2/2/10 - Málaga

"Is this heaven?"

"No, it's Málaga."

Last weekend Joelle and I went to Málaga.  It's on the edge of Spain, about 2 hours' drive from Gibraltar.  The weather there was beautiful the whole time we were there, in the 60's and always sunny!

Travelling there was a bit of a pain, because Joelle and I took a bus from Oviedo to Madrid (5 and a half hours) and then a plane from Madrid to Málaga (1 hour).  Once we got in to Málaga, it was almost midnight on Wednesday night-Thursday morning.  Laura (the mother of the missionary family we stayed with and Joelle's friend) came to pick us up from the airport and drove us back to her house.  Because it was late, we didn't meet any of the kids then, and Kory, her husband, was out of town, so we didn't meet him, either.  That was OK, though, because we were tired and were planning an early start to the day on Thursday.

Thursday morning, Joelle and I woke up around 7:30 and got ready so we could go see the pueblo blanco (white town), a.k.a. Mijas (pronounced ME-hahs).  It looks like Greece, with all the white buildings on a mountainside and facing the Mediterranean Sea.  It was beautiful!  Laura took us around to some lookout points to get photos, then to a church in a cave, literally.  I got some photos of the inside, but I'm still not sure if I was technically allowed to do so...  There was also a jewelry store in a cave, which was random, so I took photos of that.  Later we went to a little store that sold painted pottery from all over Spain and tiles with Arabic influence.  Also watched a guy making wooden boxes that were inlaid with more pieces of wood.  Laura asked the man how long it took to make a pretty decently sized box, and he said that he could do an entire box in a day, but he prefers to do a bunch of boxes in a four-day period.  Each day is dedicated to a different part of the box-making process.  Up close, it's hard to believe that each box really is made of a bunch of little pieces of wood, because of the finishing lacquer, but it's true.

In Mijas, there are also burro (donkey) taxis (Jon would fit in here ;-) ).  It would have been fun to take a tour of the town on one of them, but they are really expensive, and only tourists take them.  So, instead, I decided to take photos of the tourists taking a tour on the burro taxis.

We drove by a Buddhist temple and a few Muslim masques in addition to a bunch of churches and a cathedral.  Then we went to Christopher Columbus' only castle-monument.  It was fun to be able to climb around it and get about a million (seriously) photos of the place.  They are OBSESSED with Christopher Columbus here in Spain.  Also at the monument there were banana trees, so I took a photo of them.  At the monument, there were the ships representing the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, carved out of the stone used to make the castle, and even a random Oriental Tower to symbolize the original reason to sail west: to find a new path to the East Indies.

Later, after lunch, Laura and her daughter, Katie, took us to a Moroccan tea house, where we had delicious green tea with mint and sugar.  To me, it tasted like hot sweet tea but using green tea instead of whatever you use for sweet tea.  Everything about the tea is special: the ingredients, the teapot and cups, even the method of pouring the tea.  You have to pour from up high, kind of like with the sidra, but you have to move the teapot up and down while pouring.  And if we wanted, I'm sure we could have had hookah, because there were hookah machine things and tubes, but we decided it'd be more fun to take pictures of all the different hookah things.  Sadly, I forgot to document the room we were in, which was moderately dark, with couches built into the walls, low tables, and lots and lots of pillows and draperies. I felt as if I were in the Disney movie Aladdin :-) .

The next day, Friday, Laura took us to the castle in Málaga.  I can't remember the name of the castle for the life of me.  Because it was a Moorish castle, when the Spaniards conquered the Moors, most of the actual castle was destroyed, but many of the surrounding walls still are there, and that's what we got to walk around.  From atop the bulwarks of the castle, we could see well into downtown Málaga and the Mediterranean Sea.  We saw the bull ring and a government building, and we even could see ships at port.  Next we went from the castle down to the port to check out a real Spanish galleon ship (a really big ship that looks like it was straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean).  I was way excited about seeing it, but when I got into the belly of the ship, I was disappointed because the inside was gutted out to accommodate a bar, restaurant, and discoteca.  The part that made the tour worth it was the ship's deck.  I could go right up to the masts and look at different things on the deck.  Sadly, I couldn't go out to the most forward part of the bow.  At the dock we also saw a German submarine, but we couldn't go into it because it was an actual working sub and the crew were only there to take a break and replenish water, supplies, and fuel.  They actually were scheduled to pull out of port yesterday morning.

After the port we ventured more around downtown.  We saw the building where Picasso was born, and a monument dedicated to peace.  There were also some street performers and living statues.  One was really cool, a headless man blowing up a balloon.  I got a photo of him after Laura gave him some spare change.  We relaxed the rest of the day and played some MarioKart on the Wii with Ben and Josh.  Ben was really good, and in order to keep him from not winning, Joelle put him into a headlock while she was playing.  It was funny.

Saturday was dedicated to the beach.  Laura, Katie, Ben, and Josh took Joelle and I to the beach before Katie's youth group meeting.  We made a picnic lunch from some jamón serrano (cured ham straight off the leg of a pig) and cold pizza (yes we did have pizza, and chili and quesadillas).  Our time at the beach consisted of walking in the surf and gathering some seashells.  Katie, Ben, and Josh all kept finding starfish, and some still seemed alive, so Josh decided to revive them and take them home.  Not sure yet if they all made it, but one of them tried to escape overnight.  Later Joelle and I went to help Laura clean up the new church building to get it ready for the first Sunday in the new building.  We and some high school and college girls dusted off chairs and took out trash while other adults mopped the floors and took out bigger pieces of trash.  It was so much fun working together with Spaniards and afterward we attended the youth service.  I was spiritually uplifted and felt as if I had been on a mini missions trip.

The next day, Sunday, we sadly had to leave paradise.  Joelle and I both wanted to stay in Málaga, but it was not possible.  So with heavy hearts we went to the airport at 7:30 AM, before the sun had even risen, and left Málaga behind.  Joelle and I had hoped to fly out later, but we couldn't change our flight times, so we had to hang out at the Madrid bus station from noon till 4 PM.  Yay.  Another 5 and a half hour bus ride back to Oviedo.  After switching cargo with Joelle, I still had to walk back to my casa.  I don't think I got home before 10:15 PM.  I was exhausted, and still am, somewhat.  Well, I have a full week of classes in front of me to look forward to, so I will sign off now and do homework or take a siesta.

Hasta la vista!