Trip to Malaga

Monday, June 17, 2013

I am finally here and starting to settle in!!  Hotel Natali is nice and right in the middle of town.  It is perfect walking distance to get into town and to the beach!

There are a lot of middle school soccer teams here that are constantly running around the lobby.  Our room number is 1119.  The room is nice.  There are two single beds that are hard.  It is also extremely hot because there is no AC.  The view is absolutely gorgeous though.  We have an ocean view :)  The shower here is awful.  It goes from extreme heat to freezing cold in one second.

My roommate’s name is Laura.  She is really nice and funny!  I am lucky to have been paired with someone that I get along with!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

We started off the day with breakfast at 8:15.  The breakfast is very different here.  There are a lot of pastries and cold cuts and there are rarely scrambled eggs.  I had a ham and cheese sandwich on toast.

Today was the first day of classes.  Class is from 9-1 everyday.  I am taking a conversation class.  Our classroom is in a conference room.  There are about 20 of us.  I really like the group of people in my class.

After class anyone who wanted too met in the lobby and our director who is also my teacher took us to Malaga.  We took the train to Malaga Centro that took about 15 minutes.

To get to our first stop we walked all around the town.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  The architecture is so beautiful.

This was one of the streets we walked down

Second we went to the Catderal de Malaga where we saw one of the biggest churches.  There was beautiful stain glass and paintings.

Next we walked to La Fortaleza Alcazaba de Malaga.  It is built on a hill in the center of the city.  Next to it is the Roman Theatre.  Here we walked up a steep hill to get to the top of the fort.  There was the Mediterranean on one side and mountains on the other.

Then we walked a short way to see a bullfight.  Here in Malaga it is still legal to kill the bull so when we got to the arena there were protesters outside.  The arena was packed with people.  It was one of those once in a lifetime experiences because while it was upsetting watching the bull die it was something that we had to experience.  The show the matador put on was very elaborate.

After we walked what seemed like 2 miles up this very steep hill - Gibralfaro.  Every corner we passed we thought we were at the top but boy were we wrong.  The view was nothing I have ever seen.  It felt like we were with the clouds.  Pictures don’t even come close to capturing how high we were.  We got to see all of Malaga up there.  It was so breathtaking!

We walked down the hill trying not to slip on the cobblestone.  We went to see were Pablo Picasso lived.  It was a quant corner with lovely stores.  We kept walking and came across a Christian Parade and there were horses, many people carrying larger crosses and fabric and a band.  After we walked back to the metro and went back to our Hotel.  We were so tired and starving that some of us stopped at the first restaurant we saw which happened to be a gyro place.  The food was very good and cheap!

Today was a very long day but I can’t believe how much we fit in.  All of these places were really cheap to get into.  Nothing was more than 1 euro.  I loved seeing Malaga and can’t wait take the metro back.  It is absolutely beautiful and full of culture.  The views are incredible as well!  What a great day! :)