I just had a vacation that tied with San Diego, CA 2007
for the title of “Favorite Vacation Ever.” It was Málaga, Spain 2012. The two-week
adventure I had with my grandparents, Bobba and Papa, was fun, unique, special,
exciting, and certainly, memorable.
On Sunday, April 15, 2012, I spent the night at
Madrid-Bajaras airport after arriving back from Palma, Mallorca around
midnight. I slept on the benches, anxiously awaiting the arrival of my
grandparents at 8:30am on Monday, April 16. Gerardo, my host dad came to the
airport around 8:00am to wait with me, and pick us up. The frustrating thing
was that I didn’t have a cell phone—my SIM Card broke while I was in Mallorca.
Once B & P arrived, we went back to my house, and we
ALL got some much-needed rest! B & P & I spent the afternoon getting to
know Spain’s capital from the sky-level of a double-decker tour bus. What fun!
My family was happy to host B & P for dinner. B &
P (& I!) were pleasantly surprised at their English-speaking capacity—I had
no idea! I was so glad that they had the chance to spend time with, and get to
know, Abel, my host brother (age 10), who really wanted to impress them with
his English. As Papa pointed out, Abel REALLY wants to speak English, and he
will pick it up in NO TIME when he comes to my house this summer.
Despite the jet-lag, we had a little adventure to Toledo
on Tuesday, April 17. Bobba really wanted to go to the Museo del Greco.
El Greco was a famous Greek artist who came to Spain in
the 16th century to impress the King, Filipe II, hoping that his
work would be selected to decorate El Escorial. El Escorial is a building close
to Madrid that was built in only 20 years, which served as a palace, a
basilica, and a monastery. (I visited El Escorial on February 10!)
Filipe II was offended by El Greco’s renaissance style, characterized by
disproportionate human figures, long faces and fingers, dark color palates,
twisted strokes, and religious themes. Sad and dejected, El Greco made his home
in Toledo until his death in 1614.
Our next stop in Toledo was to see the Catedral, built in the 15th century under the orders of the king, Fernando III.
We returned to Madrid around 9:00pm, just in time for some fresh white fish for dinner, which Papa loved.
I had to go to the University for a little bit on
Wednesday, April 18. The frustrating thing was that I didn’t have official
classes while B & P were here, so it was difficult for me to make plans
revolving around my school schedule. Instead, the Arts and Communications
departments of the University hosted a week of activities and presentations,
which I had the option of attending. I went to one that was required by a
professor, a documentary screening, on Wednesday morning.
That gave B & P the chance to go on a private walking
tour of Villa with Mayte. She showed them the Palacio de Godoy, the Castillo,
some gardens, the Town Hall, and the main shopping strip. What fun!
When I returned, we went into Madrid, and spent some time at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is one of three most famous museums in Madrid. The others are Museo del Prado and Museo Reina Sofía.
On Wednesday
night we went back to Villa for a wine
tasting at Café Infantes, which was followed by with a delicious tapas-style
dinner with Mayte, Susan, Carolina, and Rory. It was quite pleasant!
Thursday, April 19 was a transition-day. And it was
raining. B & P transitioned from staying at home to going to a hotel in
Madrid, and I was still working on transitioning my SIM Cards, so that I would
have a working cell phone, again. The Hotel Infantas was very nice; it was
about one kilometer from Puerta del Sol, very close to Museo del Prado.
I went there to
make sure they got checked-in okay, and then I went on an errand to a sketchy
corner of Madrid to pick up my new SIM Card from a PO Box. As it turns out,
that was a waste of time because the new SIM Card wasn’t compatible with my
cell phone. Great. I ended up just buying a whole new cell phone, switching
companies and everything, the following week.
After getting
tapas and drinks with B & P in the afternoon, I went back into Villa to
spend the night at home, and then I had more presentations to attend at the
University on Friday, April 20. During the day on Friday, B & P went to the
Royal Palace, the Museo del Prado, and had the chance to walk around and see
what was going on in Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor.
As it turns out,
there was a ceremony going on at the Royal Palace on Friday, so we went back
together for a tour on Saturday, April 21.
I arrived back at
the hotel around 8:00pm on Friday night, which was perfect timing, as B & P
had just walked back from Museo del Prado! We ate dinner at the hotel before
crashing to sleep, and then we were back at the Royal Palace on Saturday.
On Saturday evening, there was a ballet show going on at
the Community Center in Villa called “Con alma de la mujer.” The show was
SPECTACULAR! I was really glad that I had the chance to see it, and I really
appreciated that B & P humored me, and went, too.
We ate dinner with my host family at Café Infante again
on Saturday night.
Driving back to the hotel in Madrid after dinner was a
little adventure. Real Madrid beat
Barcelona in an intense rivalry fútbol game, and todo el mundo was
festejando en la calle. Paula told us that there is a tradition that the
Real Madrid fans jump in the fountain at Plaza de Cibeles after they win a
game, but it just so happens that Plaza de Cibeles was the primary intersection
right in front of our hotel. Whoohoo! There were police everywhere, trying to
get a grip on crowd control despite lots of drinking, hollering, speeding,
waving, and honking in the streets.
Needless to say, we had a hard time getting to sleep that
night because we could hear all of the street-partying-activity from our hotel
room =P It was fun, though!
Sunday, April 22 was the day we left Madrid to go on
vacation in Málaga. We purchased tickets to take the high-speed train,
the Renfe Ave, from Madrid to Málaga María Zambrano. Our resort in Málaga
was called Club de la Costa, and I called them to get directions from the train
station. We were instructed to take a second train, the Renfe Cercanías,
from Málaga
María
Zambrano to Fuengirola, which is a ritzy area along Costa del Sol, in southern
Spain.
Our resort was BEAUTIFUL, and we arrived by taxi just in
time to catch the train-shuttle to dinner at El Tajo on Sunday night.
Monday, April 23 was a chill-day, when we woke up late,
ate a lot, and went to the beach. It was fun to be playing on the beach of the Mediterranean
coast!
The most popular restaurant on the resort was called
Zacary’s (what a good name!), which is where we went for dinner.
We were hoping to arrange on Tuesday, April 24 an
excursion through the resort to visit the Alhambra on Wednesday, April 25. What
we didn’t realize is that tickets into the Alhambra are limited per day, and
need to be arranged either a) with a group, or b) up to a week in advance! What
a bummer. So, instead, we rented a car and drove to Gibraltar on Wednesday,
April 25 ;)
Tuesday, April 24 was spent walking on the boardwalk, eating fresh Mediterranean fish, and running errands in Fuengirola. Over-the-counter meds can only be purchased at pharmacies, and all businesses close for siesta from about 2:30-4:00p. So, we were kind of on a wild goose chase to find some ibuprofen, and a Movistar store in town where I could buy a new cell phone. Oh well, all is well that ends well, and everything ended fine ;) We even stopped for ice cream!
Going to Gibraltar on Wednesday, April 25 was awesome. We simply walked across the border and over the runway, from the country of Spain into English territory.
Throughout the day, I learned:
·
Gibraltar has nearly 60,000 inhabitants.
·
Although Great Britain has owned the territory
for more than 300 years, it is no longer of large military importance,
necessarily.
·
Everybody is bilingual—they speak Spanish in the
home (because they are really annexed to Spain), but, because they are an
English territory, they are taught English in schools, under the British
education system.
·
There are no universities in Gibraltar, so
everybody leaves and goes to England for college.
·
There is no unemployment, and no crime.
·
The price of living is cheaper in Spain, so many
commute.
I’ve heard Gibraltar described as:
·
Bizarre (UEM professor, who is British)
·
Fascinating (Bobba)
I have to say, I agree with both of them. Basically, I
elicited the following conclusion from our visit: I should marry a rich Spanish
man, and we should move to Gibraltar to raise our family.
Here’s why:
a)
He needs to be rich so that we can afford living
there. Since neither of us would be British, we would need a connection.
b)
We should move to Gibraltar before our kids our
born, so that they would have tri-citizenship [Spanish because of their father,
American because of me/their mother, and English because of being born on
English territory].
c)
Our kids will be 100% bilingual. Duh.
To walk across the border, you have to walk out of Spain,
show your passport, and then walk across the runway of the Gibraltar airport
(which only gets 4-5 incoming commercial flights per day that fly to only four
European cities, including London and Brussels). I felt so adventurous!
We took a tour of the Rock of Gibraltar, with a really
informative guy who was from there.
Here were some of the highlights:
The Pillars of Hercules:
St. Michael’s Caves:
The Great Siege Tunnels:
The coast of Africa:
The wild monkeys:
And here are some more photos of the scenery:
(and some turtles)
And, just in case we got lost, trying to find our way
back to Spain:
Thursday, April 26 was spent in down town Málaga,
walking around, people watching, and going into the Cathedral.
We went to a restaurant on Thursday night, and
surprisingly, they were having a flamenco show! Such a nice treat.
Friday, April 27 was kind of a rough day for me. Bobba
and Papa had to leave the resort around 11:30am. I think I unknowingly
overwhelmed the taxi driver with my emotions, whoops. I was left with a pretty
severe case of the homesick-bug. I compensated practicing the trick I learned
when I was a senior in high school who decided not to go to college the
following year: I learned that I can’t run and cry at the same time. So, sometimes,
I run when I’m upset. Which is what I did on Friday! I went to the gym at the
resort, and I walked/jogged/ran over 5k! (Whew, I should run a marathon
sometime. Seriously! Gerardo inspired me.)
I spent the afternoon lying out by the pool… alone…
trying to nap, but really just crying, and unsuccessfully calming my thoughts.
In the amount of time it took me to do all of that, I got pretty severely
sunburned! Oh well, at least it gave me tangible proof for having been at the
beach ;) I sure felt beachy, after that! (Even though I got the sunburn by the
pool. But no one has to know that!)
My plan on Saturday, April 28 was to go for a run on the
beach in the morning, then come back and eat lunch, and go into Málaga
to take a bus home on Saturday afternoon. Here’s how that went:
(-) It was raining when I woke up.
(+) I didn’t have to run on the beach!
(-) I went for a run on the beach, anyway.
(+) It was a good work out—that’s harder than it looks!
(-) It was cold and wet.
(+) It was raining when I woke up.
After eating every last crumb of food that was left in the
apartment, I went through the check-out as soon as I could, and I was on a bus
back to Madrid by 12:45pm.
(+) I was happy to be going home.
(-) The bus ride was six hours long.
(+) They showed Little Fockers, and Kung Fu Panda 2, in
Spanish, while I was on the bus =)
I was home sweet home in Madrid, and sunburned, safely by
8:00pm on Saturday. What a great vacation.
BIG SHOUT OUT OF LOVE AND THANKS TO BOBBA AND PAPA, WHO
TREATED ME AND TOLERATED ME FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK. It was such a delightful time
of being spoiled while making memories with good company. What a great
vacation.
Love, ~Taylor
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