And my first hostel experience...

…was nothing but good things. We got to Malaga, which is this beach town about 2 hours away from Granada. Our cab driver was very nice as he pointed out things that we should see. He started talking about Picasso, since Malaga is Pablo Picasso’s hometown. I swear he said that he’s had dinner with Picasso in Paris, but I figured I was tripping out and attributed it to my lack of Spanish comprehension. Then my friend, Elizabeth who understands pretty well said she heard the same thing. Whatever cab driver, if you said you had dinner with Picasso, you had dinner with Picasso. We got to our hostel, The Melting Pot which was about a two minute walk to the beach. We hung out at the beach for a good three hours and I have some great tan lines to show for it. The sand on the Mediterranean coast has nothing on the beaches in San Diego, but it was nonetheless very beautiful. Kellee, Elizabeth, and I were swimming in the sea when it hit us again that, “Wow we’re in Spain swimming in the Mediterranean Sea just because we can.” It sounds silly and so obvious, but I’m always experiencing different things here that just stop and make me think…whoa I´m actually here! When we got back to the hostel, one of the guys who worked there gave us free drinks and sat and chatted with us. He told us that he loves it in Malaga because it´s all about living in the moment. He said in France and in the U.S., it´s all work work work. I love that vibe about Spain. The staff was all young people, mostly from France who were all very chill. The Melting Pot set a pretty high standard for hostels in general so I’m hoping the rest of the hostels on my Eurotrip next week can keep up.
The next day, we walked up a gajillion steps and hills to get to the top of this Muslim fortress in Malaga. It had a great view of the city, including the Plaza de Toros. Before, I thought I wanted to see a bull fight, but after seeing some on TV which was just awful, I think I´m good with just seeing the arena. After, we went to the Museo Picasso Malaga. I felt so dense because I did not understand a lot of the art pieces at all. There was this one clay pot with 3 faces painted on it. I swear it looked like 3 happy faces with little hair strands that a pre-schooler drew. Okay, maybe a first grader. I know that I probably sound ridiculously uninformed right now. No offense to Picasso because some of his pieces were amazing. We strolled around a little more and of course, got helado, then it was time to head back to Granada.

Btw…The heladerias (ice cream shops) here close after the last week in September. Sigh…que triste.