Spain – Day 7 // Malaga

We allowed ourselves a sleep in this morning as after nearly a week of early morning and 15-20kms of walking per day we were very much deserving. We awoke as our friends began to stir after their sweet sweet boogie, and I went and gently woke Celeste. Everyone was in good spirits if not a little fragile. We tidied the mess from the night and got the coffee on for everyone. 

After a few hours of giggling Brendan and I packed up and said goodbye, going for one more gentle walk around the sneaky streets of the old town before heading back to the bus station to catch out final bus to Malaga. 

We arrived at around 4pm and made a bee-line straight for the old town and climbed the first hill we could find. As we has been told by our friends in Granada there was really not a lot to see in Malaga, is seemed to cater mainly to the beautiful people from cruise ships and other tourists on city breaks who were happy to throw money around.

Despite this, we climbed up to Castillo de Gibraltar, a hilltop fortress similar to the Alhambra in Granada. We were fortunate to find that entry was free on Sunday afternoon so we were able to have a walk around the gardens of the fortress. 

We descended and headed toward to water and walked along the esplanade which was buzzing with activity. We waked along the beach and wiggled between the large apartment buildings back to the old city. 

As the sun set we wiggled through different parts of the city admiring the plazas and churches tucked into narrows streets. We splashed out and got ourselves a beers and some tapas, sampling some of the local delicacies. Olives, Paella and Callos a la Madrilene (Tripe stew with chickpeas). All delicious. 

It was about 11pm and as we were flying early the next morning we opted to sleep at the airport. We made our way there and found a corner to kip in.

This has been a fantastic trip, not only because it was the first time Brendan and I have had a chance to travel together, and not only because of the sun and the smells that Spain has to offer but because of the people who let us into their home, who shared a little piece of their lives with us. One week was certainly not long enough to get the most out of Spain but it was certainly a good taste. Thanks for reading.

Spain – Day 6 // Granada

We woke early once again and after saying goodbye to Haijing found our way to the bus station to embark on a 5 hours journey south to Andalusia. Our destination – Granada.

Finding that the best method for finding couchsurf hosts thus far was to contact people the day of arrival, I fired off messages from the Bus and within the hour I had heard back from Celeste Mora, a 22 year old girl from olive growing country up north. 

She truely went above and beyond for us. We arrived in Granada at 2.30 and, after stuffing our face with bread and cheese we met Celeste in Plaza del Triunfo on the edge of the old town from where she whisked us away on a whirlwind tour of the city. 

We climbed through the narrow streets of El Albaicin neighbourhood, which is famous for it’s traditional white houses built on steep hillside, looking directly across to the Alhambra, an Arabic palace and fortress complex which overlooks all of Granada which was established in 889AD.

The hills of El Albaicin were so layered that once on hill was climbed and view taken in, there was another even taller vantage point from which to view this spectacular city. It was the hottest part of the day and we could really feel the work we were doing to get up these hills. It was totally worth it though. 

We climbed first to Mirador San Nicolas, below which were caves in the mountain side with people of an “alternative” way of life had taken un residence, setting up houses ranging from lovely hobbit-esque homes to more thrown together corrugated iron hovels. 

We decended somewhat to the first lever of El Albaicin and followed the hill around away from the city where we could climb up to a peak twice as high as the previous stop to get another view of the city and the Alhambra. This stop was at the foot of Abadía del Sacromonte, a monastery and seminary constructed in the 17th and 18th centuries. 

We defended the hills and headed back down to ground level, being swallowed up into the hordes of tourists enjoying the glorious Saturday evening sun. On the way Celeste explained to us the process of producing extra virgin olive, as her father has been doing that for years in her olive village called Villacarrillo.

Eventually we had taken in all that we could of the old town and found our way to sweet sweet beer which we decided we deserved. Celeste had friends from her village visiting for the night for a party time so we met up with them and went to a popular local tapas place where you paid 3 euro for a handle of beer and got two tapas dishes with the drink. What an amazing arrangement – we were well pleased. 

Celeste and her pals were kind enough to spend most of the evening catching up in English so that we could join in, and after we had eaten out full of tapas returned to Celestes house for more beer and a music exchange. We learned a lot of about divide between the north and the south, and the reasons for animosity toward Catalonia. 2am rolled around and it was time to go to the disco, with Brendan and I politely declined as we were very tired. We slept very well that night. Another amazing day which demonstrates the overwhelming potential for generosity innate in people. 

Spain – Day 5 // Madrid

After a restful night sleep at Olga and Carlos’ house we packed up our traps and said our goodbyes. We headed straight for Casa de Campo, a huge Central Park situated to the west of the city centre.

We rambled through its peaks and troughs to try and get a glimpse of the city from on high. We continued to ramble through the grassy knolls in the beaming morning sun until we reached the river and entered the rolling city.

We first ascended a hill up to the Temple of Debod, an ancient Egyptian temple originally located in northern Egypt but dismantled and relocated to Madrid in the 1970s.

We headed east toward Plaza de Espana to a groovy neighbourhood called Malasana. What I imagine was once a groovy neighbourhood now seemed gentrified so we only past through, heading towards Plaza Mayor, where we ate some lunch while enjoy thing the atmosphere of the square.

We continued east to the huge Catedral de la Almudena which we walked around and soaked in its lovely decorative roof and enjoyed the irony of a place that forbade the use of phones offering free wifi. We walked next door and admired the Royal Palace of Madrid and its adjoining park. We hopped on the metro and crossed the city to the east to El Retiro park where I had a classic snooze in the sun for an hour or so.

We walked to a delightful neighbourhood called Lavapíes, which is what Malasana would have been when it was still a local secret. The streets lacked a tourist presence and gave an impression of what it might be like to live in central Madrid, with locals scattered throughout the plazas enjoying beers and tapas in the quiet plazas and street art graced the walls of buildings. It was a very nice place to gently stroll as the sun began to set.

It was 6pm by this time so we decided to cross the river again to check in with out host for the night. Haijing is a 24 year old Spanish interior design student of chinese decent whose parents immigrated to Malaga to escape communism some 30 years ago. We caught up for some time before she insisted on cooking us dinner, however after flapping for a bit I insisted I rummage through her well stocked fridge to rustle something up – no fuss.

I prepared pasta with lovely Spanish ham and locally grown mushrooms and sent Brendan and Haijing out for bread and cucumber for salad and some beer (which Haijing insisted she pay for). On their return we sat down and enjoyed a meal together, after which we had to force her to return to her room to continue working on a project for school which she was finding us an easy excuse to not continue.

It wasn’t long before I was snoozing and we set up our camp for the night. An early night for a Friday, but these days of being up early and walking 15-20km a day are really taking it out of me. Happy days – Granada tomorrow.

Spain – Day 4 // Transit

We woke early and were treated by Fernando with a huge percolator of coffee. We ate and got our things together and went for a walk with Fernando to a wee cafe where we had more coffee. We chatted for sometime until,we eventually caught a bus out of the city to where we were to try catching a hitch to Madrid.

We had some luck with couchsurf requests sent that morning but sadly not the same luck with hitching so eventually decided to call it quits and go by bus. We caught the 3.20 to Madrid from the Zaragoza bus station and arrived by 7.30. We went and had something to eat and walked to our hosts house.

A polish girl called Olga and her Spanish boyfriend Carlos welcomed us into their house with their two dogs and we talked for hours and were given some great advice on what to see and do while visiting the city.

Olga is a yoga instructor who had been living in Spain for 10 years and Carlos was training to be a vet. They had travelled quiet a lot so we were able to exchange stories about places like India.

After a few beers I was fairly sleepy and fortunately Olga and Carlos were early risers so we all headed to bed. Good people!

Spain – Day 3 // Zaragoza

We snuck out of the friend apartment not long after we went to sleep. We backtracked to Sants stations and found our way to the edge of town. We stopped for a coffee and croissant at the end of the metro line and got on an overland train to a station further out to near our pick up point. By 9am we were kicking dust down sneaky roads on the outskirts of Barcelona, surrounded by large red rock cliffs and a sprawling industrial area.

We arrived at the services that we were to wait at. We spent the next hour thumbing car drivers and talking broken Spanish to truck drivers until eventually we were picked up by a lovely young software engineer and keyboardist from Barcelona on his way to meet a client in Zaragoza. Perfect timing.

The 250km journey was easily filled with chat about music and work, he had 2 dozen CDs on his dashboard, most of which were 1970s Yes albums, Weather Report or Jazz Standards. It was a very easy ride. As we got further from the ocean and to a higher altitude the landscape became more dry and desert like.

By 2pm we were dropped in the centre of Zaragoza and were immediately taken by its rich juxtaposing architectural styles. We walked down one of the main streets called Caesar Augustus and found a information centre which was on top of some Roman Ruins. We got a map and began to explore the central city.

The river Eblo runs through Zaragoza and on its banks in the old town sits the enormous Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar which to sneak into for a look around. We sat for some food in a sneaky alley before continuing our venture around the town.

We walked to Aljafería Palace and had a snooze on the grass for an hour or so before continuing our walking and eventually went to meet out host for the night.

We talked to Fernando about our adventures and his journeys walking the Camino trail which was very inspiring. After some hours we all went to sleep.

Spain – Day 1 & 2 // Barcelona

Hola dedicated readers. Welcome back to the blog – I’ve got another treat for your eyeholes. This is the first post of a new week long adventure undertaken by Brothers McBryde to Spain.

My adventure started by setting out once again from Huskisson street to the great John Lennon airport, where I caught an afternoon flight to Barcelona. By 7pm local time I was on the ground, the sun was gone and the air was balmy.

I hopped on the bus into the centre to a prearranged ‘vague square’ where I would meet Brendan, who had flown in earlier in the day.

The vague square came and as I stepped off the bus, in an almost seamless transition Brendan strolled along the foot path and greeted me. We were in the heart of it. Dropped on Plaça Espanya, we walked down a road to the waterfront and where we saw the moon glowing red on the horizon.

We found our way to the Arco de Triunfo de Barcelona and on to see La Sagrada Familia by night. A nice quiet time to admire the structure, which turned out smaller than I had expected – and was surprised to find it so boxed in by surrounding buildings. I had thought it would have been surrounded by an open plaza similar too that of the Eiffel Tower. But no matter.

By this time it was getting on and Brendan had been up since the wee hours of the previous morning so I booked us into a cheap hostel and we walked through the quiet neighbourhoods to our bed.

We stopped to admire Gaudi’s Casa Batlló in the cool evening air on the way.

En route, at around 10pm we noticed a woman standing on her balcony banging a pot which echoed through the streets. It was only moments later that dozens of other people all through the streets were on their balcony banging pots. We were most confused, and once at our hostel asked around as to what the meaning of this percussive expression was. No one could answer us – However after a bit of googling found that it had some sort of political nature.

We arrive in the hostel and were not far from bed. We had a brief chat to a Russian guy about NZ before turning in not long before 11pm.

We agreed to ride the UK time for the day, so woke up at 6am, got dressed, packed our bags and were walking down La Rambla by 7am. Everything was closed but we got a nice impression of the area while it was not bustling with people and tourists.

We reached the end and on the way back up slipped off to the side to explore the sneaky streets of the Gothic Quarter which was most enjoyable. We managed to avoid the €7 fee to enter the Cathedral of Barcelona. We headed back toward La Rambla and found Mercado de La Boqueria, a large public market which a diverse range of goods. We sat and had a coffee and pastry there before heading to the metro to shoot over west to the mountains.

By 9.30am we were at the base of the mountains that would take us up to the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the radio tower, which gave us a stunning 360 degree view of the city and it’s neighbours. The sun was positively beaming and we were bloody loving it.

We spent an hour again descending and weaved through the streets to go to Park Guelle, Gaudi’s park. We were disappointed at the need to pay to go into all these things, but decided that we could see the majority of the park by circumventing the perimeter, which itself was full and bizarre constructions and gardens.

We walked around some more of the hills in the area before heading back to La Sagrada Familia by day to admire all the details. Some seriously stunning crafts there. We sat under it for awhile to rest our tired legs before making on last dash up the hill beside Park Guelle to a place known mainly to locals as the Bunker.

On top of this maintain is a former anti aircraft gun post from World War Two which is one of the highest points in the middle of the city. Brendan and I sat up there for an hour and a half while the sun went down and sunk some well deserved beers with the 60 or so other people who had made the trek up the hill. A spectacular way to end the Barcelona day.

Our timing in Barcelona had coincidentally aligned with a visit by a group of pals from Liverpool – so we were happy to be invited to spend the evening with them in their rented apartment in Sants. We enjoyed an evening of food, wine and giggles and, eventually a well earned rest.