The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly on the Plain

Am I late on the bandwagon with this? PLEASE watch the funniest video I have ever seen (thanks Meghan!)

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

At the end of September, Dave and I rendezvoused in Spain (he was in the UK handing in his thesis so we met in Europe for a vacation.) The trip was booked based on the fact that we were offered free accommodation near San Javier, but more on that later.

On a Saturday morning I arrived in Malaga in southern Spain.

(Malaga's at the Bottom)

After getting off the train, there was construction going on and I was in the middle of a major intersection clueless as to where to go in the heat with my large suitcase. I hesitantly tested out my Espanol with the closest ice cream vendor to ask for help in locating the hotel. She gave me a map and pointed in a direction, which led me to a large tourist map down the block. After studying the map for about 15 minutes, I figured I'd take a guess at a direction (1 in 4 were okay odds in my opinion.) In taking off, I moved two feet to the right of the map, looked up and there was the hotel...typical.

The "riverbed" next to our hotel

As Dave's flight wasn't getting in until the evening, I thought I'd have a wander (and after all, Spain's largest department store was only a block away.) Starvation set in and I walked aimlessly for a few hours trying to find a shop that was open (thanks siesta) or a bar that didn't have only men in it. I ended up buying a plain roll and a lemon jelly-flavored, unappetizing biscuit from a supermarket (a first of many not-dinner dinners to come.) I had no idea where I was, could not find it on the map, and eventually had to backtrack until I made it safely back to the hotel.

While waiting for Dave, I decided to brush up on my Spanish by watching dubbed Sex and the City and Gossip Girl (also giving me flashbacks of watching Dawson's Creek and Guiding Light in Italian while studying abroad.) It hit the 11 pm point and Dave still hadn't arrived, which got me freaking out - if I hadn't been able to find the hotel (and I speak some Spanish), then I figured he was probably lost. After confirming with the front desk that the area was safe (especially the case on a Saturday night), I ventured out to look for Dave. Oh, and by the way, ten feet out of the hotel I got harassed by a scary old man (thanks NH Malaga staff.) I darted until I was out of his eyesight and circled the deserted area of the train station completely baffled as to where Dave was. I even went into the empty station, only to find a lone security guard questioning what I was doing there. I had an excellent conversation in Spanish in which she confirmed that there was one more train arriving at 11:45 pm. I went back to the hotel to check Dave's flight status and the Aer Lingus site said it was delayed until the morning, but I was all dressed up to go out (and of course I was worried...) so I was not accepting that as an answer. I checked the airport site that confirmed his flight had been delayed, but only by two hours, and was landing any minute. I went upstairs to grab my trash magazine (so thankful they carry the UK mags in the Madrid airport), seated myself down in the lobby and thankfully Dave walked in soon after.

We then went out in the historic center to get some food (at which point I realized that I had been wandering around lost all day in an outer random area of the city.) No one would serve food at that time though, so we ended up in a main square facing the church...at Cheers. We had one drink before they closed and headed back.

The next morning we went on a great bike tour that took us throughout the city. Each of our bikes had a name.

Me

Dave

One stop we made was to the square near Picasso's birthplace. There were too many tourists for a photo op with Pablo's statue so we posed together instead.

Everyone else was wearing a helmet...

We rode through the main park that was parallel to the beach. If I remember the story correctly, the man who built up the park brought plants from all over the world. They were quite the beauty (and quite ginormous.)
We also rode on the actual beach and stopped at a seaside bar. On the southern coast of Spain they cook Sardines on the beach which we had the delight of trying.

Pre-feast

Loving the guts

This is our tour group - you can find us in the GCute street we rode through - the guy at the end posing was a bonus.

Picasso was born in Malaga. Ironically my face is shaped like something from one of his paintings in this photo.

His childhood home is now a small museum. According to our tour guide, most people think that his art in Malaga is the "lesser" of the lot. You can judge for yourself -

In the afternoon post-tour we headed to a recommended tapas bar called Lo Gueno. Not being too daring, we had plates of paella, sausage, chicken croquettes, potatoes, and rabbit amongst other things. As this was a mid-afternoon meal, we ended up eating bizarre dinner #2 which of course was ice cream.

We meandered around the main street for the remainder of the evening.Our stay in Malaga ended with the hotel buffet breakfast. Mine included an amazing piece of chocolate cake. Hey, if the hotel wants to offer that for breakfast, who am I to reject such an offer??

Spain trip part dos to follow.

Also, for a deafening rendition of the blog post title, please refer to the PS 115 My Fair Lady sixth grade school play VHS where I completely butchered it (I was sick, okay??)