Day 29 - 11/5/2010 - City culture: Time periods collide

            This weekend was great. I spent Friday afternoon and night in the city with friends, spent Saturday on my own resting, and spent Sunday in the mountains. It was the perfect mix of several different things.

            My friend Jakob’s girlfriend, Olympia, was in town visiting for about a week and she was leaving Saturday morning. They decided to spend her last Friday evening in Malaga and invited me to go along with them. I knew of a few places that were very typical of Malaga that they most likely would not see unless I showed them, so I was excited to go.

            We began at Calle Larios, which is the very center of Malaga and probably the most well known street in Malaga. This street is full of all types of ATMs, stores, restaurants and people. There are many little side streets that lead you to other streets that are full of other stores and restaurants as well. Jakob and his girlfriend wanted to stop and have a coffee or tea, but decided to stop in a couple of stores and do some shopping before sitting down. I told them about the most well known churreria in Malaga that was not even two minutes from where we were and we decided to go there. This churreria is in a very small side street and every single table that is on that street belongs to the churreria. At certain times of the day every single table is taken and people wait until tables open up. It became so popular that the owner had to buy space on the other side of the street, so it was as if there were two different churrerias, but it was really just the same one. I had never really noticed before but Jakob mentioned how he enjoyed how noisy it was there. The waiters shout to each other from one side of the street to the other to stay on top of things and there are always two of them on each side to make sure that things are running smooth. Like I said, I had never really noticed until Jakob mentioned it, but I enjoyed it as well, it showed how busy they were and added some character to the place. The churros and hot chocolate were delicious. Sometimes, in many places, the churros can have too little or too much sugar and in many cases the chocolate can be way too thick, but here both were perfect. Before leaving we asked the waiter if he could recommend somewhere for us to eat some good paella, he and a woman that was sitting next to us both told us about different places on this one little side street. Just to make sure that we knew where it was, we went by the side street before walking around again. Sure enough there were 3 places that looked as if they had decent Paella. We spoke with a waiter from one of the places called La Aldea and were convinced to go back there once we were ready to eat. Until then, we went to walk around some more.

            We walked around to where the Cathedral of Malaga is. It is nicknamed “La Manquita.” The reason behind this nickname goes way back to when the Cathedral was being built. There are two sides of the Cathedral that are supposed to have identical towers, but on one side the tower was never finished, so one of the towers is shorter than the other, as if there were two arms, but only one hand. Instead of using the money to finish the second tower, the city of Malaga decided to donate this money to Spain to go to  war (I say “war” because I don’t remember what war it was), so there was no longer enough money to finish the top of the second tower of the Cathedral. I always say that I like things because of something that gives it character, but its true! Oddities and the history behind things are what make them what they are, which is what makes them interesting!

            We continued our walk to where the old Moor city called La Alcazaba is. Visits inside are only allowed during certain hours of the day, so we were not able to see the inside, but even from the outside it looks pretty cool. I have been in La Alcazaba a couple of times and have to say that it is probably my most favorite thing about Malaga, besides the beach of course. When I studied abroad in Malaga I remember going to La Alcazaba and seeing the sunset over the city and the beach and the water. Whenever people talk about La Alcazaba or ask about it I always mention visiting during the hours of sunset because it is one of the prettiest views I have ever seen. What makes where La Alcazaba is located even more interesting is that over the past 5 years there has been excavation of Roman ruins right below the Moor ruins. When I was in Malaga about 2 years ago you could see maybe half of the theater seats, but now you can see the theater seats, the stage, and even behind the stage. It’s really cool to be able to see ruins from two different time periods sitting right next to each other. It was already dark by the time we were there so both of the sites were illuminated with bright lights. I’m sure that was a nice romantic moment for the last night of Olympia’s visit.

     

            From there we were going to go to La Plaza de Merced, which is a plaza that is also part of the center of Malaga and really close to where I lived while I studied abroad there. I have many great memories with my close study abroad friends in that plaza and the surrounding streets. I myself am not very much into wine, actually I am not into wine at all, but there is a very well known winery really close to where we were that I thought Jakob and his girlfriend might like to go to so I asked them if they wanted to go there and they did. Jakob had actually heard of the place from a few other people so he was excited to go. The place is called El Pimpi. I used to go there with my close girl friends from study abroad a lot. The inside of the place is very nicely set up. The ceilings are very tall; the walls are full of old school pictures and posters, and barrels signed by famous people who have been there. I found out that Olympia was a fan of Antonio Banderas so I took them to the way back where there is a wine barrel signed by Antonio Banderas. The interior decor of El Pimpi creates a very old school, calm atmosphere. It is the perfect place to have a glass of wine, or a few. ;)

             After El Pimpi it was about time to go eat some tasty Paella. We were traveling through the small side streets on our way to the restaurant we were going to eat at when we heard music. There was a band or orchestra of some sort playing in front of a church; we decided to check it out. There was a crowd of people surrounding the music performance. After asking a woman in the crowd we found out that it was the anniversary of the death of whatever the saint of that church was. Today they were having this musical performance, and the next day there was going to be a procession. We listened to a song or two, took some pictures, and a video. After being there for awhile we continued our path to the restaurant that we were going to eat at.

            When we arrived at the restaurant La Aldea the waiter that we had spoken with before greeted us and sat us at a table outside. We were all excited to eat some paella, but then we noticed that the paellas are made for two and there were three of us. I told them to go ahead and order it and that I would order something else, fortunately I’ve had many paellas and have family who know how to make it, so I figured they would enjoy it more. I on the other hand saw some Galician food on the menu, which made me crave some Pulpo a Feira, which is octopus prepared in the way that it is prepared in the north of Spain, so I had to order it. We also decided to get some appetizers. I ordered Almejas a la Marinera, marinated clams, and they ordered eggplant covered in honey. We shared. Both of the appetizers were really good, so we were pretty positive that our main dishes were going to be good as well. Their massive paella dish came out at the same time that my plate of pulpo came out. I must say that their paella looked pretty damn good and I was tempted to have some when they offered it to me, but I knew that they could eat the entire thing so I refrained from eating any. I was actually kind of afraid to order the pulpo because I’m used to it being made a certain way that was originally only done in the north and had never had it anywhere other than in the north, but was also excited to try it in the south in hopes that it would be almost as good if not just as good as in the north. To my surprise, it was almost just as good as in the north. I was officially in heaven. Now not only could I have my favorite dish whenever I’m in Galicia, now I can have it in Malaga! I must say that it tasted slightly different, I think it was the type of pimenton (powdered pepper) that they used, but it was still really good. The weather was nice, the food was delicious, and we even had a few musicians play some tunes as they passed by. It was the perfect end to a perfect evening.

            Once we were done with our meal we still had about 30 minutes before Jakob and Olympia had to catch the bus back to Velez-Malaga, so we decided to take a last stroll around town. Jakob asked me to show him where a few of the bars that I go to are, so I did. Along the way we passed by some new bars that I had never been to and observed the atmosphere. The night was young; people were still eating and having their first drinks. This is part of why I love Spain so much. Everywhere you go there is always people out and about, mingling and enjoying their surroundings. It’s weird because you would think with the crisis that Spain is in right now that people would stay in more and you wouldn’t see people out on the streets so much, but there is this attitude of this way of enjoying life here that I don’t think will ever change.

            We made it to the bus stop about 10 minutes early and were greeted by skateboarders whizzing by. We sat down and enjoyed the show. There was a group of skateboarders riding around and doing tricks. One of them would tape the others every now and then. It was crazy the kinds of tricks they could do just on flat ground and the curbs of sidewalks. There was also a rail that separated the bus stop from the street. One of the skateboarders made a few attempts at jumping the rail, doing a trick or two over the rail, and landing in the street on the other side of the rail. It was really cool to watch. Actually it was kind of scary because the street is a really busy street and I was scared that the guy would get hit by a car because he fell twice, but luckily that never happened. There were a few of them that were really good at what they were doing. It would be neat to be able to see the film that the guys put together in the end.

            I will definitely get to see Jakob around, but I’m not sure I will ever see Olympia again. She said that she plans on visiting 2 or 3 more times, so hopefully we’ll get to have another exciting evening, but until then it was goodbye. The bus came and we said our goodbyes. The evening had come to an end and now it was time to start the night.

            I thought it was going to be about 2 hours before meeting up with my friends in Malaga because they don’t usually go out until 12:30 or 1 am, so I decided to take another walk around town and stop and have a drink at a bar in La Plaza de Merced. When I studied abroad in Malaga this bar was a cocktail bar where my girl friends and I would get some free cocktails at every now and then. When my friend Mo was in town and I showed him around we stopped by the bar because I told him that they made good cocktails. To our surprise there was a new owner and the bar was now a gay men’s bar. It wasn’t a big deal; we still stayed and had a drink. We even made friends with the owner who was one of the bartenders.  He is from Ireland and has been living in Malaga for 10 years. During the free time I had before meeting up with my friends I decided to go to this bar, which is now called El Carmen, just because I knew the area and that one bartender. He was really nice and I knew that he would sit and chat with me for a little while. Sure enough, he did.

While I was there I called one of my friends to let them know that I was already there and to let me know when they were on the way. They were hopping on the bus at that moment and told me to meet up with them at Calle Larios in twenty minutes. Sweet! Twenty minutes was the perfect amount of time for me to finish my drink, pay, and walk over to meet them. I thanked the bar tender and told him that I’d make sure to pass by again sometime soon. I didn’t remember his name so I asked him (I still don’t remember what it is) and told him my name again, but he said “I’ll just remember you as Sandra Bullock.” Haha. Wow. Spain is the last place I would expect to hear anyone say that to me.

... the rest of the weekend will be continued in the next blog.