It’s time to go from east of Europe to south of
Europe. Let’s discover Andalucía and especially Malaga where I was born and
tried to make Isak feel home. Well Andalucía is divided in to eight provinces
and we will talk about some of them at following posts.
Malaga is married with the sea, a sea full of
“boquerones” (little delicious fishes to eat at the beach). It’s the ancient Malaka
(not the Greek word) where Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Muslims and
Christians fought to get this wonderful city.
If you come from the airport, you can take
train, bus or taxi. I recommend you to take the bus because it’s straight to
the city center and it takes 40 minutes to arrive to the center. If you come
from the bus or train station, there are many buses to go to the city center
every 5 minutes.
The first place that you can see in the city
center is “Alameda Principal”. It is an important street decorated with huge
trees and these trees are protecting you in a rainy day. In Alameda Principal
you can buy a bunch of roses for your love.
If you continue this road, you will arrive to
“Paseo del Parque” and it is easy to recognize it because there are no trees.
There is a big park with tall trees and a nice garden with flower beds. Also,
you can find little stands where people sell bracelets, necklaces, bags,
sweets, traditional food, clothes… but they are not permanent, so I hope you
are lucky to find them because there are many interesting things.
Next to Paseo del Parque you can go to the new
port, called “Palmeral de las Sorpresas”. You can have a nice walk, near the
sea where boats are resting after a long trip. There are many different
restaurants, cafes and bars, so you can enjoy the view while you are having
delicious food.
Let’s have a tour between the narrow streets
and traditional squares. The main street in Malaga is “Calle Larios” with
several shops and cafes. In calle Larios take place all the events during the
year (Christmas, Carnival, Holy week, Fair, etc). When friends or families want
to meet in the city center to go shopping, business or just spend time together,
they do it in Larios street.
 |
| Larios street welcomes you to the Fair |
Then you will see a big square, called “Plaza de la Constitución” where the Christmas celebrations happens, there is a tall Christmas tree and impatient kids are waiting for the Three Magic Kings to give them their letters. In Fair days, the square is full of people drinking alcohol like Sangria or Cartojal and eating Spanish omelet, paella, Spanish cheese or Serrano ham.
 |
| Funny moments in Christmas |
In Malaga there are many narrow streets with little new and old shops and you can find whatever you need. My grandparents walked in the same streets and bought in the same shops where I do. This is one of the reasons because I like this part in Malaga. It makes me remember the time when I was a child and the moments I shared with my grandparents. And other positive thing is that you will not have problems if you are hungry because in every corner there is a restaurant or a café with traditional food or you can try in a “Teteria”. They are like cafes where they serve different kind of teas, natural smoothies, crepes and waffles and normally the environment makes you feel like you are in Morocco.
 |
| Atarazanas market |
 |
| Delicious tea in a teteria |
.JPG)
Malaga, like every Christian city in Spain, there
are a lot of churches, approximately 25 in the city center. But I will mention
the Cathedral named “La Manquita”. I had not the chance to go inside with Isak but
the next time we will do it. A characteristic in this cathedral is that instead
of two towers, it has only one. The reason is that the money to construct the
other tower was used for other things and nobody knows the real one. But in my
opinion it was good not to build the tower because now this Cathedral is well known
because of a curious fact.
Now I will tell you about my favorite place in
my city. It was built in the XI century by Muslims. This fortress, constructed
on a hill, it is easy to recognize it at night thanks to the lights. Its name
is “Alcazaba de Málaga”. It’s a fantastic place because you can go to the top
of the Fortress and have really nice views of the city. Alcazaba is open every
day and the normal ticket is 2.20 euros and on Sunday is free since 14:00. I
suggest you to visit it because it worth and you have the possibility to learn
a little more about the history of Málaga.
 |
| Alcazaba and Roman amphitheatre |
 |
| Beautiful view from Alcazaba |
Over Alcazaba, there is a castle called
“Gibralfaro”. For me it is not more beautiful than Alcazaba but the view is amazing,
you can take really good photos of the city, the sea and the beaches. There are
2 options to arrive here; you can take the bus number 35 in Alameda Principal
or if you feel with energy, you can climb the hill till the top. It is not so
easy, especially in summer at 15:00, so don’t forget a bottle of water. In the
way, you can find a viewpoint where you can see perfectly the bull arena, the
Alcazaba and the parks.
.jpg)
 |
| A perfect place to take photos |
 |
| West of Málaga |
 |
| Gibralfaro castle |
And I recommend you to eat “espetos de sardinas”
at the beach. It is a traditional food in summer and of course, Isak and I
enjoyed eating them.
 |
| Espeto de sardinas ñam ñam! |
Please leave an e-mail or comment if you have
any questions
Regards
Irene Jimenez & Isak Uzun
