“When you visit…” is a blog series about things you’ll want to know before you visit a city. Advice comes from my experience in the city, and is more about “prepare yourself for…” than about “OMG SUCH PRETTY SO WOW.”
This one’s about Málaga, Spain.
Málaga is a beach. Málaga is not a beach.
As the very last stop before our return to Munich, Málaga is only a one-night stay. Now that our night is about to arrive, I don’t know much about it. But, I do know two things.
#1: Málaga is a Beach
This is the first thing you see after crossing Paseo del Parque and entering the beach side of Málaga.Full-on Málaga beach, baby.If I were an apartment complex, I’d want to be a Málaga beach apartment complex.
From what I could tell as we walked around the city, the beach is the uniqueness that brings people to Málaga. While you’ll likely stay in the city center, it’s just a quick walk down Paseo del Parque until you reach Málaga’s obvious beach zone.
It’s freaking beautiful. On one side of the beach zone (a small peninsula) is the harbor. You’ll see yachts, gelato stands, restaurants and an outdoor market, there. On the other side is the beach. You’ll see salt water and sand, there.
The beach side is also full of runners. Between that side’s apartment complexes and the ocean are: a wide road for cars; a wide, tiled path for pedestrians; and some sand.
#2: Málaga is not a Beach
Near the city center. This is not a beach.Back to the beach side. This is why we’re here, folks.
Aside from the beach zone, you also have the city center and what I think is a region called “East Málaga.”
The center offers standard European fare like a castle, a fortress and an upscale shopping street. It also offers non-standard fare like Pablo Picasso’s birthplace and a higher-than-average number of museums dedicated to Málaga and its history.
I’m making a huge inference, here, but I think what you’d call “East Málaga” is a set of hills dedicated to high-income housing. My clues are a sign pointing East that said “East Malaga,” and a bunch of hills with awesome-looking houses on them in that direction. Name’s Mr. Holmes, if you please.
This wraps up my experience with Málaga. I wish I could say more, but we’re only skidding across the surface of it on our way into our airplane seats. Hopefully, the pictures along the right side can say what I can’t about this city.
“When you visit…” is a blog series about things you’ll want to know before you visit a city. Advice comes from my experience in the city, and is more about “prepare yourself for…” than about “OMG SUCH PRETTY SO WOW.”
This one’s about Granada, Spain.
Granada is huge. Granada is complex. Granada is modern.
Granada is stop number three of four on our trip through Spain. We’re here for two days. The city is huge, to be sure. But, there are more interesting things to discuss.
#1: La Alhambra
This is one of La Alhambra’s gardens.This is much of the Alhambra complex from far away. Revel in its majesty.Yet another courtyard belonging to this palace.
La Alhambra (Spanish for “The Alhambra”) is a vesitge of Muslim rule that was built somewhere around 1300 CE. In its day, it was a fortified palace complex with an amazing view of the surrounding area. These days, it’s a major tourist attraction with an amazing view of the surrounding area. Someone invent a time machine so we can all show Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar our photos.
To see La Alhambra, properly, you’ll need to purchase tickets in advance (we bought ours a month in advance). The ticket isn’t for La Alhambra, though. You can walk around the general complex without paying anything. The ticket lets you enter the “Palacios Nazaries,” the “Alcazaba” and the “Generalife” portions of the complex (the palacio is the palace, Alcazaba is the fortress, and Generalife is the massive garden). Going guideless (as we did) will give you extremely little in the way of a history lesson. What you will do is walk through restored rooms in a palace and gardens surrounding the palace for about 2 hours. Your dogs will surely be barking after its all over, but the journey will be beautiful.
Here’s an alternative fashion shop in Granada. The name is pretty lol-worthy.Stores like this all over the place.
If you read my post on Sevilla from a few days ago, then you’ve seen the word “tapa” about a million times. Granada is much less about the tapa, and much more about modern shopping. It’s a metropolitan city with an evidently-high quality of life. Electronics. Designer fashion. Alternative fashion. Other stuff. It’s all here, and it’s all over the place.
Another way to put this: In Sevilla, you turned down a narrow alley because you heard that there are excellent tapas somewhere in there. In Granada, you turned down that alley because you heard there’s a Zara somewhere in there.
#3: But Granada Still Has Tapas Bars
Navas Street, where the tapas live.Granada is the only city of the three in which we found pimientos del Padrón. I sang “La Marcha Real” when I saw them on the menu.Pimientos, Calamari Frito and Gambas Pil Bil in their natural environment. They played the role of “tapas” for the evening.
Even though Sevilla is much closer to what you might call “Tapas City,” Granada will still give you what you crave. We visited a street called Navas, right off of Plaza del Carmen. Word of mouth has it that Navas is the place to go for tapas.
Things are a bit different, here, than in Sevilla. In Granada, ordering tapas requires a seat at the bar. Anywhere else, and you’re ordering “Medias” or “Raciones.” That just means you’re ordering half-plates or full plates. Other than the sizes, medias, raciones and tapas are all exactly the same food. A half plate is roughly equivalent to tapas for two people, for example. Meals are less modular at a table, but they’re just as satisfying.
A perk offered by tapas bars in Granada is that ordering a beer comes with a free tapa (whether or not you’re sitting at the bar). So, that’s something.
This completes the main circuit of our trip. Tomorrow, we take a bus to Malaga, and the following morning we fly back to Munich. Because of the short stay, I likely won’t be able to say much about Malaga beyond “there’s a beach there.” But who knows?
“When you visit…” is a blog series about things you’ll want to know before you visit a city. Advice comes from my experience in the city, and is more about “prepare yourself for…” than about “OMG SUCH PRETTY SO WOW.”
This one’s about Sevilla, Spain.
Sevilla is crowds. Sevilla is chaos. Sevilla is beauty.
We’ve been here for three days, and tomorrow we leave for Córdoba. More on Córdoba, later. For now, here’s what you may want to know before you visit Sevilla, Spain.
#1: Walking is the Best Way to Get Around
Here’s a thing you see if you walk around Sevilla.Here’s another thing you’ll see if you walk around Sevilla.And here is yet a third thing you will see if you walk around Sevilla.
We’re staying in the sort-of center of Sevilla at a hostel called Nomads. There are about a million other hotels and hostels in the area, so chances are, you’ll be staying somewhere close by. From here, getting all over the city is a breeze by foot, a waste of money by cab, and unthinkable by car.
Sevilla is a nest of small alleys and back roads that only exist for 1-3 blocks. What this means is that walking treats you to a tremendous amount of visual variety. One minute, you’re in a park, the next you’re walking down a spatious roadway dedicated to high-end shopping, and the third you’re squeezing down a side-street full of hipster-esque tapas bars. By cab, you’re missing out on all of that. In your own car, good luck trying to find parking while reading your map.
#2: It is Easy to Get Lost in Sevilla
Meet Sevilla. I challenge you to find a grid in that.
“What’s a grid?” asked Sevilla’s city planner, probably.
The first day, here, we decided to wing it through a walk around the city. It’s been easy to do that everywhere else we’ve been. However, as I mentioned in this post’s first point, Sevilla is a nest of side-streets and alleys. When someone tells you to “go North,” what they really mean is “go East for a block, then go South for a block, then go back East for a block, then go North for no longer than 2 blocks, then go West for a block…” You get the picture. There’s no straight shot to anywhere in Sevilla. And when you look at a map, there’s just a big pair of shrugging shoulders looking back at you.
So, we got lost on the first day. Probably 3 times. The good thing though, is that Sevilla is an amazing city in which to get lost. One of those times, for example, we went looking for a trendy street full of tapas bars called Mateos Gago (just South of the center). We ended up at Puente de la Barqueta (far North of the center) and stumbled upon a really good bar that serves Spanish-Japanese fusion tapas. Losing was truly winning, that evening.
#3: Eating Many Small Meals is the Way to Go
Calamari, Shrimp Tortillas, Paella, and Potatoes with a Texas-Chili-like sauce.Japanese Fusion TapasThese are beers.
Typically, everyone’s out for breakfast at 10-11am. Breakfast philosophy is “put some stuff on that bread.” Two to three hours later, everyone’s eating lunch. Then, dinner starts after 8:30pm. So, the day starts with a tiny breakfast to get you going. Seemingly right afterward, you’re eating lunch (if you’re as obsessed as we were, then you’re looking for more tapas places). At dinner, you’ll probably eat more tapas, but that’s 8-10 hours away. In between, you’re noticing that food is always happening in Sevilla.
Notably, every street is restaurant street. Churros, tapas, sushi, tacos (yes, there’s some Japanese and some Mexican, here), gelato, milk shakes, on and on. If you ever feel a pang of hunger, finding something to quell it is only a matter of keeping your eyes open and walking one or two steps in any direction.
Also noteworthy is that tapas are easily the most common style of service, here. This means that you order multiple small plates of food and share them with your travel buddies. Some friends of mine would call them Spanish dim sum. I would call them Spanish bar food. This makes every meal pretty modular. Only a little hungry? Order one tapa’s worth per person. Really hungry? Order three or four per person.
At the end of a day, you’ll have stopped maybe 5 times for relatively small portions each time, and the variety you’ve experienced in the process will thrill you.
*: Flamenco is Here
The guy in the back is the vocalist/percussionist. The woman is the dancer. And the guy on the left is obviously making flapjacks.A solo by the flapjack-ist.
You’ll notice one million Flamenco theaters (+/- 10%) during your stay in Sevilla. Trip Advisor might help. Or, you could just pick one and buy tickets. We went to a place called La Casa de la Guitarra.
I knew precious little about Flamenco going into the show (and I still know precious little). But, I do know now that over 40 styles comprise Flamenco, and what we heard is what our host called the “pure” style (although I’ll bet all the Flamenco show hosts say that). And, the exposure definitely highlights some cool patterns in the music. For one, vocals carry an absolute hell-ton of melisma. They also play with a particular set of intervals that are unfamiliar to ears accustomed to western music, but familiar to those that have ever been around a mosque. For those reasons, it sounds very Arabic, to me.
Another pattern is that all three parts–guitar, vocals/percussion, and dancing–are mostly fluid, but regularly shift into really aggressive bursts of volume, speed and syncopation. To me, that communicated sadness, frustration, and underdog-style defiance. I’ll be doing more research into the style, because now I’m really curious about its origin.
Anyway, you should see a Flamenco show, while you’re in Sevilla.
Tomorrow, we move on to Córdoba. There’s a famous mosque, there, but that’s about all I know at this point. Will it be entirely unique? Or, will it offer a hint that the crowds, chaos and beauty of Sevilla comprise a more universal Spanish experience?
