City Post: Malaga

Malaga was recommended to us by Tatyana, a girl we met in Valencia. She was headed there after while we were headed to Madrid. Well, seeing as Jo convinced Jack to change our flights, we had the opportunity to go! (Mainly because it was the only way to get to Berlin by way of Nuremburg without having to pay a lot in change fees).

Our trip started with us not having yet booked a reservation. We decided we would do that at the station. There were several trains that went that way, and they didn't take but two to three hours to get there, so it wouldn't be a big deal. So we thought. When we showed up to the train station, the line at the Renfe office was forever long. It turned out that there were a few cancelled and delayed trains, and people were trying to rebook or get their money back. Like, a lot of people. A whole lot of people. Rather than deal with that line, we decided to just buy second class tickets (remember, we have first-class Eurail passes) on the next train from the self-serve kiosk. It was painfully expensive, but better than waiting for a seat reservation that we might not get. Should we have done this before? Absolutely. Did we learn our lesson? Absolutely not (stay tuned for future city posts). But Jack did get a bull keychain he'd been looking for, so that's a plus.

We made it to Malaga rather uneventfully. We stayed at a hostel that was a short walk to the ocean, which was really nice. It was also on the top floor of a building and had a nice terrace, which was great in the mornings and evenings. We could see the mountains inland and the large ocean expanse while having our coffee, watching Onetoro.tv, or reading. The only downside, really, was it was up quite a few sets of stairs, but it wasn't a long wall from the bus stop, so no major complaints there.

We had a pretty relaxing time in Malaga, while also seeing a decent number of sites. The afternoon of our arrival, we had paella for lunch/dinner and walked the beach for a bit. Jack tried to get this really good blonde caramel waffle cone ice cream Jo had found elsewhere in Spain, but the place we went was out. Probably a good thing (he didn't need it anyways!). We also spent the next morning reading by the beach. It would be entirely too long before we had this scene again, so we wanted to take it in.

We visited the Castillo de Gibralfaro, which has quite a history ranging from Moorish to Napoleonic times. It's not very big, but it was worth the 3.5 euros it cost to enter. At the very least, it gave great views of the city (and, most importantly, the bullring!). It also had plaques identifying some important sites you could see, like monasteries, cathedrals, the university, etc., which made it a good starting point to get acquainted with the town. Jo made an interesting discovery, though. The stones sounded hollow! Maybe it was because there was petrified wood in the walls, or maybe there were fallen comrades in there, but if you want to see a hilarious reaction from Jack, check out the video in the photo album below.

The next day, we were going to go see the bullring. So we thought, anyways. We had seen one of the doors open on the bus in, and there were people in it the evening before while we were at the castle, so we figured it would be open. After all, it is a cultural center with exhibits. When we showed, however, all of the doors were closed. We circled it twice looking for an entrance, but couldn't find it. We decided we'd circle back (circle back!) on it after lunch, and head over to a museum called "Museo Revello de Toro." Based on the name, we assumed (because we are incapable of doing prior research) it would be about bulls, bullfighters, or bullfighting. We were what we affectionately refer to as "wrong." It was a museum dedicated to a famous painter from Malaga set in his former workshop (which, coincidentally, buts up against the old, no-longer-around bullring wall). Neither of us are really into artwork, but we decided to give it a shot. It was only 2.5 euros each with the audio guide, so might as well. Admittedly, it was pretty interesting. The audio guide did a great job describing the works inside, which were mostly portraits of the painter's family, famous figures, and women (he was reportedly obsessed with the female figure).

After lunch, we hit up the Museo de Malaga, which is an archaeological and art museum. It is free to EU citizens, and only costs 1.5 euros for non-EU citizens. It is massive. The top floor is dedicated to archaeology, and the first floor is dedicated to art. The archaeological exhibit talked a lot about the history of the area, including a extremely well-preserved tomb of what appears to be a Roman soldier, based on the items found inside. It was interesting to see the carefully-constructed history of the area through the ages. On the art floor below, we found many intriguing paintings. Like we said before, neither of us are big into art, but that doesn't mean we can't appreciate the skill it took to paint a lot of what we were seeing (modern art needs to take a lesson!). Of course, our favourite painting was the large one showcasing a bullfight!

Well, we went back to the bullring after we left the Museo de Malaga to find it was still closed. Jack tried calling them, but didn't get an answer, so he shot them an email. They responded the next day saying that it was closed until the next quarter's programme was announced. Bummer!

We didn't do much the next day. Jack's knee was hurting from an old military injury, so we really just read and relaxed the next day at the hostel. We both needed it, though, because we were two months in at this point and had been going non-stop that entire time. We decided to go have dinner by the sea that evening, but the kitchen was closed, so we opted for drinks instead. It would be our last drink by the ocean for some time.

Laundry was an event that night. There was a washer and dryer at the hostel that we decided to use. Unfortunately, when we tried to dry Jo's laundry, the power went out. When the staff reset the breaker, we tried again, and the power went out again. After several rounds of this, we learned that it is the dryer that is throwing the breaker, so we decided we would finish washing Jack's laundry, and then go dry both loads at a laundromat. In the meantime, we got to talking with an Irish woman who was traveling Spain in retirement (she was also looking for an apartment in Malaga). She and Jo bonded over wine and beer, so Jack to the laundry to dry while they talked (there really wasn't a need for two of us to go anyways). When Jack got back, they were exactly where they were when he left! It was late at this point, so we packed in the common area while we talked with her. She was astounded that we managed to fit all of our belongings into our packs. She kept telling Jo that she was in awe of how we did it as she watched us pack. Once we were done, we needed to head to bed and say our goodbyes. She told us, "you are truly backpackers!"

We had a 4h00 Cabify the next morning to Malaga to fly to Nuremburg so we could catch a train to Berlin. Jo found a perfect bullfighting keychain at the airport. Are we obsessed? Yes. Do we care? Not at all. One thing was for sure: we were both going to miss Spain (although one of us more than the other...).

Where we stayed: Terraza del Limonar

Jo's Favourite: La Playa de la Malagueta

Jack's Favourite: Reading on the terrace overlooking the ocean with breakfast and coffee

Top Lesson Learned: Verify the kitchen is open when you want to have dinner

Google Photo Album