Sangria and Rooftop Patios. A match made in Heaven

This blog entry may be a bit shorter than the others, since this day was primarily a travel/beach day, and so there are less exciting things to look at pictures off. So it some of the pictures seem a bit odd... just know that I only had 43 pictures with which to choose from. I have had blog posts with more pictures than that! So bear with me as we explore the day that was our trip from Sevilla to Malaga.

So we woke up bright and early yet again. Probably around 10? I actually can't remember when the alarm went off... Probably 10, that is about when we have been leaving. Eric and Allison still had to pack. Eric had most of his clothes just sitting in a pile and it all looked very unorganized. He claimed that he could pack up in 3 minutes.

Eric with his pile of stuff. I am not sure that looking contemplative will make the bag pack quicker.


I started a timer and Eric was off. He actually got all his clothes packed in two minutes and declared himself done. I thought he meant he could pack all his stuff in three minutes, which he didn't attempt. So we will call this one a draw.

We were aiming to catch the 1 PM train to Malaga, so we wanted to leave by 11:30 or so to make sure that we made it with plenty of time to spare. The trek to the train station is pretty long, so we tried to build in a bit of insurance time. We actually leave the hotel at about 11:50... maybe 11:45, which for us is actually pretty good. The fact that we were within 15 minutes of our scheduled departure is a vast improvement.

So, we walk out into the heat of Sevilla and head to the train station. We figured that we had been pretty inefficient in how we got to our hotel so it would be a little easier. Since Eric knew the map pretty well we sent him out in the lead and headed out.

Eric leading the way through Sevilla.

The trip was long and hot and by the time we got to the train station I was yet again sweaty all over, actually a common occurrence in Sevilla. I am pretty sure that the weather hit triple digits, and when you are walking around with all your stuff... well.... that leads to sweat. For those eagle eyed readers you may have noticed that Eric is wearing the same shirt today as he was yesterday. He did this figuring that it would just get sweaty and gross again and he would just want to change it anyway, so why not just wear the same shirt. This seemed a bit controversial to me... but after getting to the train station and having my shirt be soaked... I actually thought his idea was pretty good.

We had to get tickets, which actually went pretty smoothly. The guy did not speak english, but we were sort of able to stumble through it. More specifically Eric was. I think it went something like this.

Eric: Hable engles?
Train Man: No!
E: uh... tres (holds up three fingers) sevilla to malaga
TM: MA-laga
E: si?
TM: jabbers at Eric in spanish
E: Uh....
TM: Draws a picture of a clock, point to his own watch, draws a 1 on the paper.
E: Ah! Si! 1 o'clock
TM: Grumbles in spanish and gets out tickets for us.

It is a pretty smooth operation we got going on down here, we totally have them eating... out of our hands, it is good we are leaving soon or we might own this entire country through sheer charm.

Anyway, out breakfasts had been pretty small and we were all a bit hungry from out walk and the fact that it was 12:30, so we get some lunch. Eric and I both get Spanish Omelet Baguettes and Allison gets Pasta with red sauce, which she has seemingly been craving for the entire trip.

We get our food and we stand in the station and watch as our train does not have a platform and it is soon 12:55 and we still don't have a platform. Soon the platform is flashed and we rush down to board, only to find that... there is no train! So we decide to eat lunch.

Eric and Allison with Lunch at the train station. (sans actual train)

The train soon arrives, right as Allison is finishing her pasta, which is extremely good timing. Perhaps they were watching? We file onto the train and find our seats. I am in the very last row, sitting right behind Eric and Allison, which allows me to spy on them. However, I could also easily be attacked as my seat is right by the door.

This train is not as nice as the one from Madrid to Sevilla, but it is also 60 euros cheaper, so we will live. The AC does not really work, well at least it is pretty warm on the train. But if that is our biggest complaint than we are doing fine.

Eric and I both read for a lot of the trip and Allison listened to her iPod

The exciting view of the seat in front of me.... I almost couldn't stop watching it was so exciting!

About 2:30 hours later and after stopping in several small towns. We arrived in Malaga. It was about 78 degrees and it was soooooooooooo nice after being in the furnace that was Sevilla. We were also treated to a view of some amazing hot pants. It made me thing of this video that Katie had been watching a lot. I know that mentioning this may inspire another round of video watching, but I can't help it. For those unaware of, and interested, the video can be found here!

I wonder if she is going to activate her dance floor kitty?

I had written down directions from the train station to our hotel. A vast improvement from our previous methods, which was.

Madrid: Walk around in circles trying to find it and spiral in towards it
Toledo: Know the name and the plaza it was sort of next too but nothing else
Sevilla: Walk a billion miles in the boiling sun through a sketchy stinky part of town.

By comparison our walk was easy! I got a little confused about streets and the sign for our hotel is not easy to see (At all!) In fact, if Eric and Allison hadn't of seen it I might still be walking. We walked into the building and found.... nothing, just stairs and 2 elevators... so we searched around and finally found that the hotel was on the 8th floor, so we hoped in the elevator and up we went.

We checked in and the internet seemed to be working great! So that was awesome! We walked to our room and... PATIO!!! Private PATIO! The room was awesome, The bathroom was down the hall from the two bedrooms, and we had one double bed and one room with two twins, which was prefect.

Eric and I exploring the patio.


Me on the patio.

I am not sure if you have been able to tell, but so far on the trip, every bed that we have had has been a twin bed. So even though Eric and Allison are sleeping next to each other, they are actually on different beds. In this place, they actually share a bed. So I am sure that is exciting. The adjustment to being in actually rooms is strange and for a while we just shout at each about our plans. I eventually walk over to check it out:

Hmm.. not sleeping? I thought it was a siesta.

We discuss our plans for tomorrow and due to the fact that it would be a 3 hour bus ride there and back we decide that we won't do it. At the moment, I almost wish I had gone anyway... but oh well, it's in the past. So around 6 we decide to head down to the beach, which is a bit of a walk away.

Eric putting on his liquid armor against the sun.

As we are headed out the hotel manager stops us and tells us in spanish, only so that we understand that after 8 the door downstairs is locked and that we have to hit a little button and he will let us in. And he informs us that we can do this at any hour. I guess that mean's he doesn't sleep? Or just during the day? We tell him we understand and head out.

After our walk next to the roaring traffic we find the beach. It is actually pretty empty, we walk down the beach until we find an appropriate spot and Eric and I head for the water. Eric dives right in. I am a bit slower and take my time. Not the best way according to Eric. He is probably right, but I always have problems jumping right in.

Come on Chris the water won't hurt! you can do it!
Eventually I get in and we swim around for a bit. I am not all that strong of a swimmer, but it is nice to swim. It would have been nicer if it was warmer, but it was still great, and we can now say that we have swam in the Mediterranean Sea!
A picture of the beach and some of Malaga

After we got out we showered the sand off and began to head back. It should be noted that we didn't actually have any towels. Which... was a little annoying, but we dried pretty quickly, so that was nice.

As we were walking back we saw this really ribbed guy doing handstands and flips and stuff. I am including a few pictures, since it was pretty impressive, both what he was doing and him. (just so you know, you can click to view it as a bigger picture, this works for all photos.)

Look how flexible he is!

Our final stop of the day was ice cream, which was another thing that Allison had been craving. We ate it as the watched the Sea and this little dog run around chasing birds and kids, and anything that he could find.

They wanted me to take a picture by the ice cream stand. I was confused.
On the walk back we saw another cat, well... actually 3. This one wasn't doing anything. I actually think it might have been sick. But there are a lot of stray cats here, and in Spain. I think they need a spanish Bob Barker who can remind them to spay and neuter their pets.



We headed back home, this time we walked through the park, which was a much nicer walk than by the busy road. We also saw quite a few couples making out. This was a much better place than the Italica. It seems like parks are actually a pretty common place to make out.

We get back to the hotel at about 8:35 and ring the bell. The guy lets us up and greets us and waves. I go to ask him if he knows were a supermarket is. so I stammer... tienda de comida? "Store of Food" and he seems to understand so he calls me over to his window and directs me to walk all the way down the street and at the end, there will be a supermercado, but... it closes at 9. He emphasizes this by holding up nine fingers and saying it three times. But he was super helpful and friendly, so its all good :)

We quickly head up to our room, change our shoes and head out. We make it there with 12 minutes to spare and run around getting food. They have everything that we want except for baguettes, so we end up getting a pretty nice feast and we take it back and eat it on the patio.

The day draws to a close as we finish off another thing of Sangria. Eric and Allison try to convince me to play Sangria pong tomorrow, which I finally agree too. So we will see how that goes...lol, even though I already know :)