Málaga, the Feria

The last post's title was not right because it suggests that I went to Cadiz and Gibraltar which I didn't finally. Especially missing Cadiz made me sad since there was a friend of I could have met again after some years. And Gibraltar, well, I was just curious to see this place and now I didn't. So as I arrived in Malaga in the evening I had to find the right direction to the center which was not difficult and not far either. But the center was crowded since there were many people from everywhere to celebrate the Feria, a festival for Flamenco dancing and music playing, for eating and drinking and singing and laughing and dancing on the streets. I found the flag and I found Isabel who was there with her friend Simon. They asked me whether I was tired or still able to join them for passing half the night out. I wanted to have a shower and change clothes, then I was ready for everything that would happen. We met other friends who were already drunk a bit, we went with some of them to eat delicious, typical Tapas and drink some beer and Sangria and then we went to some clubs to go dancing but since Isabel had to work the next day, she, Simon and I left at about 3:00am to go to her home while Simon went to his. I could have my own room with a big and comfortable guest bed. We spent some time talking before we went to sleep. Isabel gave me her keys so I could stay independent visiting the city while she was working. It was hard to enjoy the city with all those loud drinking people around but I could visit the cathedral in the old center but it took some time to find the tourist information. Several times I missed it after I asked some people for it so I went back and forth several times the same street following the instructions I got but not finding it until the fourth one to ask could show it to me. There I got to know about Picasso's birth house and museum, about a Roman and a Moor castle, about a Roman theater and several other things. Then in the afternoon I met Isabel again while she was having dinner with a group of friends in the terrace restaurant on top of one of the most expensive hotels of the city. I joined them for the last dish while some of them started singing traditional Flamenco songs and so on. It was a very happy and funny round of friends. From the terrace I could have a great view over the whole city and the port and the sea which I enjoyed very much. Then we got back home because she wanted to go for a little excursion in a caravan car with her two sisters to Tarifa to stay one day at the beach. Since I wanted to go to Tarifa before I asked, not being too serious, whether I could go with them and she found it was a funny idea and she asked her sisters. After some discussion between the three of them, all by phone, they all agreed and so she and I prepared our things for this short trip. Then we went by car to her parent's town where we got the caravan car after we helped her father to fix something on the computer, then we picked up her youngest sister, Blanca, and went to another village to pick up her other sister. It was already 2:00am when we arrived at Tarifa. I forgot to mention that the deal was that I stay in the tent while the three of them sleep in the caravan car so that the sisters could stay among themselves. And so I was at 3:00am in my tent on a beach somewhere close to Morroco.

Per Mobiltelefon

Beautiful hot Andalucia (from Sevilla to La Linea/Gibraltar to Malaga hopefully)

Arriving with the bus in Sevilla at about 10:00pm I got hit by the heat in the city which was still massively present. I went to a McDonald's to have electricity to recharge and free Wifi. Then I walked through the city to that spot the covoiturage guy told me but who did not come - we know that already - and was amazed by the beauty of the city. Now, at 1:00am, the temperature was comfortable. And even if it was Sunday night there were still many people on the street for having a late dinner or just some drinks, maybe just because before it was too hot for that. While walking in the streets I experienced that during nighttime the city was a nice place to be. Frustrated by the French guy from covoiturage not coming I took a random quiet place to rest some few hours and then go on. The next morning I had the chance to walk in the city while it wasn't too hot yet. First I needed to recharge my camera mobile of which the battery is not working properly any more which I did in the train station, then I searched for a tourist information to get some maps and bus time tables, then I went to an Internet café to get some information on hitchhiking to Cadiz and La Linea de Concepcion/Gibraltar and from there to Malaga but all that took so much time because things are hard to find, bus schedules doesn't exist in a way a stranger can get to know where to go but only residents who know where to go. Then I tried to contact the other covoiturage guy who wanted to go to Tarifa but with no success. Thank god the city is really really beautiful, probably one of the most beautiful I have seen so far with all the mostly white or in clear colors Moor style buildings and parks, even the cathedral, so it helps me to calm down over all those frustrating circumstances, even with the extreme heat. Finally at 1:00pm I could start hitchhiking, i.e. get the right bus for a spot where hitchhiking should work well. But it was all useless. With a sign for Cadiz/Tarifa, with an additional saying '...o no tienes cojones? :-)', without any sign, on a different place for Malaga - all was frustrating and finally I got back to the center again, reading on a sign that there were 44 degrees at 5:30pm. I had to hurry a bit to get the bus for Malaga leaving at 6:00pm... I knew that hitchhiking in Spain would not work well, but that it would be such a failure was news to me. A Spanish friend told me that it was actually forbidden by law but come on, if I had been a young pretty girl I wouldn't have waited for long. Next step: getting a nice young and pretty girl for that - or becoming one myself. Ten minutes before departure I got to the bus stop, but unfortunately ti ticket desk was occupied by a woman not knowing what she wanted. Five minutes before departure, finally, I could buy my ticket and the man at the desk sent me away saying 'corre, corre, corre!'. As I arrived at the bus platform in time, I had to wait for the bus to come for another 5 minutes, massively sweating since I ran at these temperatures. Leaving Sevilla in the bus at 6:00pm I saw another sign telling that it even had 50 degrees! I slept in the bus for some time but I also realized that we were passing thousands of large large fields of olive trees before we arrived at the coast where were probably the most people of this country living since almost all the coast was full of either big houses for people living there or big hotels for tourists. At 8:40pm we arrived in Malaga. With almost no battery left I just could receive that Isabel, my couchsurfing host here, would meet me at 9:30pm at a flag in the middle of the Malaga feria. Then the battery was dead.

Per Mobiltelefon