Greetings, I am writing this from La Bicicleta. I have luckily found the most Williamsburg-esque coffee shop in all of Madrid with actual Williamsburg prices. However, the wifi here is so much faster than my piso and the cold brew coffee is delicious. But imagine people with beards, laptops, hip music and 4 euro ice coffee....feels like home.
Anywhos, I'm typing this up now because all my Malaga mems are fresh in my head. I'm just going to do a photo dump because the wifi is kicking and I don't really have any impressive thoughts about my time there except that it's pretty.
Update: Finishing this post at my language school's classroom, free wifi leads me to hang out anywhere.
Last week, it was the Nacional Day of being Spanish so we had a few days off from work! This was our first time of extended break since getting here, so a few friends and I headed to Malaga to enjoy the beach and do some southern Spain exploring. Malaga is alllll the way in the South and is a port-city/beach town. Its really beautiful with some parts better than others. Check it o0o0ut:
Let's start with BEST part of the trip, the food. This section is called stuff I ate.
 |
| YUM...just kidding, I mean I love a good tuna but I took this photo because this is the biggest fish head I had ever seen. After this photo was taken, a man offered to sell me off to the owner of the fish stand saying he was really shy but he has a job and car, which was tempting but he probably smells like fish. |
 |
| Patatas Brava, some Tinto de verano and an empty olive dish :) |
Casa Lola: This place was a hit. It's a cool innovative take on a traditional tapas bar. The food was DELISH. I had the Lola Especial which was a toast with queso blanco, heirloom tomatoes and a long slice of anchovy. YUM. They also had yummy vermouth which I had never had before which had me feel warm and fuzzy for the rest of the night.
Casa Lola was so good that we actually went back on the last day and tried some more tapas. The patatas bravas were amazing and the olives were so good even avid olive haters ate them. If you are ever in Malaga, this would be the place to go.
After a quick tapa at Casa Lola, we went to the #1 recommended place on Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet: Meson de Cervantes. Jane made a reservation and we were pumped all day about it. It was SO worth it. We ate like QUEENS and tried all sorts of good stuff. My favorite was obviously the pulpo but the wine, the patatas bravas and all the other funky stuff we ate was delicious. Everyone left so satisfied and giddy about our meal. Our first night was probably the best food I have eaten in Spain so far.
 |
| Jane and Cosette getting pumped up for some food! |
One day we went to the traditional market, El mercado de Central Atarazanas. It is a traditional market in the heart of town buzzing with tourists and locals alike. The food was fresh and we were able to try all these weird fruits and different olives. Personally, I was in olive heaven, so scroll down for some awesome olive porn.
 |
| Not olives, but don't those little pig feet look so human like? |
 |
| home among the olives |
Stuff to do:
Malaga is very cute in the center of the city, while the outskirts, like any other traditional European town is a little more residential and modern. We saw some of the sites Malaga had to offer:
I spent the money and went into the Cathedral of Malaga. Its a beaut. It's the second tallest Cathedral in Andalusia after the Giralda in Seville (shoutout to Sevilla). Anywhos, it was built inside the walls of the former Moorish castle and has classic old-church interiors. This one is special because it is supposed to have two towers, but only one of them is built. Legend says its because they ran out of money because they gave it the USA in the Revolutionary War but most likely they needed to finish some roads or something and the other tower never got built. They call the Cathedral "La Manquita" or "One Armed Lady"
 |
| The completed tower |
 |
| The inside |
We also went to the Alcazaba of Malaga. It is a Moorish citadel that has breathtaking views of Malaga and the ocean. There was also a ancient Roman theater on the bottom of the Alcazaba that the Moors actually used to build their city. The ancient theater is pretty well maintained on the bottom of the hill.
 |
| Beautiful gardens of course, just saying wassup to this lil flower or hola florita pequena |
 |
| Hanging out in an arch |
 |
| The view of the port from the top of the fortress |
Besides seeing the sights, we mostly hung out on the beach.
 |
| The main beach early in the morning. |
 |
| Jane and I, hanging out in the cold ocean. |
And that's it! I'm going to do another post about our day trip to Gibraltar and another one about recent happenings and my week. I don't know if people actually read this but I like how it forces me to document what I did, so my dear blog readers, it's like you are reading my diary.
0 Comments