And the adventure continues...

So it had been decided the night before that three from our room were going to share a cab to the bus station. The other girl and were headed to Malága on the same day so it made sense that we share a cab to the bus station. We looked up the buses and it left at 10:30 for an 3 hour bus ride. And this other lady from our room just wanted to share a cab because it was cheaper for her(and easier) than taking the bus to the station. This should have been easy, cab to bus station.

Our cab arrived at about 10am, so we theoretically had plenty of time to get to the station and get our tickets and be on our way. Well I´m inside checking out/drinking my coffee when the cab arrives. I get called outside and as it turns out the third lady had 2 suitcases, I have my rolling duffel and the other girl has a hiking backpack. The lady´s luggage is already in the back of the cab, which leaves no room for our stuff. The cab driver is upset at her for some reason so I try and smooth things out. As it turns out the three of us are not going to fit in the cab. The lady wants to wait for another one, but me and the other girl need to get to our bus. I explain this to the lady and she insists on waiting for a bigger cab. I argue with her and explain that cab´s in Europe are small, they don´t have alot of van type of cabs. I turn to the other girl and we decide to take this cab that is still waiting for us to make a decision. The lady hears that we are going to leave her and throws a huge fit! As I´m trying to explain the bus that we have to make and how waiting for another cab is probably going to make us miss the bus and the next one leaves at 4pm I turn around just in time to see the cab pulling away. I´m pretty ticked, knowing rightfully so that we just missed the bus to Malága. As I go inside to call yet another cab, the lady storms off towards the bus stop.

We catch the cab to the train station and get there at 10:35am...just in time to miss the bus. I might add that the cab driver completely ripped us off. I know for a fact that the cab was supposed to cost around 6 euros and it cost us 11! He heard us speaking English in the back and took every back road to the station, I was just plain mad by the time I realized what he had done. I tried arguing, but to no avail as he wouldn´t pop the trunk until he got his money. And So we miss the bus and the next bus is at 4:00pm. I refuse to wait around until 4:00(because that´ll put us in Malága at about 7pm) so we cross the street and head to the train station where the next train is at 1:00pm. there´s nothing we can do so we sit and have breakfast while I peruse the magazine stand. I spend my time reading my book and playing peek a boo with this adorable baby in front of me. Finally it´s time to board the train! An hour later and we arrive in Malága.

Malága, home of Antonio Banderas. Really, he´s from here. The hostel is somewhere in the center and it´s quicker to take another cab. I chat with the driver and he informs me of the theft problem that Malága has. Great...now I have to be uber uber aware of my purse. He says that major crime like murder and the like aren´t that common but that pretty girls such as myself shouldn´t be out at night by myself. Thankfully I had read something about the pickpocketing of Malága and I had decided to only stay two nights.

We finally reach the hostel at around 2:30 and I´m pleasantly surprised that the bathrooms at this place are huge!! I´m tired of tiny tiny bathrooms, with tiny showers and hand held shower massagers that make it impossible to say...shave your legs. So this was a relief that the bathrooms are huge! And it gets better, I´m in a four bed room, but I´m the only one that´s actually staying in the room. Even better. I quickly get out of my sour mood and decide to do one of two things that I wanted to do in Malága. The first is the Picasso museum(he was born in Malága) and the other is the beach. Now I had heard that the beach here wasn´t too fantastic as this is a port city, but nevertheless I have yet to see the sea on my vacation.

I go to the Picasso Museum and I´m quiet surprised that it´s not as large as I thought it would be. It´s supposedly the third largest in the world(the other two being the one in Paris and Barcelona-both that I have been to) but the actual building itself isn´t that big. It´s a fairly good collection, as most of his paintings were donated by Picasso himself and one of his daughters. I´m a bit of a Picasso fan so I liked the collection. Afterwards I head to the beach. As expected the beach wasn´t too wonderful. I think it was the cloudy overcast that gives the city a grim appearance. But it´s still an ocean(well sea) and I walk along the coast letting the waves break over my feet. I love the mountains, but the beach is like heaven to me. I collect a few shells and stones, but don´t find many. This side of the Mediterranean is more rocky than shelly. And the sand on this side is more crumbly, taupe color than white fine sand. I like it, but most American´s expect to see white, Florida type of sand so they tend to be a bit dissapointed.

It´s starting to get dark so I head back to what I think is the right street. But it´s not the right street at all and it´s growing darker so I´m starting to get a bit antsy thinking about what the cab driver said. I finally find my way back and I have to go through a darkish tunnel to get to the main plaza where my hotel is at. I´m really antsy by this point as my pepper spray is back in Austin. All I have on me is this tiny bottle of Lysol spray(you may laugh.) So I put that in my coat pocket and quickly walk through the tunnel while passing some shady characters that make comments as I go by. I ignore the comments and leave my head up as I walk, making no eye contact. I finally find my hostel and head upstairs to the terrace where dinner is being served.

I met some very nice people from all over at dinner so we hung out on the terrace and drank some wine. The cool thing about staying in hostels is that you get to meet so many different types of people. The couple across from me were from Slovakia(my first Slovakians) and the one girl was from the Czech Republic and the other guy was Swedish. Amazingly enough we had alot to talk about and had long chats about everything from politics to social welfare in our respected countries. English is spoken universally, so a language barrier it´s not a problem.(The majority of Europeans are at least bilingual) I learned that the Slovakians have mixed emotions about introducing the Euro next year and what life was like when the Iron curtain was down. Sweden has a wonderful healthcare(the entire rest of the modern world has wonderful healthcare....) We spent about three hours talking with our little group and some others that joined in later. And after a few bottles of wine(see the wine trend) I was very glad to head to bed in an empty(well almost..) room. :)