Sundays are always a good day to travel. Things are closed and there´s never anything to do anyway, so why not spend the day on the train(s)? I spent Sunday, April 6 en route from Salamanca to Málaga, with a bit of a stopover in Madrid. Apparently, the guy who issued me my ticket thought that Tuesday, May 6 would be a good day to travel from Madrid to Málaga as, in the haste of purchasing my ticket (his haste, not mine), he pushed the button for May 6 instead of April 6. Strange, considering two minutes earlier, he had issued me a ticket for April 6 from Salamanca to Madrid. The error in ticketing was only discovered when I was aboard the train en route to Málaga, and funnily enough, I was the only one who noticed it. See, in Spain, they assign you to certain seats, and so when someone came to tell me that I was sitting in her seat, I showed her my ticket (not knowing that it wasn´t for the right day) and we both saw that we had tickets for the same seat. Her boyfriend had a ticket for the seat next to her and immediately went to someone who worked on the train to ask for help (when there´s a discrepancy, go ask an adult, I guess), and in the meantime, I thought, ``hmm, this can´t be right..let´s check the date,´´ at which point, I noticed, ``holy mierda, it´s my ticket that´s wrong! They better not kick me off the train.´´ By the time the train woman came back with the boyfriend, I covered up the date and she took my ticket and said to the two confused English-speakers that it looked like they double-booked the seats again, but since it probably wasn´t going to be a full train (I asked), that we´d have to wait for the supervisor (gosh, why did that guy have to ask? Why couldn´t we just wait for it to become an issue?). In the meantime, the train departed (hooray! What were they going to do, kick me off a moving train? Well, never assume anything, I suppose...), and when the supervisor came around, he, too, said that they double-booked the seats. Then he added not to worry, that we could all stay where we were because no one was booked for those seats for the duration of the trip. Faaantastic -- crisis resolved! The weird thing about that is that before I realized the error in ticketing, my ticket passed through the hands of several ``official´´ agents -- the guy who issued me my ticket, the security agent, the woman who ripped my ticket to grant me entry onto the train platform, the train woman, and the supervisor. All these people, and no one noticed that it said 06MAY on the ticket. Had it been March, I could see that it would be easy to miss, but, uh, well, it was APR. Oh well, lucky for me.
When I arrived in Málaga, I walked the red carpet just as I left the platforms in the train station. Seriously. Apparently, it is the week of the 11th Annual Festival de Málaga -- a film festival for Spanish films that are going to come out within the next year -- and there was a red carpet laid out with movie billboards lining the walkways and whatnot. Welcome to the birthplace of Anthony Flags...I mean, Antonio Banderas. Right, we´re in Málaga, where everything sounds better in Spanish.
I soon found my way to the place I would call home for the next couple of days, and it actually did feel like home...maybe because it was my friend´s house. Remember Manolo, one of the malagueños I met in Ushuaia? He kindly offered up his one-bedroom house to me and volunteered to go live with his girlfriend for the two days I was in town. After I got settled in, Manolo, Bea (his girlfriend) and I drove to the center of town, where they showed me around a bit. We saw the Plaza de Toros (the bullring) from the outside, walked along the Paseo del Parque (one of Málaga´s only green spots), saw the Cathedral (again, from the outside), and walked along some pedestrian streets that during the day are busy with shoppers, but during the film festival were lined with camerapeople interviewing actors, regular people enjoying the good weather, etc. (The one or two actors we saw, I unfortunately didn´t recognize. So much for all those college classes of Spanish film.) We also met up with Joaquin (the famous Bingo winner from Ushuaia) and the four of us went to a café for a 7pm snack.
Monday, since my friends had to work, I took it upon myself to explore Málaga. I hopped the bus to the center of town and got out near where I had walked with Manolo and Bea on Sunday. Then, where I saw a big hill with windy walkways, I climbed it (clearly). After all, what better way to start a Monday morning than a steep climb (no stairs) in flip-flops? When I got to the top, it turned out that I made it to the Castillo de Gibralfaro, an Arab lighthouse that was built in a Phoenician castle. Walking around the grounds, I had a great view of the city made even clearer by the zoom on my camera (who said that?). Even a hang-glider wouldn´t have given me any better views than that. (And fortunately, the student discount came through for me here, too.) After I left this castle, I made my way toward the center of town, where there were some ruins of a Roman theater. One of Málaga´s most notable landmarks, the Alcazaba (which allows for closer views of the Roman theaters (but not too much closer since I stuck my camera through the fence)), was, of course, closed because it was Monday (some things are closed on Sundays; others, on Mondays. This one happened to be the only thing in Málaga that was closed on Monday.) I thus went back to the Cathedral and this time ventured inside (it was too late by the time we got there on Sunday). Not bad, but I´m not down with an entrance fee to see Mary. And then I was back meandering along the streets -- something much more to my liking. After lunch and walking the pedestrian streets a bit, the middle of the afternoon brought some heavy rains, so I hopped the bus and went back home.
At night, I hung out with Manolo and Bea again, and then Tuesday morning, it was back to the train station, with a ticket in hand for Sevilla (with the correct date -- I checked). I didn´t get to the beach in Málaga (not enough time and the weather didn´t really allow for it, anyway), but that´s ok -- I´ll get to the beach soon. In the meantime, heavy rains and winds of up to 80/90 km/hr await in Sevilla.
I hope my umbrella is strong enough!
missy
http://andsmilestogobeforeisleep.blogspot.com
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