During the weekend of February 18-20, everyone in my entire program (that includes everyone from ISU and a couple other schools that work with our organization CEA) were supposed to go to Morocco. However, word got around that on February 20th there was going to be a giant protest in Morocco about their own government. So obviously, our program cancelled the trip. So what did we do? We went to Málaga of course, our favorite costal city...not that we have been to any other ones, on Saturday. Amanda, Allison, and I all caught an early bus to "tomar el sol," -tan. The bus tickets from Granada to Málaga are ten euros each way, so we thought that we would get our moneys worth and stay the night as well.
Side story: last time we spent the night in Málaga we stayed at a hostel for thirteen euro a night.... and, well...we did not really want to spent thirteen euro again. So we couch surfed!
CouchSurfing.org is a website that allows people to make profiles about themselves and where they live so that people traveling to that city can either- stay with them at their apartment for free, show them around the city, or go out for a cup of coffee. It is a way to meet new people from all around the world and learn about different cultures. I am not going to lie, at first when I heard about this I was thinking probably what you are..howwww creepy. But seeing as how we had been to Málaga before and knew the city pretty well.... and that my friends thought that it was a great idea, we started searching. We ended up finding two guys that lived in the center of Málaga that said that we could stay their for the night, but they could not meet up with us until 22:00.
So all day long, as soon as we got there, we went to the beach. It was a gorgeous day out! The temperature said only 22 degree Celsius= 71.6 degrees Fahrenheit, but it felt so much hotter than that! People were laying out all over the beach and people were even swimming. Honestly, it kind of frightens me that people say it will be in the hundreds before I leave if the 72 degree weather feels like it is really 85.
not a cloud in the sky :)
Then after..ohhhh, about 5 hours on the beach, we decided to get something to eat. The food in Spain is pretty bland. And by pretty bland I mean, really really bland. We all really wanted something with flavor so we decided on Mexican. We got to the restaurant and immediately ordered ourselves margaritas. we were expecting giant fishbowl-sized margs...and they ended up being equivalent to dixie cups. Also a total bummer, they did not even offer different flavors to cover up the taste of the tequila. Just regular kind...what kind of Mexican place was this?! So, then we decided to order some chips and salsa...because Mexican restaurants in Spain just do not bring you some. First of all, that was not even an option on the menu. We ended up having to order tortilla chips that come with a side of guacamole, salsa, and queso. It was 7 euro; and probably not even half the size that we would have gotten in the US. And on top of that, we were pretty sure that the salsa was marinara sauce heated up. So not worth it.
this, right here, is a 3 euro margarita.
After our "dinner," we decided to go to "superSol," a grocery store, because we still had some time before we could go meet the people that we were staying with. ..They had Cerveza for .21 cents a can!! Such a deal.
Then it was time to go meet up with them and we did in a central plaza in Málaga. Afterwards they took us to their apartment and showed us our room. I was actually thinking we literally slept on the couch but I was pretty happy when I saw that a bed was provided. Then we got ready..sat around, talked, played a couple drinking games, and then afterward we went to a bar!
the bar we went to.
I think that couch surfing was a really good experience and I am really glad the first time we did it was in a city that we already had been to. Plus after you stay with a person you get to rate them.. And the people that we stayed with did not have any negative or neutral feedback-only positive. Really happy that I did that, but I am still a little apprehensive about doing it in a different country.
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