Viewpoint at Gibralfaro
One of my good friends from uni is on a year abroad in Malaga, so last week I went to visit her. I'd never been to Spain before, so was not quite sure what to expect. It reminded me a lot of Italy, with the small, winding streets bustling with people. I flew to Malaga on March 7. When I arrived, Emma met me at the airport and we took the subway back to hers, then went out for lunch at a place she goes to often, a cafe called Noviembre. You can create your own sandwiches there, so I had a BLT - very good. After lunch, we walked around Malaga. It turned out that the bin men were on strike, so there was trash everywhere, but other than that it is a pretty city. There are a lot of crumbling buildings, so it looks old, but also many clean and strong standing buildings. The colors are all oranges and reds and yellows, and the sky was bright blue almost the whole time i was there, so it felt very Mediterranean. That first day, we walked around the harbor to a light house and went food shopping. The super markets are quite different from those I am used to, especially the meat section - there were prettily packaged brains, livers, and other unidentifiable (to me anyway) organs, as well as huge legs of mutton hanging casually from racks in the middle of the store, as you might see postcards arranged in an American store. Very interesting.
Some of the rubbish piles
Views from the harbor - that's the cathedral sticking up next to the (rather ugly) high rise hotel.
Me and Picasso
My second day in Malaga, Emma had class, so I spent the morning strolling around the city. I went back to Noviembre for a coffee, and then walked in the square, where there is a nice statue of Picasso. The sun was shining, which was a nice break from Edinburgh's usual grey skies. Once Emma was back from class, we went to the Castillo de Gibralfaro, which is an old Moorish castle on the top of a hill in the center of Malaga. The walls are all built of orangey-yellow rock, and we had to climb up a long and winding pathway to get to the top. We stopped at a viewpoint halfway up before continuing up. Gilbralfaro is built in the middle of the city and overlooks the ocean and the port, so the views are expansive. The actual ruin is beautiful. There is a walkway on the outer wall which covers the outside of the whole castillo, and we walked across the wall, taking in the view from every outlook. After seeing the Castillo de Gibralfaro, we went to the Alcazaba of Malaga, which was built in the 11th century by the Hammudid dynasty. "Alcazaba" is Arabic for citadel, and this was indeed a fantastic citadel. Like Gibralfaro, the walls are all orange and yellow. There were orange trees everywhere, and the air smelled sweetly of their blossoms. There were also water features scattered throughout, as well as colorful tiles and palm trees. Overall, it was a very Mediterranean look. We stopped for some juice and ice cream halfway through our tour, then continued on until late afternoon. To end the day, we had tapas.
Noviembre fare; "sun tzu" juice, which is fresh blended orange, pineapple, lime, and mint, and tortitas: nutella pancakes.
This is the square where the Picasso statue is.
Castillo di Gibralfaro
View from Gibralfaro
Castillo de Gibralfaro
From the viewpoint
The bull ring
on Gibralfaro
in the Alcazaba
in the Alcazaba
Gibralfaro
the Alcazaba
The path to Gibralfaro
The view from Gibralfaro
Overall, these were an excellent first two days in Spain!
Tapas - we ordered so many dishes that the waiter pulled two tables together for us. Also, because Spanish people generally eat much later than we are used to, we were the only two people in the whole restaurant.
Malaga streets
Malaga streets