Of big hair and heavy metal

Monday, May 28th

I’m going to start posting the days I write these on top because for some reason my attaché doesn’t attach to the computers at the internet café, so I can only load these up when I go to the Palacio (the building with my classes). And those computers can be extremely busy… like at times it takes an hour for one to be empty.

So about Malága. We get off the bus, and are immediately greeted by a wholly four star luxury hotel. We were greeted at the door by bellhops and waiters who took our bags and served us complimentary wine and prompted us to be seated in the reception area as they offered us green olives. The place was fantastic.

The town of Malaga, on the other hand, was a bit of a disappointment. It was not as historic as Sevilla. There was less of the frantic energy and apparently we were told wrong. Malága was a few kilometers east of the Costa del Sol – the Spanish Riviera with its infamously touristy but beautiful beaches. Malága was instead a “port” town with a dingy beach and a halfhearted boardwalk.

We met up with some “intercambios” or exchange students from the local university and they took us to lunch and showed us around. Where Sevilla is trapped somewhere around 1981, Malaga is trapped in the early 90s. The city was chalk full of Heavy Metal addicts and, to contrast, pastel wearing yuppies. In fact, I was talking to the intercambios and they told me they had dressed conservatively for us and typically they’d be sporting heavy metal t-shirts! The girl had giant 80s hair, and the guy had that long dirty look sported by my brother in 93. It was kinda amusing. They were asking me about Metallica and random 90s and 80s metal bands. I confessed I didn’t know much.



We also went to the Picasso museum there. It was fairly interesting though I’m not the biggest fan of Picasso. Most the works there were not anything to write home about.

The night, we vowed to go bar-hopping till 6 am. We made it to 5, and then I had to help carry one guy home.

The next day was absolutely incredible. We went hiking in a fantastic natural park near the tiny pueblo of Antequera. It looked almost as if it was taken from the land before time. The guia related that a vast ocean in the Triassic period had
carved out the rocks. I would describe more but I feel like the pictures will do more justice.
Hope everyone is feeling splendid, Talk to you later!



-Adam