TravBlog: Mark and Maria in Malaga

Malaga was our 'why not' trip. The summer in London has been quite miserable (although it was preceded by a beautiful spring and followed by a warm and rain-free fall), so Mark and I decided to go to the south of Spain for a weekend of pure beaching and sun-soaking. And considering how the trip was 2 weeks after Ibiza, it was a good time to build on my barely existing tan.

We arrived at 11 pm aka the start of the evening in Spain. The hotel was in a great central location, and as soon as we walked out we found ourselves in what seemed like a Saturday afternoon atmosphere, except it was almost midnight: the streets were full of young people dressed to go out, families, kids...Judging by the richly decorated streets (and having been tipped off by Jessie and Rachel who were there a week earlier), we realized we are in the middle of Malaga Feria, Andalucia region's annual festival to celebrate the city's re-conquest from the Moors. It is celebrated in a traditional fashion of drinking local sherry from noon until dawn (people would actually walk around with shot glasses tied to their necks), and dressing up in traditional dresses. We spent the evening dining on local seafood tapas, which are extra fried, going to the drinking square to have a couple of drinks with the locals and soaking in the atmosphere. The most striking part for us was that nobody spoke any English, not even the restaurant staff, so it was a fun game trying to communicate with people.

The following day was beach day. Malaga is laid out in the Spanish way that I love - the centre of the city is very historic containing buildings from 1500's, cathedrals, fortresses, and even ancient Roman ruins, and around the centre is the new city where majority of people live, and long stretches of beaches. The beaches are not spectacular, but they are definitely fun. The local delicacy is grilled sardines, which they do for you right on the beach, that one can wash down with special Malaga sangria, which is the best sangria I've ever had. I have no idea what goes into it but I suspect the secret ingredient is that local sherry. Returning from the beach at about 5 we found the centre crazy packed with action - streets full of people dressed up and dancing, music, and wine flowing. Eager to participate in the action we quickly changed and came back out, only to find the party slowing, but then were tipped off that the party wasn't slowing, it was just moving outside the town to the fair grounds, our next stop (after having some more fried tapas and splitting a bottle of sherry.)

The fair was pretty awesome. As big as the CNE (which is strange because Malaga is probably 1/50 the size of Toronto), and was split into 2 section - one for the young people, consisting of a street lined with bars and clubs, and one for the families, consisting of rides and traditional carnie games. Since Mark and I already had our predrink, we opted for the rides, which was the most fun time ever.

The next day we decided to actually take some time to explore the city aside from just partying and beaching. We ended up getting lost in the narrow winding streets looking for breakfast (big deal in Spain as nothing opens until noon), checking out the local cathedral, and exploring the the Alcazaba fortress - one of the largest Muslim military installations to have been preserved in Spain (which turned into a mini photoshoot).

Here's a recap of our beach break in pictures:

First night