Houseguest
It was a quiet week in Almunecar after I had visited Granada; mostly, I read books, caught up on some work, and ate too much ice cream in between visits to the beach. Catching up on work was important, because I was getting ready for a houseguest! My friend J., from Philly, was able to get a couple of weeks off from work and decided to do some traveling with me. We were leaving for Barcelona (more on that in the next post) on July 2, so J. decided to come a few days early and hang out on my beach. It was nice to finally have someone to show off my town to, so I brought her around to my favorite haunts: the Internet café, the ice cream parlor, and the bar down the street where I watch the World Cup. I think my World Cup buddies were very excited to meet another person under the age of 65 and my German friend Johan was his regular jolly self – buying us lots and lots of wine along the way!
Because we had an early flight for Barcelona on that Friday, we decided to go up to Malaga on Thursday and stay in a hotel. To do this, it meant that J. and I had to pack on Wednesday night and call a taxi, in hopes that my Spanish would convince them to pick us up early enough in the morning to make the bus to Malaga (with luggage, a 45 minute walk didn’t seem so exciting). Well, packing turned out to be a little problematic when we managed to break the washing machine. It stopped draining and it’s a front loader, so basically, we kept pressing buttons as we slowly watched our clothes drown inside.
Eventually, the water drained and we could open the washer. And then we had to wring out all of our clothes. Several times. They were soaked! I was a little worried that my poor little drying rack was going to be overwhelmed, but somehow, we managed to get it all worked out and everything was dry enough to be packed in time. Now we just had to hope that the taxi showed up.
When I called the taxi company the night before, it was a rather interesting conversation. I haven’t had many opportunities to speak Spanish over the phone and I was definitely nervous. Somehow, I managed to request a taxi for 8:30 the next morning. And even more improbable, the taxi was actually there at 8:30 the next morning. I am not sure who was more surprised, me or the taxi driver!
So off to Malaga we went, where, after checking into our hotel, we managed to find a nice place for lunch and wandered around the Jardines Alcalde Pedro Ruiz Alonso and took some pictures. We also found a bookstore with some English language novels, so I was able to stock up now that I have read everything on my Kindle. And I found a gluten free bakery! It was the most random thing – we were walking around a shopping district near our hotel and there was a big sign: Panes Sin Gluten (Bread Without Gluten). It was a glorious moment and I got a really tasty chocolate tart out of it!
We left for Barcelona the next morning and the best part: drinking my Starbucks soy latte while I waited for the flight to take off! It was a pleasant surprise, getting to drink a Starbucks before August (the coffee shops around here aren’t bad, but they don’t sell soy milk). Little did I know that I was about to see more Starbucks in the next two weeks than I even would have imagined!
Because we had an early flight for Barcelona on that Friday, we decided to go up to Malaga on Thursday and stay in a hotel. To do this, it meant that J. and I had to pack on Wednesday night and call a taxi, in hopes that my Spanish would convince them to pick us up early enough in the morning to make the bus to Malaga (with luggage, a 45 minute walk didn’t seem so exciting). Well, packing turned out to be a little problematic when we managed to break the washing machine. It stopped draining and it’s a front loader, so basically, we kept pressing buttons as we slowly watched our clothes drown inside.
Eventually, the water drained and we could open the washer. And then we had to wring out all of our clothes. Several times. They were soaked! I was a little worried that my poor little drying rack was going to be overwhelmed, but somehow, we managed to get it all worked out and everything was dry enough to be packed in time. Now we just had to hope that the taxi showed up.
When I called the taxi company the night before, it was a rather interesting conversation. I haven’t had many opportunities to speak Spanish over the phone and I was definitely nervous. Somehow, I managed to request a taxi for 8:30 the next morning. And even more improbable, the taxi was actually there at 8:30 the next morning. I am not sure who was more surprised, me or the taxi driver!
So off to Malaga we went, where, after checking into our hotel, we managed to find a nice place for lunch and wandered around the Jardines Alcalde Pedro Ruiz Alonso and took some pictures. We also found a bookstore with some English language novels, so I was able to stock up now that I have read everything on my Kindle. And I found a gluten free bakery! It was the most random thing – we were walking around a shopping district near our hotel and there was a big sign: Panes Sin Gluten (Bread Without Gluten). It was a glorious moment and I got a really tasty chocolate tart out of it!
We left for Barcelona the next morning and the best part: drinking my Starbucks soy latte while I waited for the flight to take off! It was a pleasant surprise, getting to drink a Starbucks before August (the coffee shops around here aren’t bad, but they don’t sell soy milk). Little did I know that I was about to see more Starbucks in the next two weeks than I even would have imagined!
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