Play[a] Time in Málaga!

A relaxing weekend on the shores of Málaga, where Pablo Picasso is from!

After two weekends in a row of intense traveling, I was in need of a rest this past weekend. So what did I do? I picked up and headed to the beach with my fellow ocean-lover roommate, Chelsea!



Roomies on the beach!

Word is the beaches in Granada aren’t the greatest, so we took an hour and a half bus ride to Málaga, a port town on the Costa del Sol coast of the Mediterranean, whose atmosphere definitely reminded me of Waikiki or some beach town in Southern California. Although Málaga is noted for its Alzacaba (Arabic for fortress), cathedral, and museums dedicated to Pablo Picasso, who was born in Málaga, Chelsea and I spent all Saturday and Sunday afternoon lazing around the beach, napping, playing frisbee, taking dunks in the Mediterranean, and even fitting some studying in. Even with an overnight reservation at a highly reputable Melting Pot Backpacker’s Hostel, which is just steps away from the beach, our relaxing weekend trip cost a mere 20 euros each!







I got up early to shoot this sunrise, so someone’s gotta enjoy it.

Meanwhile, student life in Granada is beginning to intensify a bit as examenes parciales, or midterms, are just around the corner. Academic differences here in Spain have been apparent since the first week of courses, when we discovered many professors do not require the purchase of textbooks, with the exception of literature courses. As the semester has progressed, I have also learned homework, and even attendance in class, is something most professors do not take note of. Thus, performance on the midterm and final exam are of utmost importance, because these factor heavily into final grades.

Since spring break, known as Semana Santa, or Holy Week here in Spain is also coming up, travel advice has been pretty pertinent as well. We just learned in our weekly program meeting that Morocco is currently on high terrorist alert after a teenager bombed an Internet café in Casablanca, news which made Alex and I glad we made our Moroccan trip in times of safety. I suppose what I admire most about my program director is the way he will “highly advise against” doing something, but will not directly tell us we cannot do it, a manner of advising I respect more so than others. In regards to Morocco, for example, he told us not to avoid visiting the country because it is a beautiful place worth exploring, but if we choose to do so, to be fully aware of our surroundings at all times.


Casablanca, Morocco, a place worth visiting.

Also of interest are the travel fiascos many others of my program have been experiencing as they have taken weekend trips to other countries, the latest involving two groups, one that went to Dublin and the other to Paris, this past weekend, both of which arrived back in Granada a day later than scheduled after mistakes made by their airline company, RyanAir. Although I have traveled profusely without problems since establishing a home base on Spain, I insist I have already endured my fair share of travel woes during my two week trip through Italy, during which my group endured nine travel woes, two of which resulted in us having to spend the night sleeping on benches in deserted train stations. The bottom line: you can have everything planned to a T, and will still be susceptible to unforeseeable and uncontrollable situations, especially airplanes, buses, and trains that are late or cancelled.


How we spent a majority of our Italian adventure…waiting.