Malaga... oh Malaga...
So… I’ve been away from home for almost a month. Leisurely days with lots of time to ponder. My travel take aways… 1. I sleep more on vacation. 2. I take time to eat better on vacation. 3. I read more on vacation. 4. Locals are kind to tourists if tourists are kind to locals 5. Traveling solo is not as scary as I expected
Looking back to 2017, when I started my journey of documenting travels, we had just suffered a painful loss of everything we own in Hurricane Harvey. Baby pictures of my children washed away. As a photo-holic, this was the biggest loss for me personally. So, I promised myself I would put my photos in cyberspace, where they could not be washed away by flood waters. There’s only one problem… I stopped taking my camera with me out of convenience. The iPhone takes photos. But they are just mindless, crooked photos. There’s a different connection when using an actual camera. The whole idea of this was to protect my favorite photos… but these are far from my favorite photos.
From here on out (after this travel season), i will take the time (and space) to pack my camera. My focus will return to my surroundings and capturing it in photos rather than taking a quick shot to post as a memory… it seems my focus shifted to posting blather. That’s not my intention. Finally, I won’t repeatedly apologize for stopping every two seconds to take 80 shots (Corey taught me that).
Also… I think I want to move to Spain (or Italy or Croatia). Just move across the pond. Hubby and I have been talking about the sense of peacefulness we feel while overseas. We eat better, walk all the time… and we are relaxed. It might just be time. I’ve figured out how simple it is to bring dogs…
And now… on to our Malaga journey! (with blather and quick snapshots haha)
A funny thing happened on the way to Malaga… you’d THINK I would be a savvy traveler with being married to a pilot and the amount I travel. Nope. This travel day was full of senior moments! Almost drove Corey to drinking… First, I never wear a belt… forgot I had one on… went through security and sounded the alarm. Back to undress. Walked through the detector fine and my bag gets stopped… OMG! I went from Galveston to Barcelona on a ship so no pre-planning of packing. Apparently, I lost all sense of “security protocol” and packed a bottle of wine in my carry on. Lucky TSA… they get the wine! Then they took a look at my travel Mexican Train game because they couldn’t see through the dominos. As they began to open the box…the guy next to me says, “this won’t be good”, knowing full well that dominos would be falling all over…. and they did. Now two officers approach me. I am clearly in trouble. As a Global Entry/Clear member, I never have to remove my laptop… so… I had to take my laptop out, put it in a bin and run it through again. When I did this, I scooted back to the officers. who stopped me … one shook his head and made me go back through the detector. They acted like I was purposely avoiding it. I’d already just been through the scanner two seconds prior! Oh well… next issue? My cruise door decorations. In my bag, was a thick stack of magnetic items for the door and swirly things I hang from the ceiling. None of what I packed was making sense to these people. The last straw? My money. Being Ms Organization… I had my tip money set up in daily packs. The second cruise will have me traveling with my friend, Roxanne. We split the tips when we travel together. So, I had a packet for each of the 12 days of the upcoming cruise. It looks like a bit of cash because I had the cabin steward tip on the outside, drink tips (ones) in the middle and a dinner tip on the outside of each tip. The officers thought I as laundering money. One of them asked if I knew how much money I had. Taking him literally, I said, “Well, I will be doing the tips every other day so I have 6-$20’s, 6-$10’s… “ and before I could finish, the man shook his head and walked away. The second man did the wand all over me, found me to be “safe” and let me go. Where was Corey? He took my main suitcase and walked away… Note to self, don’t clip stacks of money together, even if they are small amounts of cash.
Without further incident, we made it to Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport. With hours before we could check in, we decided to wait a bit in the baggage claim area. It was airconditioned and had wifi. After watching a few flights worth of passengers gather up their luggage, we decided to go outside security and grab coffee and a snack.
Lucky for me! The small coffee shop outside the airport, had the most delicious gluten-free chocolate chip muffin! Considering the size of the cappuccinos in Europe, I probably need about four of them… but I polished off my one in seconds. Moving on to the muffin, I really wished I’d had a little coffee to wash it down. :-)
Despite some significant stalling, we still had an hour and a half after taking a taxi to our general area. Sitting under a tree, for shade, we were within eye shot of our accommodations. Oh, what a fun day…
Just past the umbrellas, the outer door to enter our accommodations waited for us… I wouldn’t say time was passing quickly, but it was dragging too badly either. Our wait time was just short enough that it didn’t warrant putting our luggage in a storage locker. By the time we did that, it would be check in time. At lease we had an awesome tree to rest under and a view of blue Jacaranda trees to keep us happy.
Finally in our flat! Thinking I would be alone for my entire stay in Malaga, I reserved a studio apartment. Fortunately, it seemed a mansion after sharing a cruise cabin for 15 days. With Corey being so tall, I gave him the bed for the few days he would be with me. The fold out couch was VERY comfortable! This little place worked out perfectly…
With a simple but well-equipped kitchen and a modern shower, this will definitely be a nice “home” for the next two weeks! The space is not that big, but perfectly laid out creating a spacious feel.
My favorite spot? You guessed it… the little window with a desk. What a great place to work on a couple of projects. Though you can’t see it from this perspective, the window overlooks the cathedral. You can see the cathedral walls… the side of the building. It is beautifully lit up at night.
All settled in our little retreat… a short nap and it was time for dinner! How did we know? As Americans, we eat much earlier than Europeans. When the bells toll, it’s time to eat! The good part about this? It’s slow and there is always a seat when we eat early. Most are out having a coffee or a tapa… we were hungry for a meal! Right outside our door, the Cathedral de Malaga bells ring beautiful music…
Not expecting to be in the picture, I chatted away as Corey took the photo. I had asked him to take a shot of our view from the restaurant… the front of the cathedral and the Cultural Center (green lights) provided a picturesque view for dinner!
Here is a slightly better shot of the Cultural Center… and Corey sitting at the fountain admiring the lights of the cathedral. Not as much foot traffic as expected, we enjoyed a quiet evening. Just what we needed after being on the go for 15 days! Corey still wasn’t feeling up to par, so a mellow meal and early to bed suited him just fine!
Obviously, I couldn’t leave without a selfie… Corey is on the same page as Barry when it comes to selfies. I’m actually not a fan either, but I like for both of us to be in photos sometimes. Basically, it’s the same rule of thumb… one a day, unless it’s a particularly notable subject matter. I’d say the Cathedral de Malaga lit up in all her glory qualifies as “notable”!
Strolling to the other side of the cathedral, I thought Corey looked cool beside the massive structure! Currently under construction, cranes and barriers got in the way of my photo… but, that’s how it looks right now. Still stunning architecture!
