The Balcony of Europe

This weekend, I decided to take a "week off" from big traveling trips. And by that, I meant I just went on a low-key day trip. But for being so low-key, it sure was beautiful.
On Saturday I went to Nerja with a couple of girls, Allison, Britt and Julia.

Nerja is a beautiful town with gorgeous beaches, a really cool "old-town" walking section, and what they call the Balcony of Europe.  It also has caves on the outskirts of town, but none of us wore good shoes for the 45 minute walk out to the caves.

We walk around the town, following signs for El Balcón de Europa and we get to this one really cool outlook over a small beach and the ocean.  It's beautiful- however, it does not seem impressive enough to stand up to the hype of El Balcón.

Even though we're a little underwhelmed due to our expectations, we take in the gorgeous view...that is until we read the sign. This isn't the Balcón de Europa, it's just the overlook to a nice beach.  We keep walking through the old part of town with cool walking streets and every once in a while we would see a small outlook overlooking another beach and another wonderful view of the ocean. Finally we get to this bigger plaza filled with tons of people, cute restaurants, 5 ice cream places and El Balcón de Europa. It really was this balcony that stood over where the balcony of the old castle of Nerja used to be.  Pictures really can't do it justice. Everywhere you looked it was another beautiful picture, either of the coastline to the left or to the right, or the sea that went on for miles and miles. 

The water was also such a beautiful color of blue.

After we admire the balcony of europe, we grab some tapas and leisurely eat taking in the atmosphere of this cute little plaza. We're amazed at how little Spanish we hear. It seems like everyone here is a tourist. There's German, French, English...pretty much everything except Spanish.  After eating, we head back to the bus station going through the old part of town, stopping in to shop in a few really quaint stores along the way.

I will definitely be back to Nerja. It's only about a half-hour bus ride away. Next time I'll bring the shoes to check out those caves.  Sometimes you don't need to do huge weekend trips to experience Spain and Europe. I have it all practically right in my backyard.

I had a monkey on my shoulder.

This weekend, the crew from my house met up with our friends in Málaga to do the next step towards getting their foreign residency cards.  As this was on Friday, I had class but met them in Málaga later on that day to go to Nick and Ron's place in Marbella and then do a day trip to Gibraltar.

This group is comprised of Eddie, Robby, Leslie, Nick, Ron and Myself. Sometimes a few other girls. We call ourselves Los Lobos (The wolves).  I arrive in Málaga and they meet me at the bus station, but there's one more person who I don't recognize. Apparently, while they were waiting in line at the police station, they met another girl who was doing the Auxiliar de Conversaciones too. Randomly, they asked her if she wanted to come with us to Marbella and Gibraltar and so she became initiated into our wolf pack.

We then head over to Marbella and have a great time just hanging out, getting to know Anneli and catching up with Ron and Nick.  The next day we take a bus down to Gibraltar. Well, the bus goes to the Spanish town La Linea and then we have to cross the border into Gibraltar since it isn't technically a Spanish city.  When we were in there, it was a complete mix of Spanish and English. You could hear both languages being spoken, you could pay for things in either the Euro or the Pound and you could eat anything from Paella to Fish and Chips.

The weather started out British today too.

Since we were limited on time, we took a van tour up the big Gibraltar rock. While there, we saw the Pillars of Hercules (which used to be considered the end of the earth), the caves of Gibraltar, the old british army tunnels carved into the rock for protection from the siege, and of course, the monkeys!  They were everywhere. Our tour guide coaxed them up onto our shoulders, but we were not allowed to touch the monkeys back since they have a habit of biting.

When we got back from the rock tour, we went to a Fish and Chips place that was owned by an Englishman for authentic Fish and Chips. 

Overall, it was a great weekend. We got to see our friends from the other side of the Málaga, we met a great girl, and I had a monkey on my shoulder.

Best Paella in Spain

(Written in my Journal on Sun. Oct 2nd)

The hospitality of Southern Spain showed itself in full colors today.  Mari, a friend of a friend who I met at the Feria, had people over to her parent´s house in "el campo" for Sunday lunch. It was a very ecclectic group of people, mostly ERASMUS students. There were people from Germany, Italy, France, Etc... Driving over there was an experience in itself and I didn´t know where we were going either.  We drive out of the only part of Málaga that I know (Torre del Mar) and get on the highway. Next thing I know, we are on this windy road up a mountainside. You know, one of those roads where if you swerved away from the mountain it was a straight shot to your death.  Exaggeration, I know, but it was still a tiny windy road.

In no time at all, we turn onto this dirt road up another hill. Eventually we make it to this one small white stand alone house with a huge patio overlooking the valley and hill (more like mountains) on the other side, all dotted with small white houses of their own.  We arrive at the house and are greeted by her mom and dad and three family friends- greeting all of them with "dos besos".  Everyone in the group gathered around the patio because it was so hard believe the beautiful views from the house.

 Then Mari mentions something about "burros." Curiously I followed the group, and behold, they have two donkeys!  One is young and very spirited, the other older on, Magdalena, was very sweet.  Mari's dad brings Magdalena to the patio and is like "hop on" and we're all like "what?!" So anyone who wants to gets to ride a donkey. Of course I volunteered after a few people did it.  It was a little tough to get the donkey to cooperate completely but at least she stopped for me in the end.
Then we all sat down for lunch (around 2:30/3 like the Spaniards do). Olives and cheese spread were placed around this huge table on the porch.  Then the paella was brought over to the table in the huge pan (pan is an understatement) that it was cooked in.  I'm not normally a huge fan of paella, but this paella (rabbit paella) was absolutely delicious.

After filling myself to the brim with paella, Mari took us down the hill by this tiny rocky path to their chicken coup.  She explained that the orchards around the hills were made of over a million mango trees!  There weren't just chickens in this coup though. There were also a few sheep and one loud-mouthed turkey. I don't think it liked us invading it's space because it kept gobbling at us.

I can't believe I was so lucky to be a part of this experience. I hope I made a few friends in the process too (we're facebook friends at least). I also believe I found the best paella in Spain: In a small white house on a mountainside in Málaga.

La Feria

Spain is so cool! Every town has a Feria (fair) for their patron saint and this week happened to be the Feria in Velez (About a 20 minute walk away from my house).  During the day there were parades and lots of drinking in the streets. A lot of stores were closed and people took of work to celebrate the long weekend.  A huge parking lot was converted into this huge fair with carnival rides, food stands, and tents that were converted into huge discotecas every night.  On friday we went to the night fair. Leslie and Eddie rode on the huge bungie cord bubble, but we lost them in the crowds on their way so we just wandered around taking in the sights. There were the basic necessitites of a fair: bumper cards, rides that spin you around until your brains fall out, the whole lot.  As the night went on, more and more people looked really dressed up. You knew where they were heading.  Even though there was blaring music everywhere you turned, if you followed the loudest, you ended up at a line of about 6 tents of the discotecas. There was no cover at all so you could go in and out depending on which song or crowd you liked better. The lights were so bright that it seemed like evening even though it was the middle of the night.  Spain definitely knows how to celebrate.

Anyway, sorry that this post is so short and rushed. I´m sitting here at an internet cafe and probably won´t have internet for another week or so.