ÇÇÇ0So this was basically Wednesday…
(ha, with a little last minute editing by Morcilla – think I’ll leave it 🙂 )
málaga wednesday
28 Wednesday Aug 2013
Category Archives: trips
málaga tuesday
27 Tuesday Aug 2013
Posted in animals & pets, food & drink, friends, Malaga, spain, tapas, travel, trips, twitter
Woke up this morning with a very cuddly Morcilla purring all over the place. I think she misses her playmates a bit and has become a bit clingy here, so I’m giving her lots of extra attention. Then while I was having coffee and having a look online I got a message from twitter pal David @IrlandesnMalaga about maybe meeting up today, something we never managed to do the last time I was here. And it was looking like we might not manage it this time as David kept suggesting early morning coffee somewhere since he is busy in the afternoons but – you know – I’m on holiday! And my lazy slow mornings are so lovely…
Finally David reorganised his schedule so we could meet at noon for a “quick beer” and a chat, which ended up stretching out for almost four hours and included a walk over to the market for some seafood at Cafe-Bar Atarazanas after we’d had some snacks at my “local” bar Los Gatos. David brought along his rescue pup Nina, who is such a sweetie. Her background is a sad one, first with an abusive owner, then spending two years at a shelter, before David took her home. And you can tell she is well-loved and happy now, lucky girl.
Anyhow, David and I were trying to figure out when we first met and turns out it was three years ago, one of the times I was here doing some work for the Málaga winery. Three years! So we had a nice time catching up and sharing all our news. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Twitter? I mean, yesterday I’d stopped in at Los Gatos for a quick beer before lunch and suddenly got a tweet from Mark & Jo saying they were in town shopping and that I should stay put – five minutes later they met me for a quick drink and visit before they had to head home to Estepa! And most of this week will also be filled with going out with friends I mostly met on Twitter. Nice.
Now I think I’ll take an evening stroll and stop for a tapita somewhere. It’s supposed to get all stormy here this week so I want to get out as much as possible while the lovely warm (but not too hot) weather holds.
What did you do today?
travelling girl
26 Monday Aug 2013
The other two (Loki and Luna) would’ve been screaming their heads off. But as you can see, little Morcilla is quite the relaxed traveller. The only thing she doesn’t like is being jostled around in her carry bag, but once we settle down and she feels comfy, well, you can see for yourself. The woman sitting next to me on the train was totally charmed by Morcilla, and others looking over at her suddenly smiled. She has that effect on everybody.
And now we are both unpacked and happily settled in our fabulous Málaga apartment. I’m just going out for a quick snack. More mañana…
packing again
24 Saturday Aug 2013
Although there are still two more sleeps until I leave for Part II of my summer holiday in Málaga, I am already thinking about packing, getting laundry done, etc. I have never been good at just picking up and going somewhere, probably because I hardly ever do this. I imagine that if I travelled regularly (as I hope to do in the future) I would have a bunch of stuff already prepared like a fully-stocked toiletry bag with cute travel-size items, and I wouldn’t take way more clothes than I actually need. Whatever.
The thing about going away for more than just overnight is that I need (yes, NEED) to take my laptop with me, and my little iPod music deck, camera, and the various cords and plugs required for those. Plus I usually slip my iPad in my bag so I can comfortably read or play scrabble on the train. And when travelling with a kitten! Well, I’ve got to bring her food and toys, as well as Morcilla in her little travel bag.
My last trip to Málaga involved an extra suitcase because I stayed the first week at my friend Manolo’s place and brought my own sheets and towels. So at least this time I will just have the one suitcase (on wheels), the laptop bag and Morcilla.
What’s your travel style? Can you just throw a few things in a suitcase or backpack and be gone at a moment’s notice? Or, like me, do you tend to over-pack and fret about having maybe left something behind?
a day in córdoba with friends
22 Thursday Aug 2013
Yesterday I spent the day in Córdoba with Twitter friends Jo @JoBW and Liam @AnFearBui, their daughter Cáit and friend Sean. I’ve “known” Jo and Liam for quite awhile and so was thrilled that I finally got a chance to meet them in person as they were holidaying in Granada and Córdoba this summer. And as is so often the case with Twitter pals, it felt just like meeting old friends.
As many of you know, I love Córdoba, so I don’t actually need much of an excuse to hop on a train (round trip ticket 21€) even if it’s just for the day. But I almost bailed when it turned out that this week we were in the middle of a crazy “orange alert” Heat Wave – not really the kind of weather you want to be out and about in. But then I reckoned that we’d probably be inside cool tapas bars most of the time, and I really really wanted to meet Jo and Liam, so off I went.
Previously I’d been in touch with the Palacio de Viana, which I’d visited last year. I wanted to know if they could arrange a tour for me and a friend (I thought Markus from veoapartment was coming but it turned out he couldn’t make it) and they were very happy to provide me with two free passes for the patios and the upstairs tour, knowing I would be writing about it both on my azahar’s Sevilla blog and also on Twitter. Then I told Jo about it and they all wanted to come too. So it was very kind of Viana to invite us all in when I showed up with four friends instead of one. We spent about two hours wandering through the patios and then taking the tour, which we quite enjoyed in spite of The Heat (those old palace rooms are not air-conditioned!). And so after that it was clearly time for a Very Cold Beer.
Years ago on my first ever visit to Córdoba I “discovered” the Plaza de la Corredera totally by accident and it turned out to be a perfect spot to stop for a pre-lunch cold beer. Since then it’s become a bit of a ritual… I cannot go to Córdoba now without a cold beer stop in the Corredera. So that is where we ended up yesterday, and afterwards we took a quick tour of the little market on one side of the square. Then it was time to find the restaurant I’d booked for lunch.
This was another accidental find and it turned out to be wonderful. A Sephardic restaurant called Casa Mazal in the old Jewish quarter. We shared huge plates of battered aubergines, chicken in spicy paprika sauce with bulgur wheat, couscous with duck confit, grilled tuna belly, falafel… all in a gorgeous setting and in great company with lots of lovely wine. And then all too soon I found myself wishing I’d booked a later train! But there was just enough time after our long “sobre mesa” to take a quick trip over to the Victoria Market, a new gourmet food court, where Sean ended up having an impromptu sherry tasting at one of the stalls. I had ordered a manzanilla for him but the barman insisted that he try some of the local “sherry” (you can’t actually call it sherry if it isn’t from a small area in Cádiz) which ended up with Sean, me and Jo trying about six different wines, all on the house (!!) while Liam and Cáit wondered where we’d gone off to. Then we all had one final drink together before it was time for me to lurch over to the train station… and I’m happy to report that I made my train with a whole five minutes to spare!
I’m still smiling thinking of all the wonderful memories we made together. And I am already looking forward to seeing my new Dublin friends again, hopefully soon as they do come to Spain quite often. Meanwhile we’ll stay in touch on Twitter and by email, but it’s extra nice now having faces and voices to put to the names. I really feel like my life got a lot richer yesterday.
casa azahar 