And then we were four

Sigh... well I am sitting in the hallway yet again composing this. However, this time I even have to go down a level. Interestingly, all the mac computers manage to pick the internet just fine, but mine, being a windows, seems to have difficulty. So that is a little annoying. I suppose there is nothing that can be done about it other than sit in the hallway.

phew... ok.. this is going to be an interesting blog. I can't spoil anything, but we may have gotten slightly out of hand with the cervesas tonight. (Friday Night) But it was a friday... so... that is what you are supposed to do right? I actually had some people walk by me in the hallway. That was an entirely new experience. Normally, there is no one in the hallways at this time.

Ok... So Thursday dawned bright and early and we managed to roll out of bed at around.. oh.. 11:30 or so. I had turned my AC off for the night, so my room was on the too warm side, the walkies and left theirs on...

This was an entirely new concept for us... Different rooms.. different AC units... how did we manage. Well it was strange. Like I knew that Eric was reading and Allison was sleeping, but there was a wall between us, so... maybe something else was happening. Like Eric was sleep..... oh wait, Eric doesn't sleep. (much) Maybe Eric was playing the computer and Allison was playing her DS. I JUST DON"T KNOW! I have never had separation anxiety when the people I am separated from are just a room away, but I have been with them for so long in the same room, it just felt weird to be in my own room.

So anyway.. enough about me feeling weird. We woke up and got ready and ate some fruit and we headed out. Our plan was to hit the ... Alcazaba... very related to Alcazar, onlymore wizardy, and then go to the beach in the afternoon.

This was the day that we had planned to go to Granada, and I was actually really disappointed that we weren't going. I tried to swallow my pain a little bit and just have fun, but I really would have liked to go. However, it was a 3 hour bus ride there and a 3 hour bus ride back. So I suppose that it basically would have been half a day on the bus. I still kind of wish I had gone, since I don't know when I will actually be back here.

Also, despite the walk that every day we have been in Spain has been nice and sunny and beautiful weather, today, our one primary beach day, it is cloudy. lol... oh well, at least it is kind of warm. It will be more like Oregon weather I guess. I looked up the weather and all of the country seems rain. Eric informs me that: "The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plains". In fact everytime I mention the rain, that is my response. I guess I am not sure why, but I stop mentioning the rain, perhaps that is what he was shooting for.

lol... ok, so... as I have tried to start many times, we start walking to the Alcazaba, and Eric does a very good job navigating us and we pop out right by the entrance. There is also a Roman Theater by the Alcazaba Entrance, so we decide to check that out first.

A rare Allison & Chris photo by the wall of the Alcazaba:
Eric and I pretending that we are watching a play. I imagine it is called: los tres gatos. And it is about 3 cats and their journeys. Sort of like Homeward Bound, only with 3 cats, and the journey is more exciting since they have.... uh... swords and bandoliers. yeah thats the ticket! Cats with Swords!

lol... in actuality, I really do wonder what they played here, probably typical Roman plays.

So we go to buy our tickets, and we realize that we need to get change before we can actually buy it since they don't accept cards. So we have to go trekking back to find an ATM. We finally find one and then I try to get a 50 euro bull changed, but they won't do it, so we have to buy something. We choose to buy ice cream, on the coldest day that we are in Spain... I think it may be backwards day or something.

We finally get in and it is pretty cool. The first part that we explore is the main wall and the passageways around it. Here is Eric and I in a doorway.
There are also a lot of little battlements and places that you can stand and look out over the city. Eric keeps talking about fighting orcs off the walls.... Sometimes I think he is too involved in Lord of the Rings.

Here is Eric on the walls:

We are then presented with a path, either explore the gardens or head up to the wall. We decide to explore the gardens. They are pretty cool. A lot of little plazas and great views. There are also some strange things like a weird video about the construction of a weird baby sculpture (that looks realllllllly creepy) and a lot of old pottery.

Here is Allison posing ... uh... longingly? Sadly Chubby Spiderman is not there to help her out.

Lets see what it would look like with chubby spiderman!
Hmm... looks ok? :)

Anyway, we keep exploring the garden and found a lot of little places that were kind of fun.

Eric told me I looked very photogenic in this picture.... I think he was being sarcastic. But I don't think I look bad, So I will include it.

We finally make it to the end of the wall... and we realize that we can't get to the rest of the fortress which is at the top of the hill. We are going to have to go allllll the way back down and then climb alllll the way back up. I contemplate what it would be like to just jump down from the wall since we are so close to where we need to be, but it is like a ... 15 foot fall, so I figure I better not... What I wouldn't give for one of those rope ladders batman stores in his utility belt.

We did manage to get a group phot0 taken at the end of the wall though.. Pretty good looking bunch there. You may notice that I have my swim trunks on. I am hoping it clears up so we can so lay in the sun and swim. (despite the fact that we still have no beach towels... or any towels for that matter :p) When we discover that we have to go all the way back down and then all the way back up, Eric and I both simultaneously say... "well time for the long trek" or something similar. Eric thinks we have been together too long.

So we head back down and then we climb back up and we are soon climbing up the hill... up and up and up. Well... maybe only up and up. Along the way, we stop at a look out point and check out the bull ring and the view.

This may be the only picture I get with a bull ring. I was the only one interested in the bull fighting stuff... so... we didn't do any of it. Probably for the best. I was only interested because the costumes are funny.

The bull ring by itself:

We finally get to the top and we get inside the rest of the Alcazaba.. well I guess it has a different name. Castillo De Gibralfrago? I always mess that up and I am not going to check now.... It is pretty much just a castle on top of the hill, they also have a museum.

I get my picture taken with Captain Muttonchops. He looked great!


Eric in front of a cool model of a boat. He really likes boats... well maybe just boat art. Do models count as art?
We walk around the castle and we see the object in the distance that Eric and I have been obsessing over for most of the trip in Malaga. We think that it is a rocket. But we can't really tell. And now we have access to a telescope. Sadly it was one euro. You would think that our curiosity might be enough to pay one euro to find out. But we are cheap.

So I pouted:

Eric took a picture of the rocket/whatever it is. If you figure it out... I guess tell us? It is kind of fun thinking it is a rocket, but I suppose knowing the truth might be nice.

A few more pictures of us on the walls of the Castillo:

They had these funny little round buildings that I couldnt figure out what they were for. Eric told me they were outhouses... that seems... not true to me.

They also had a cool cannon... I pretended to fire it. Although, I am wearing a backpack... so... it probably was not as cool a photo as I thought it might be.

After checking out the castillo, we head to this little stand nearby that was advertising cheap beer. Eric and I both get a mediano and we sit down to drink it. Since we haven't eaten in a while... it goes straight to our heads... so the walk down is fun. We debate...something, I can't even remember it at the moment... But soon we were at the bottom and headed to the beach.

We decide to have lunch at the beach at this little cafe. Eric gets Cuttlefish kebobs and Allison and I get hamburgers.. which... in spain mean sausage patties on a plate.... so that was fun. Cuttlefish, according to Eric tastes like clams and has the texture or... squid? or something.

Eric and his food:

We had these cool neighbors that were british and they randomly talked to us... maybe because we were speaking english. This is a picture of one of them, as well as the beach umbrellas.


This is some of the beach.

It wasn't very sunny, but Eric and I swam for a while anyway, then we saw a small fish jump out of the water, and it had a fin... so we were like.. Shark! and went in. Allison didn't want to leave, she wanted to sleep on the sand some more. So Eric and I walked down the beach and tossed rocks/skipped stones and chatted about the mysteries of life and lots of philosophical stuff.... ;)

The night was pretty mellow. Chris Bogart arrived, fresh from his 30 hour travel, and we welcomed him in. He speaks much better Spanish than us, so it is nice to have an actual translator.... although in some ways less fun. I really thought our broken spanish was working :)

We headed to bed, ready to get up... earlish to conquer Granada!