Blogs from Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, Europe

Journey through Spain You could tell it was disembarking time on the ferry – the rain was hammering down outside and you could see little more than a thick drizzle grey everywhere. As the motley collection of bikers headed down to deck 2, the perennial fat hard “characters” who were always on the ferry or the chunnel, usually on cruisers, these ones on Goldwings, cited they didn’t need waterproofs ‘cos the Goldwing shielded them from anything, and of course because they were “hard”. They were nice enough lads but any moron could see they would have been soaked within 10 miles. Shame about the weather because the route once out of Bilbao’s environs was really quite stunning, carving its way through rock formations, weaving through tunnels and winding along pristine, albeit wet, blacktop. Only a short ... read more

We walked out of the train station in Valencia right into the middle of Las Fallas - the biggest fiesta in the region - which, from the four hours we were there, seemed to be about eating, (mainly paella and chocolate coated churros) drinking, spontaneous loud and fast brass band music on street corners, very loud fireworks and huge cartoon-like satirical sculptures on every available plaza. I'd read that effigies are set alight on the last day of the week long fiesta - but these giant tableaux were so artfully and professionally constructed - surely they wouldn't meet a firey destruction days after they were errected? We found out through the local TV channel that this was the case - we watched (without understanding a word of the commentary of course) as dozens of Disney-styled 3D ... read more

Whew, sorry I haven't updated this in a few days, I've been busier than normal! I had an exam on Thursday so I was studying for it on Wednesday night. I went out on Thursday night with people from my program and then I met up with my Finnish friend who was still in town. It ended up being a pretty late night because we went to club Abril again (where women got in for free, hehe) and staying until around 4 a.m. On Friday we had to wake up early to go to an included trip to the neighboring town of Italica to see some old Roman ruins. I wish I could say it was really cool, but I didn't personally find it very interesting. However, on Friday night my roommate Samm and I went ... read more

After spwnding the day before going to the beach and spending the day around porto Banus, quite a purpose bulit place with lots of shops and huge boats in the marina with nice cars parked by them, decided to go to MArbella on the Thrursday. a lovely walk of around an hour 30 mins along the coast and the weather was baking hot, was able to bust out the shorts and t-shirt combo and this with a bit of a burn looked like a proper brit tourist on the costa del sol! Marbella is a really nice town with a brilliant old town centre combined, not at all like the images portrayed of it in the English media. Had a fantastic walk around the town and went off to have my first tapas of the holiday. ... read more

This morning we docked in Malaga. I spent the morning being pushed in my buggy round the town, up to the castle and around the picasso museum. It was nice (except the museum. I found that really boring - so did daddy!). It was so hot today - 30 degrees - so mummy and daddy took me to the beach, but the sea was too cold and stoney for me to go in, so we went back to the boat. I went in my paddling pool again. Some nice Australians, Russell and Sandra, played with me whilst mummy and daddy went for a swim together. That was fun. Mummy and daddy had spoken to them throughout the cruise, but I think they are more fun when helping me splash in my pool. After dinner I was ... read more