do hope everything works out for him.

I wound up stopping to eat near the Picasso museum (which, I'll admit, I didn't get to this trip), where I had the menu of the day.  To start I chose a mixed salad, which was exactly what I had been craving.  Vegetables are highly underrated.  I followed it up with boquerones, which are basically local anchovies that are either marinated in vinegar or fried.  I tried the fried first, and here they are.

They were actually pretty tasty.  Not a blow your mind kind of meal, but good.

I then trekked back to the hostel (the long way, because, as usual, I got lost) and wound up taking a nap for something like three hours.  It was magical.

Woke up just in time for dinner so I wandered back out and ate padron peppers and artichokes with shrimp in a "spicy" sauce (please review my comments on "spicy" food in Europe in my last blog post). I did like the sauce for the artichokes even if it didn't live up to my spicy expectations.

Upon returning to the hostel I walked in to find I had new room mates, a group of five Dutch guys and gals taking a weekend trip away.  I liked them instantly.  Stephan, Mart, Vincent, Annemarie, and Ingeborg (the names took me at least several hours to really remember).  They invited me out with them and we went for pizza; I didn't order any food but did share a bottle of wine.  We wound up going back to the hostel after and decided to go on the walking tour in the morning.  Before bed Stephan told us really silly bedtime stories to make us laugh, which became a tradition for the remainder of our stay,

The next morning we spent wandering around Malaga with our tour guide, Brian, who was an absolute wealth of information.  I learned a boatload of information about Malaga's history, which is pretty amazing overall.  When the Catholics came in to reconquer Spain, Malaga took an unbelievable amount of time to fall.  It had the location - basically an impenetrable fortress at the top of a hill.  Malaga has a couple quirky elements to it as well, take the cathedral for example:

Note the tower on the left, and the unfinished tower on the right.  They call it La Manquita, which translates basically to "the amputee" or "the one armed lady."  That's right kids, they never finished it because, naturally, someone ran out of money, and now the locals don't want to finish it because they view it as uniquely theirs.  

Here are a couple other photos from the tour.

Unfortunately this is too small to see it but there were about a million birds flying over the harbor.  It was like an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

The Roman amphitheater and palace behind.

After the tour ended we asked Brian for lunch tips, and he pointed us in the direction of Bar Jamon, which turned out to be one of the best tapas experiences I had in Spain.  We all decided to let the waitress tell us what to get, and ordered about 7 large tapas plates per her recommendations, then we all dove in with our forks and shared.  It was glorious.  Albondigas (meatballs) from heaven, boquerones in vinegar (I loved these way more than the fried ones), tortilla de patatas, patatas bravas (in an authentic spicy sauce!), croquettes, you name it, we ate it.  Everything was cooked to perfection and delicious.  And in the end we all only paid about 10 euros each to absolutely stuff ourselves.

The Dutch and I then went towards the beach, taking a lifetime to get there because someone was always stopping to look at something or wander off.  But we did eventually make it there, and relaxed until we lost the sunshine.

This photo was courtesy of Inge.

Sailboats.

Watching the fisherman.

My view from the grass.

It was a really nice, relaxing afternoon.

After leaving the beach we decided to head up the fortress to see if we could get some good views of the sunset.  It was a bit of a hike but boy, was it worth it!

The bullfighting ring.

It really was a moment, frankly a whole day, I don't think I'll ever forget, with amazing people.

That night we had dinner at another tapas place, and this one was a "order a drink and get a free tapa" kind of place.  I was introduced to tinto de verano, which is similar to sangria, but for me at least, less headache inducing.  I ordered a few drinks, ate the accompanying tapas, and helped Inge eat a salad that was big enough for three of us to not finish.  Several hours later we went out for the pub crawl with our trusty tour guide Brian, which included visits to two bars, two beers, discounts, two shots, and entry to a club.  It was an appropriately ridiculous night, where we met lots of people, danced, and drank unnecessary amounts of alcohol.  By about 4am we went to bed (with a couple bedtime stories), to get up at 8 to catch our collective airline flights.  It was a miserable walk in the rain to the train station (where I got lost, again...), but I made it to the airport to catch a ride to Lisbon.  Which almost, almost brings us up to date!

I will write all about Lisbon in the next few days, but suffice to say I've had a lot of fun so far.

That's it for now, signing off.

~Swan

Granada, Grenade, Pomegranate

Yeah, I know, I'm way behind.  So here goes a little catch up.  We will get up to date piece by piece.

I spent three days in Granada, which coincidentally means "pomegranate," which is also where the word "grenade" comes from.  Just a couple fun facts I learned from the walking tour.

Speaking of which, most hostels offer free walking tours; they ask for tips at the end and generally it's more than worth it.  I got to Granada in the afternoon and made it in time to hop on board the walking tour at 4:45.  It turned out to be a very good idea, as the English guide was entertaining and I wound up meeting a few people.  It was a tour of the local street art, which is both a big thing and, now, highly illegal.  There's something like an 8,000 euro fine if you're caught tagging something, but it doesn't seem to stop anyone.  The police also commonly paint over artwork, which is such a bummer, because a lot of it is actually quite good.  

The above artist has work all over the city and has been commissioned to do several pieces.  Since no unmarked surface is safe, a lot of business owners now bring in artists to put up murals, so they can look at something nice instead of terrible shit.

We got a lot of local historical tidbits as well as some fantastic views, like this.

Here are a couple more shots from the tour.

I think this was the first church commissioned by Ferdinand and Isabelle, but in any case a lot of people were killed here - mostly because of religious persecution - (as our guide so succinctly put it, "you had three choices, leave, convert, or die").  Many people feel this place has bad energy.

The oldest palace in Granada is on the top of the hill there.

I did not get shots of the "magic fountain" - apparently if you drink the water you live a long, healthy life, or something to that effect - nor did I get any shots of the Placeta Joe Strummer - a small square dedicated to the frontman of The Clash.  But I did see them both.  And I drank the water at the magic fountain.  I'm not particularly superstitious but why not.

After the tour one of the girls from the hostel and I went in search of a vegan restaurant we had passed on the tour.  Jahnavi is vegetarian - and from California, funnily enough - and I was frankly sick of eating Spanish food, which is heavy on pork products.  It was so good, I had salmorejo (this one had sesame seeds and avocado instead of ham and hard boiled egg, and it was really, really yummy), and a tofu and rice dish with veggies.  Finished it off with fresh carrot/apple/ginger juice, which is something dad and I make back home and it was comforting.  

Back to the hostel, then up the next morning for another free walking tour with the same guide.  He was definitely entertaining.  I particularly liked the bit where he gave us a brief history lesson and for the sake of keeping our attention assigned us different characters in the historical storyline.  I got to be Isabelle, complete with imaginary crown.  "Clever girl."  This time on our tour we saw an ancient bathhouse (the oldest building in Granada), got to go inside an old house which has been restored to its former glory, walked through some of the old neighborhoods and gardens, and finished up with tapas.  Then the waiter made fun of us because we asked if he had any hot sauce, to which he replied, "we only keep it for the turistas."  

Here are my shots for the day.

Skylights in the bath house.

Old notes on the walls from the builders working on the old house we visited.

It's hard to see but there's a pirate ship there.

Ancient wisteria.

Later that evening I went out for Indian food with Jahnavi and a girl she had met early on in her trip months ago and randomly ran into at the hostel.  Such is hostel life, this kind of thing actually happens rather often.  But I can't tell you how excited I was to eat something spicy!  These guys are absolute wimps; for the record, if something is described as spicy, it's not.  But Indian food will always deliver on the spice.  Not going to lie, we ate there again the next night as well.  

So, final day in Granada I went to The Alhambra, which I'm pretty sure is the main reason people go to Granada in the first place.  I had made an 8:30am booking, so as to see the sunrise, so I got up early and started on what should have been about a 25 minute walk.  45 minutes later, hopelessly lost, I took a cab.  Yes, even in a city the size of Granada I am capable of getting myself really fucking lost.

Luckily I made it barely on time and spent about three hours exploring the various gardens and buildings.  It is absolutely beautiful!

Wall decor.

Elaborate wall decor complete with poetry.  An unbelievable amount of work went into this place.

Mosaic tiles.

The kings of the Nasrid dynasty had their thrones right in the middle here.  It's where they would receive visitors and the elaborate decor was meant to thoroughly impress them right off the bat.  I'm guessing this strategy probably worked.

The entire palace is just stunning.

So, there are dozens of Korean tour groups everywhere.  It's seriously the Asian explosion.  They all have ear buds and follow a guide with a microphone.  And on more than one occasion I wound up directly in the middle of these groups trying to politely extract myself from the crowd.

Check out that ceiling!

I made a game out of trying to score tourist free shots.

Yep, a little worse for wear after my early frantic start but, hell, I'm loving it.

This place seriously puts all the Christian European castles to absolute shame.  Spiral star ceiling.

One of the highly coveted tourist free shots!  The patio of the lions.

The hall where they held big dinners.  Can you imagine what it must have been like?

This used to be a view of the whole city below.  Then Charles V decided to put a new castle in front of it.  Which for the record is all serious and austere and Christian.  Thanks, Charlie.

Ok, so why this strange creature was on the door out to one of the balconies makes less than zero sense to me.  But he's pretty cute.

Yours truly with Granada below!

What a view!  Also, best idea for keeping out invaders.  Granada and Malaga took a truly long time to fall to Ferdinand and Isabelle.  Look it up if you're a history nerd like me.

Wandering around the grounds.

These waterfalls down the middle of pathways are everywhere...  So cool.

Art installation of a bull made out of chicken wire.  Someone has a lot of imagination and a lot of time.

There are stray cats everywhere in Spain.  Definitely got my cat petting fix in.

Walking through the gardens.

View of The Alhambra.

Swan in Granada.

Walking up the fortress.

This was a well, conveniently repurposed later as a dungeon.  In the old days it didn't even have stairs; they would lower the prisoners down with ropes.  I find this fascinating in it's fucked-uppedness.

Where the housing for the armies once stood.  Right inside the fortress positioned exactly to face the only direction a marauding army could come from.  Granada and Malaga have some seriously impressive military history.

View down into the army's city.

I made it all the way to the top of the tower, so get ready for some panoramic views of Granada.

Try as I might, there is nothing that can capture the feeling of being there in person.

Even with the hazy sky I could see all the way to the snowy mountains beyond.  You can go skiing, but the snow is sucky this year.

On the walk back down to the city.

Washington Irving.

There used to be a whole street of just guitar shops like this one - now of course it's all imported cheap souvenirs.

I wandered around town that afternoon, then went out with a couple hostel mates for Indian food, again.  I know, I should be eating the local cuisine, but you really do get sick of potatoes and ham after a few weeks.

So much ham and potatoes.  

And that about wraps up Granada.  The next morning I took the train to Malaga, which we will get to next time.  I will try to be more dutiful!  "Try" being the operative word.  

~Swan