Malaga

Hi guys! 

If you're thinking I've skipped a few days, I have. But that's because our last few days have been traveling. We had to say be to Jes and Mumma Bailey and that was really hard. Having the best of friends all over the world allows me to have these adventures and I'm so grateful. But can you all just move to one spot so that we can adventure together all the time and never have to say goodbye please? Thanks.

It didn't make it easier that mom and I had the worst Uber driver ever who tried to save us three minutes by taking the ferry and then ended up taking an extra two and a half HOURS to get us to our destination. I don't know about you, but somehow I think those three extra minutes would have been worth it mate. At least I transformed my tears in the wrath for this poor guy. 

The 5 am wake up call after a less than ideal night's worth of sleep did not have me in tip top shape. So when BOTH my bags were pulled aside for extra screening, I literally burst into tears in front of the TSA agent. Please imagine a very flabbergasted British man, who pulled out a toothpaste past the 125mL allowance which I had forgotten in my backpack and me pretty much sobbing about it. Looking back, hilarious. In the moment, I was mortified and my mother was terribly confused as I'm normally a very cool traveler. I think it was just pent up Sadness in my Inside Out brain who finally escaped her chambers and hit all the crying buttons before Joy could stop her.

Needless to say, Friday was spent taking a three hour nap and sitting at the hotel rooftop bar drinking a tropical smoothie with a very concerned mom looking over my shoulder all day. I'm fine mom, Sadness had her moment and Joy is back in control!

So, now here we are at Saturday. After a good sleep I started my morning off with cafe con leche. Man I missed good coffee. 

I forgot about good ole' Spanish hospitality...aka they hate everyone not from Spain. So you can imagine how my morning went when we had to figure out mom's train situation after hers got cancelled because of a strike. I think we got sent to three people before finally someone took pity on me. Also by the fourth person I did the tourist grovel "hi sir, I'm really bad at speaking Spanish but I'm going to try. Thank you so much for your patience, I appreciate you, you wonderful human..." blah blah blah. Well that finally did the trick and guess who got her mom's tickets sorted out with no pride in tact. It's like come on guys, I know you speak English...hello national school system, I'm speaking Spanish albeit with an accent, but fine, still give me the evil eye unless I apologize for my existence. Bah these Europeans, crack me up every time.

If you thought you were done seeing Jesus on my blog, guess again! We visited the Catedral de Malaga. Honestly it was gorgeous. Malaga is a unique city because it is one of the older cities in Europe and went through so many different cultures and regimes. Started with the Phoenicians back in 770 BC. Then it was passed to the Romans, Arabs, and ultimately ended up under the Spanish rule. So you've got a tiny port city with so much history and lots of ruins to explore, I think I'm going to love it here.

I gotta say, no one really knows how to do a cathedral like inquisition Spaniards. They were really in your face about it...but in a very beautiful way.

(that choir box was made from pomegranate tree bark imported from the US)

See what I mean? So overwhelming and yet so pretty. This is only 1/4 of the pictures mom took! she actually knew the names of the people who made this art, so most of it was lost on me. Looks like I didn't get the cultured bit that my mom has...oopsies. 

We then found the gardens and took a break in that posh little restaurant. So cute and yet the worst tapas ever! I feel like that's how it always goes, the best food is served in the hidden hole in the wall places. 

It is so warm and sunny here! I love it, even if I'm melting. I decided after you guys listened to me complain about the rain and cold for over two months, I simply don't have the right to say anything remotely negative about this warm weather. Trust me, I'm loving it, despite melting. I just feel badly for my poor mom running to any and all the patches of shade visible along our walks. Thank god I don't burn, but even with sunscreen I'm already significantly darker. Hope you all recognize me when I come home!

I took a siesta like all good espanolas do, and then mom and I decided to walk around the harbor! Is it possible to have ship envy, because that is how I feel towards this ship. I want someone to take me out on it, even though I would literally be dead weight since I have nothing whatsoever to contribute to sailing. However, I just love the idea of being out on open waters with real sails! I don't have to be a sailor to recognize that this ship is puuurrrtttyyyy. Maybe one day.

We walked from the port to the beach, and then back again. 

Needless to say we worked up a hearty appetite and stopped along one of the port restaurants for some dinner. This place served Mexican, Indian, Argentinian, and Greek food all in one space. Do you think the owner couldn't make up her mind? Or maybe he hired four different chefs? Anyways the location was perfect and just the food we needed to replenish before our walk home. 

Mom kept snapping pictures along the walk back to our hotel. 

In case you were wondering, I'm apparently highly photogenic 100% of the time...someone please cue the Miss America song. Do you think they'd take me with this as my head shot? lol 

At least we got one good one in there. 

Update you more tomorrow!

Love ya'll,

Carolyn