18 Tuesday Dec 2012
[click to biggify]
Just came home to my Spain Holiday apartment after a fabulous day out with Justine, lots of great tapas and wine, walking and talking, a visit to the Picasso Museum, bit of shopping… and this is what I saw just before coming in. Nice innit?
17 Monday Dec 2012
So I made it! But shades of Christmas past came back to haunt me after Justine and I met up at the train station in Málaga and we went of to grab a quick taxi to the apartment. I wondered why there wasn’t the usual long queue of taxis in front waiting for passengers and then I saw The Sign. Another goddamm taxi strike! I couldn’t believe it. So we walked to a nearby bus stop and saw that it was for a bus that would take us close to the Malagueta. And then we waited. And waited. Turned out that at that very moment – lunch time of course! – there was a taxi driver demonstration going on in the centre and so the buses were being rerouted.
We finally got to the apartment over an hour later than planned – if I hadn’t overpacked (as usual) we probably could’ve walked there faster – and after dropping off our stuff we went to a near and dear spot called La Moraga for a snack of fried baby squid and their famous bulltail burger, washed down with a couple of glasses of perfectly chilled Botani. And suddenly it felt like I was home!
After lunch Justine went off to explore on her own and I stopped off at the supermarket for a few things before coming “home” to unpack and set up my little office. It feels a bit weird not staying at Manolo’s (which is just the next street over) but this place is also quite charming. Steffen from GlobalCityBreak joked that people often comment it’s like staying in an IKEA showroom, but I quite like that. Everything is bright and clean. And there’s free 4G WiFi!!! So I’m all cosy and happy that I “overpacked” because I’m listening to music on my iPad speaker dock and am comfy in my “house sweats” and slippers. This evening we’re meeting up with Fred and Arpi to try a new tapas bar. Not a bad way to start the week, especially when it was 23º on the beach this afternoon.
What are you guys doing this week?
12 Wednesday Dec 2012
Three years ago (was it really that long?) I spent a wonderful whirlwind pre-Christmas weekend in Málaga with Peter and Jessica. It almost didn’t come to pass, but thanks to my Christmas angel I got there in time and the three of us had a great time.
Last year I also got to catch the tail-end of Málaga lit up at Christmas when Peter and I popped down there for a couple of days to celebrate my birthday.
And this year I get to go again – next week! This all came to pass after doing a fun tapas tour last Friday afternoon with two friends from Chicago (Wendy & Belinda) and a solo traveller from New Zealand (Justine). Well, we all hit it off and had a great time. So much so that the three ladies met the next day to have tapas together, and then I saw Justine again before she left for Córdoba. After hearing me wax lyrical about Málaga Justine decided to put it on her list of places to visit and then I thought, hey, might be nice to have an excuse to pop down there again. But I didn’t want to wear out my welcome at Manolo’s place as I’m really hoping to be able to stay there for an extended holiday this spring.
So I asked a holiday rental site I’ve been in touch with over the years if they might have a place available for a couple of nights in exchange for an article and some social media lurve… and they did! I was hoping for a place in the centre of town, in order to have a different Málaga experience, but ended up with a beachfront place just up the road from Manolo’s. What the heck. It’ll still be Christmas in Málaga!
20 Thursday Sep 2012
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The original plan had been to stay in Málaga two nights and return on Thursday. But then I found out that long time Twitter friends Fred @fredshively and Arpi @Andalucinda were actually going to be moving to town that day, so I made arrangements to stay one more night in order to finally meet them in person. But Peter still had to get back to teach a class and then take out a tapas tour, so we spent his last morning here going out to the Automotive Museum. Seriously. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I’m not exactly an old car buff, but it had come highly recommended by several people so off we went. And what fun it was! I especially liked the hat collection. After that we picked up his bag at the apartment and went out for a last drink together before he caught the train back to Sevilla.
By then it was lunchtime and I wasn’t sure what to do as I don’t especially enjoy eating on my own, and I wasn’t sure where to go. So I took a wander around the centre and, after spotting a couple of likely candidates, I finally settled on one called Souvi Tapería because it just had a nice feel to it. And what a good choice that turned out to be. The food was amazing (that tapa in the collage is warm potato & truffle coulante filled with foie, served with boletus icecream) and it turned out that my waiter was not only from Sevilla but also from my barrio! When he found out about my tapas blog he said he’d introduce me to the chef & owner. I also ended up meeting the chef’s mother who was sitting at the bar and we had a great chat about Málaga, and swapped contact info. So it wasn’t a lonley lunch after all.
Then I came home to catch up on emails and do a bit of work and before long it was time to meet up with Fred and Arpi (Arpi is a writer and Fred takes fabulous photos). I really appreciated them coming out at all after spending the whole day moving here from the Alpujarras. And I really really appreciated that, when our first restaurant choice turned out to be a dud, Arpi let us drag her down the street to a cool little tapas bar “for one more” as that ended up being another delightful “discovery” for me. Anyhow, it was great meeting them after knowing them on Twitter for so long, and now I have two more lovely reasons to visit Málaga.
So it ended up being quite a wonderful Thursday. How was yours?
19 Wednesday Sep 2012
Posted in 20th anniversary, Malaga, tapas, travel, trips
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Walking back from lunch this afternoon I saw this…
Been having a great time in Málaga, but it suddenly seems too short, that there is too much I want to see and do in too little time. I am already thinking of another time I might be able to come back for a whole week and spend at least some of that time doing nothing at all. It would be great to just spend a couple of days hanging out in the apartment, walking on the beach, and making snacky meals at home. But I am very happy and grateful for these few days this week. If you want to see what I’ve been up to there are photo tweets up on both @azaharSevilla and @SevillaTapas.
What have you guys been up to?
casa azahar 