I completely loved this hostel. It was the first one I ever stayed in, but for the 3 days we were there it felt like home. My best friend and I let them know that we had never eaten paella before, so they threw a party on the terrace the next night and let us help make it. The whole stay was surreal and unforgettable. The reason I gave it lower marks on things like safety and loudness is because the whole hostel has a very open atmosphere to it, none of the whole, show your pass and then come in, kind of thing. Also, our lock box didn't work properly. Not to say that because of these things we didn't feel safe, because we did. If you're open minded and on the younger side, stay here. The people were awesome, and I still talk to some of them 2 yrs after my trip.

If you're travelling by car across Andalucia, you may want to consider avoiding crowded Malaga beach hotels and head for a piece of calm instead. 20-25 min on the picturesque road to the north will bring you into the middle of Montes de Malaga natural park where the hotel is situated - with no other traces of human race's presence in sight. Please note that the last couple of km of the road to this hotel is the gravel one but it makes no problem to cover it even if you drive a supermini. Think about having a quick stopover on the windy local road (after you quit the motorway from Malaga) at one of the 100% non-tourist cafes on the pass to enjoy splendid vista and simple but delicious local food. Rooms decorated with traditional southern-Spanish materials aren't very big but simple and comfortable. There's is a convenient picnic place right in front of the hotel but it may be crowded on weekends when Malaga residents come here to enjoy scenic surroundings. I'm sure they're doing the right thing - so I suppose you neither won't regret if you there just for having a picnic, a walk or an intensive MTB ride across local hills (the natural park's altitude is of 1031 m above sea level).

Today is our first full day at the Picasso's Backpackers hostel in Malaga. It's 830 at night rightnow and its probably around 90 degrees with the sun still out. Tonight we plan on heading out to see the flamenco dancers and get something to eat. We already went to the beach today then toured around town. I think what really gets to me about this place is all of its intricacies. Mostly everything you look at is detailed to the point that it probably, or at least seems to, have some great story behind it. The people here are just as entertaining and visually interesting as the scenery that surrounds them. You never know what language they might speak or what country they might be from. I love the hostels even more for that reason alone. (Well, and the showers.) Alej is the bartender from Argentina who drinks matte and apparently makes a mean paella. I'll find out tomorrow. Tom is a fluent spanish speaking Englishmen who's sweet and looks almost 12. Momo is Algerian and speaks around 5 languages. Remi is the French one, really nice and kind of quiet. Everyone around is so temporarily here, it seems like we're all just trying to soak up eachothers stories like a sponge before theyre gone. I'm sitting on our little balcony right now, listening to some Spanish techno, watching all of the locals smoke and charlar. No matter what happens in my life after this vacation, when something goes wrong this is the place I'll wish I were instead, on this tiny little balcony, a sunburn, and my journal. Valle.

    It's been about 24 hours now since we first left to head to the airport. So far we have flown for 4 hour 4 min to Chicago O'hare. There we got some Chinese food and almost missed our boarding to London. The fight to London was really nice, but kind of long. ( 7 hrs or so) I couldn't really fall asleep, everytime I tried the turbulence woke me up. It was definitely the best flight so far, though the giant lightening storm we saw from the window over Detroit/Canada was incredible. Non-stop. Now after racing to get to Gatwick from Heathrow and spending hours waiting to board Easyjet, we're finally on our way to Espana! Berns is passed out and all the little kids on the plane won't stop crying. Honestly thought, despite all that, and only about 4 total hours of sporatic sleep, I'm indescribably excited to see whats ahead.

Just decided to do something different for a change this summer. Since I have been working as a languagetravelteacher the last 5 years, it was about time I was the student:) Decided to go to Malaga, Spain all by myself- and never regretted that!

Arriving, one of the teachers picked me and another student up on the airport, showed us the city and took us to the appartment. Our place were right next to Plaze de la Merched, which is the pub/ resturant area. Nice place, and right  next to everything.

School were on weekdays from 10- 13.40. Since we were only 3 total beginners, we stayed only 3 in our class for the weeks I was there. Almost felt like private tutoring, and our teacher was really good, so picked up a great deal of spanish esp grammars and writing. Actually, in the school, they can not have more then 8 students in a class, and there is only room for about 50 students- which makes it even nices- and it is not too crowded!

On Fridays after noons, we also had cultural classes. They were realy interesting; literature, music and spanish custums.

The rest of the days we spend at the beach or shopping, getting ready for the activity of the night. The school had 3-5 suggestions on what to do every day, something was always happening. The school parties were twice a week, eating tapas and drinkijng, or just drinking.  The teachers came along, and of course, expected you to try out your spanish. Great fun:)

We also had excursions to museums, (la casa invisible, picasso museum----) At the picasso museum we actually had an art class at nighttime. The school offered excursions to Marocco, Sevilla, Grenada... But since I just stayed for 3,5 weeks, I ended up going for a day to Sevilla with some friends from school instead.

Sevilla was different then Malaga. Malaga is this intimit (though- has half a million ppl), autentic, easy to get around, and you don't walk into tourists a lot( for some reason, don't know why- Malaga has beautiful beaches, a nice population, good resturants, good partying and shopping!!). Sevilla is touristy, very cultural, nice, NOT like Malaga at all. At least I got to see the bullfighting arena there, which is whe worlds oldest, and the cathedral - it actually cost  7,50 Euros to go in-my God- I would not pay that much to go in to a cathedral!! But I think Sevilla basically is more expensive than Malaga. And of course- I love Malaga because of its autencity!

The resturants and pubs in Malaga were great! Mondays ( well, any night- we feel in love with the place) at ZZ PUB where there were live music, songs from the 70's, 80's and 90's: good fun. Fraggle Rock and Indiana were also some of the good ones. Going to the local resturant, which was basically in the first floor of our building, we got free champagne whenever we came in, the Elvis bar, the tapas bars- ALL great. Going to the patio in the middle of Plaza de la merched to have a liter of mohitos for 8 euros... It goes on and on...

Wnt back in Febr/ March- another wonderful frip. Met the same teachers, hung out with them and Vinter_ (Stine) and other friends from school. Was there for semana Santa- and the school acutally booked us an apartment in Calle Larios- and we could actually see the parades from out window.  Great- but hard to get to out place- since the streets were packed.

I even think I had a better time then last summer- mainly because I know people and the city, so we were occupied all the time. A lot of partying.... Fraggle Rock in still one of my favourites, but also the tapas- places, the Irish pubs... Everything. Can't wait to go back to study a third time- in the end of June, and will be there for another 5 weeks.... Excited!! Can't wait! If you are there at the same time- let me know and we'll meet up!

Eenmaal op Schiphol moesten we naar een andere terminal voor Transavia vanwege een verbouwing. Ik had gisteren via internet al ingecheckt dus hoefden we alleen maar onze bagage te laten labelen en af te geven. Daarna weer terug naar de oorsponkelijke terminal van Transavia want alleen daar mochten we door de douane. Dit was ook al gauw gebeurd waarna we langzaamaan richting de juiste gate liepen. Vlakbij gate C18 (hier zouden we op het vliegtuig stappen) was een tentje waar we even wat koffie en thee dronken. Na nog een laatste sanitaire stop gingen we dan echt richting de gate  en keurig op tijd werd er begonnen met instappen.

Nog mooier op tijd was de vertrektijd want om 16.30 uur werd er getaxied richting Polderbaan waarna we al vrij snel de lucht ingingen. We vlogen in een Boeing 737-800 en de vlucht duurde ongeveer 2 uur en 40 minuten. De hele reis hadden we helder weer en konden we de grond zien. Onderweg werd de film Bridget Jones deel 2 gedraaid, maar ik viel een paar keer in slaap dus heb niet alles meegekregen van die film.

The fraggle rock is situated in the city center of Malaga, in Calle Comedia, inbetween Calle Larios and Plaza de la Merced. It is a place that is packed every night of the week, and where my friends and I like to hang out when partying. It is a pub/ danceplace- the dj is good and plays whatever music you would like. Also- if you get the cupons outside- you get two beer or two drinks for the price of one until about 2 o'clock- not bad:)Entrance is free- which is great as well! I will definitively be going back to party there in July:)

The best thing about this hotel is definitely it's location. Its near the sightseeing places as well as the shopping. If one stands with ones back to the hotel then turning right will lead them to the Larios street , famous for its swanky shops & cozy cafes, and if one takes the left then they will reach the bus stop from where they could catch the hop on-hop off city tour bus. We were three people so had booked a triple room which by European standards was pretty spacious and comfortable enough. The bathroom had a tub which was a welcome change from the shower stalls and there were always fresh towels available. The staff was helpful and efficient. When we complained about our air-conditioning they sent the repairman up to our room before we could hang up...okay slight exaggeration here but it was pretty darn quick :).

6th day , Fuengirola  and there is torrential rain , i will not come here in february again , previously i have been here december or january and thought feb weather  would be better , we have not had  a single nice weather day . No matter , one has to make the most of things we went to cafe california 7 for brekka  and got 2 x veggie breakfast , 2 x mug of coffee  for Euro 22, and read the papers , which cost about Euro 2.2  i think that is about 4 x uk price.There are very few people brave enough  to come out this morning , i went back to our apartment and my colleague went to see to the car ,he was away ages (with his golf umbrella) and he returned  drenched , looking as though he had been wading in the sea up to his waist , i smile to myself  :-) .

Bogarts´cafe , with humphrey himself eyeing passers by ..good for pizzas

The roads are awash and passing cars throw up a spray like a speed boat would , i dont care , i keep smiling at the thought of my golf pal cursing about the rain , it is also still windy , i have seen umbrellas blown inside out . 

Many of the sidewalks here  are a kind of marble tile and pretty slippery in the wet .

We drive to Malaga on the E15/AP7  road  and do not really look around the place , it is a port , the port area seems a bit bleak and withy some building work going on , many of the central area roads are pretty narrow  and with difficulty we find an underground carpark  which charges us Euro 5.4  for about 3 hours .

The trip back at about 17:30 is  thru rush-hour and most cars are going the opposite way , part of the journey is like literally driving thru low clouds.

We are packing up and leaving in the morning , have to return the car at the airport before we checkin .

If you're in Malaga and you like wine and tapas, be sure to go to Bodega El Pimpi. It's a nice typical Spanish winebar, famous in the area and right in the center of Malaga. The prices are very reasonable and the wine is great. If you are hungry, order some tapas...they are great! I believe we tried out most of the tapas and there wasn't one we didn't like :). The decoration consist of images of Malaga's féria, bullfighting and a lot of wine barrels. The wine barrels are signed by famous people such as Paloma Picasso and many other famous Spanish artists. The bar stays open until 2.30 in the morning. I had a great time in El Pimpi.

We left early for the airport and returned the car to eurorental and had expected some delays with them because when collecting it we did not have a 'voucher' and had to pay again , we hoped to reverse this and get a refund but that will have to be taken up later .

We were therefore ready at the airport earlier than expected  and checked in at about 10:00 for a 12:25 flight Thomsonfly  to gatwick airport uk .there  was a short thundertorm whilst we waited .The flight was delayed until 13:40 and it actually took off at about 13:50  and it was a 2hr 20 min flight .We only found out during the flight that there has been delays (fog ??) at gatwick , which had made our flight late .

the entire trip cost  about £520 ..that is airport carparking , flight, car rental , fuel ,apartment , golf and all food and drink .I didnt buy any momentos .

This has been my first blog , it needs rearranging and some of the pics are out of sequence (the pic rearrange tool  donna worka on this pc).

that can be done later .

blog end ..i will do a little review of Mijas  in a few days .

This is about the only thing of historic cultural value in the city (besides the catedral y El Museo de Picasso). I would highly recommend visiting this site before you leave. The best deal is to purchase the joint ticket for the castillo y almaza. There are machines there or someone to help you at the window. Although the walk up the mountain to the castillo is a bit intimidating, DO IT! It is not as long as it looks and you are there before you know it. Besides, there are many places to stop and rest- you'll want to look at the view anyway as it changes with the altitude. (Stop and look at the same views on the way down, it is amazing how different you feel after being at the top). Leave yourself a couple of hours for the whole deal. My friend and I went in midafternoon and the sun was beautiful on the sea. It would be very nice for sunset as well, although I believe it closes at 6. We climbed to the castillo first and then afterwards visited the almeza. The whole thing is pretty spectacular and you will get great photos to take home and show to friends.

We reden door Malaga om naar Rhonda te komen, vanaf Malaga reden we naar Marbella.

5:00
My bus ride is almost over, I just saw a sign saying it's 93 miles to Malaga. So before I finish yesterday I should fill in the last hours of Friday into Saturday morning.
I woke up at 9 on Saturday. I was tired, but the night before the front desk had asked that I change rooms for my last night and i had to have my stuff ready by 11. I also had to meet Valerie at 11:30 at the Puerta del Sol, so I went and ate my breakfast. After my cafe con leche and croissant (original right?) I headed upstairs to move my things. I'd like to thank the front desk for only making me lug my heavy bag next door. It was also helpful to have all my things packed a day early as I did not have very much time yesterday at the hostel.
I headed to the Puerta del Sol early. I thought I could sit and read my book, but there were no seats. And man what a difference a weekend makes in, especially in the off season. I had been to Sol on Wednesday and it was empty and a nice place to walk around. Yesterday it was a mass of people trying to fight against each other to reach the statues or the many side streets that come off the plaza area. The transformation was amazing. At least on Saturday I did not stick out when I pulled out my camera to take pictures of random things as I did all the other days.
Valerie came at 11:30 as planned. We caught up as we walked towards La Plaza Mayor. The plaza was cool (definitely more impressive than what I thought it was my first day there), but there wasn't much to see. We walked off down one of the streets leading out of the plaza. We stopped to have some food and a coffee (I had fresh squeezed orange juice).
Neither of us really had a plan of what we wanted to do. I wanted to see the Palacio Real (The Royal Palace) and the Reina Sofia was free that night, so I was hoping to get there anytime after 2:30. After our little mid-morning snack we wandered off in search of adventure. We ended up in Plaza de Toledo and saw a band playing outside a mall. Then we meandered down toward a cathedral we saw. There was no way to get inside, and what looked like a pretty garden turned out to be a work in progress. We walked around the back of the church to try and find another way in, but found ourselves in a sad little dried up park with grafitti littering the walls that enclosed it. There were a few people who appeared to be living in a little treed in area and some kids on a playground. We made our way out of the ghetto and walked back up to the main street.
Before I finish our day I would like to take a moment to share some of the observations I made about Madrid. As a city it is very old and beautiful, however graffiti is everywhere and people drop cigarette butts and dogs poop all over the sidewalks. The city hires street sweepers to help control this problem, but in the less touristic areas the sidewalks are littered with trash. I commend New York on the job they have done keeping graffiti out, since it really does ruin the beauty of the city. Also, the Spanish don't eat vegetables...or drink water. Ok, I'm sure some do, but I haven't seen many.
Back to the story. After the disappointing Cathedral, there was another even more beautiful church which was open to the public. At about this time my camera battery died and I was glad that Valerie was there so there was someone to document the rest of the day. (And for you mom, we took some pictures of one another and both of us together so you will get to see my smiling face.) We looked at teh cathedral, which was huge and quite pretty and then moved on to El Palacio Real which was next door. It was 8 euro to get in, and not worth it for that price. I forgot to have my student card with me because it would have been 3. The palace was nice, but it wasn't anything too special. I did enjoy the Pharmacy with old bottles that were labeled for different medicines, many of them still containing their namesake.
Now, at this time we were starving. It was about 2 or 3 in the afternoon and we decided to try and find food. We walked through La Plaza Espana and looked at cafeterias in the area. They were all pretty expensive, so we decided to walk back toward my hostel. Here's where we get lost. I can't even remember where we got to, but it was not where we wanted to be. We tried to find our way on a map and both agreed on a direction to walk. It was the wrong one, so finally we hopped on the metro and rode back up to sol to see if the vegetarian place (Valerie is a vegetarian) was open. No luck. I thought I knew how to get back to my hostel from there, but I was completely turned around and we ended up back very far away. Finally we found a place to eat. We sat downstairs to avoid as much smoke as possible and ate a sicilian veggie pizza. YUM!
After luch we were recharged. We tried again to get to the hostel, but ended up getting more lost. We did end up near La Sofie Reina so we decided to go in. We looked at the paintings, which were a lot cooler than El Prado. The museum holds many Dali and Picasso paintings, including The Guernica. It was huge, and I could have stared at it for hours trying to decide what went on in Picasso's mind. It was coold because they also had a series of photographs documenting the progression of the painting. It was like playing "What's different in the pictures" with a real work of art.
We left the museum soon after viewing The Guenica. We were both tired and needed to sit for a while. We went back to the hostel and I charged up my computer for the bus trip today. We shared a large sangria and got recommendations for tapas places from Renee, the woman who took me to the Flamenco show. We went to a place called La Lacon, which provided free tapas with every drink. We each had one drink and an order of mussels with a pico de gallo type topping. Valerie ordered a tortilla (something like a quishe made of potato and cheese) and we shared that. After we wandered around a little looking for another place, but none of them were as good a deal as La Lacon. I had to go to the bathrrom and we saw a hotel a little up the street so we walked toward it. On the way there was a casino so I decided to see if they had a bathroom. The bathroom had a key and the man said that I would have to wait for it. I decided to put a nickel in the slot machine so I didn't just look like a bum off the street. I didn't win anything, but I did get the bathroom key and that was a good enough prize. After the bathroom we got lost again and decided to look for dessert. We found a chocolateria and each got an order of churros con chocolate. Churros are tasty fried sticks of dough (which are baked in a large spiral and cute up into long sticks. The chocolate was so rich. We thought it would be something like hot chocolate, but it was more like a melted candy bar. You dip the churro in the chocolate and it has a heavenly taste. When the table next to us got up to leave we stole their left over sticks because we both had chocolate left in our bowls. YUM!
After churros we walked back to the Sol metro station and parted ways. I went back to the hostel and went downstairs to use the computer to double check bus schedules and see who was around. It was very crowded and I didn't recognize anyone so I left. The vibe of the whoe hostel was very different last night. Less like a community and more like a club as people were leaving or went out, and outside patrons visited the bar.
I was sad to leave this morning, but it is a beautiful day and a nice bus ride through the country. The mountains are a little scary when the bus takes the turns ,but they make for a beautiful skyline and the quaint little houses and the large spread of trees and farms is beautiful. We stopped about an hour ago to get food and go to the bathroom and soon my ride will be over and it is on to the next adventure, finding my way from the station to the apartment.

6:30
So I'm in Malaga. This city is absolutely ugly. I thought it would only be in the more commercial area near the bus, but it seems to be just as ugly here. However, maybe I will find it charming in the end. The girl in my room, who's name escapes me now, has managed to last one and a half months here. She is from Japan and speaks very good Spanish. It is good because then I will be forced to stop speaking in English. It worries me that she has other friends here and I don't know if we will be able to become friends, but I will not let that deter me from trying.
There are very many beautiful buildings around here for such an ugly town. When I got in I tried to figure out the bus to my part of town, but it was too confusing and I gave in to a taxi. The taxi driver took a minute to find the right number, but the people there knew what I wanted so I didn't have to struggle through words I didn't know in Spanish. A man helped me with directions and they were very good so I was able to find the place no problem, however it took forever to get in. Finally, my roomate helped me out. She just went out with a friend, but I'm glad that I get a little time to myself. I thought I would have a lot in Madrid and I had barely any. Anyway I severely need a shower.