Expedition "Malagueña salerosa"

It all started a few days before the actual departure.
Carol said to me ‘you know, there is a fair in Málaga every year, they say it’s really cool. Besides, I have some friends there I wanna visit. How about a road trip?’. After a (very) short period of consideration, I replied ‘why not?..’
We decided to take Lola - Carol’s brand new yellow car - because it has a lower consumption and, about three days later, we began of became known as the Expedition ‘Malagueña Salerosa (named after a song featured in the movie Kill Bill 2).
We printed the route described by Via Michelin (http://www.viamichelin.com/), and left the house at about 10h30 a.m. My mother was super surprised at Carol’s punctuality (and mine too, after all I was almost ready by the time she arrived to pick me up!).
First, we just went around the block and came back chez moi. It turns out that we didn’t know the location of the road where we were supposed to start our journey, so we had to come back to print a new Michelin guide, with a different starting point.
After that, things started going more smoothly, and we only got lost again in Seville.
The trip is about 700km, each of us drove half the way. It total, it took us about 8 hours.
When we got there, we went straight to Alvaro’s place. Alvaro is one of Carol’s friends, she met him while doing her Erasmus in Amsterdam.
He is the sweetest thing. Even though we’ve never met, he treated me like an old friend, and proved to be an adorable host, whose hospitality is beyond praise.
He’s both honest and polite, and has the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen.
As soon as we dropped our bags, we went to the fair, in the old part of town, to meet the rest of the gang.
Miguel is from Madrid. Everything about him is average, but it all adds up to make a lovely package. He is delicate and attentive, and has sophistication only attainable in the big capitals of Europe, despite showing it in a modest manner.
Jorge is larger than life. Everything about him draws attention, because of his good humour and sociability.
There were also two girls and a guy from Madrid, who were there with Miguel. They were nice, but since they are not key elements in this narrative, I will leave they’re descriptions for another time.
That night was wild and, I have to say, probably the best of the whole trip. We started by joining the malagueños in a huge and decadent boteillon (Spanish tradition of drinking liquor on the streets). Then, we went to some bars where we could dance. Somewhere along the way, Jorge found a giant straw, and started using it to steal liquor from stranger’s glasses, from a distance!

What a laugh! After we went to the beach for them to speanauntz.
When we went home we were all dead.
The next day was the same, only we went a little earlier to have some tapas for lunch. After ‘dinner’ and the midnight swim in Alvaro’s swimming pool, we went to the night fair, which has quite a different feel to it.
This one doesn’t take place in the calles, but instead has it’s own space, mainly constituted by ‘made-on-the-spot’ night clubs. There are hundreds of them! And the whole place is highly decorated with colourful lights and paper flowers.
Everyday we went to the fair, and when we weren’t there we were having a good time on some beach coffee.
It was perfect. Or it would have been, if my Spanish was a little better. As it was, there were some communication flaws, sometimes.
On the 4th day, we said goodbye to Málaga and our friends, and went back on the road.
We decided to spend a day in Granada, which is just about 130 km from Málaga, and I was told was a precious little town, and the last Moorish kingdom to fall into Spanish hands.
As soon as we found a good place to park the car (a task for Hercules, I assure you!), we went looking for a place to crash. Eventually we found a really cheap pension, which was a relic for it’s price and… let’s say ‘modest’ approach to comfort and hygiene. It was called ‘hospedaria muñoz’.
We went out for some tapas, and an evening walk around the old part of town.
The next day we were super efficient in sightseeing. We managed to see most of Granada, and still drop by the Alhambra. Unfortunately the Alhambra was fully booked, so all we could do was stroll around the premises. It’s drop-dead gorgeous, as is Granada is general!
We came back to Portugal, and spent a night in the Algarve, before coming to Lisbon, on Sunday afternoon.
Bottom-line: the expedition was a big success, and this root is highly recommended by yours truly.

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