I wanted to spend my birthday someplace new (and nearby), so I decided to visit Málaga. I had always wanted to visit, and missed out on it when I visited Andalucía on my last Spain trip. At just 1.5 hrs from Granada, it was a nice and stress-free weekend trip. Lyle and I took a
Blablacar for just €6, and Julie met us there after taking the bus from Madrid. Upon arriving in Málaga, we dropped our stuff off at our hostel and then set out to explore.
Located in Andalucía and in the Málaga Province,
Málaga is the sixth largest city in Spain, and heart of the
Costa del Sol which is comprised of the towns along the coastline of the Málaga Province. Although it's a pretty big city, most of the touristic sites are located near each other (in the historic city center), and it's quite easy to walk everywhere. From the bus station to our hostel it's about 10 minutes, and then another 10 minutes to the city center.
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| Signs at the city center |
We headed to
El Pimpi (C/Granada, 62) first, one of Málaga's most famous bar/restaurants which was recommended to me by one of my co-teachers who is from Málaga.
It was a charming and famous place, as apparently a lot of Spanish film directors like to shoot scenes there. There were several pictures of Antonio Banderas on the wall who is from Málaga and frequents the place.
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| Decor at El Pimpi |
For lunch I tried some of Málaga's famous
vino dulce (sweet wine) and
pescaíto frito (fried fish). Both were good though I prefer regular wine over this one, and I'm not a huge fan of fish.
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| Vino dulce y pescaíto frito |
After lunch we headed to the
Museo Picasso Málaga, which had many works by the painter donated by his daughter-in-law and his grandson. Málaga is the birthplace of Picasso, though he left at the age of 19 and never came back. Despite Picasso being a very prominent artist, this museum was only opened in 2003. Málaga is fast developing it's cultural tourism and is the city in Andalucía with the most museums.
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| I was able to snap a picture in the first gallery before I realized that picture taking wasn't allowed. |
Next we visited the
Teatro Romano (Roman Theatre), which was built at the foot of a hill (on which the Moors would later built the Alcazaba). It's the oldest monument in Málaga and at the heart of the city center.
It's your typical Roman Theatre with a 65-metre-diameter seating area (cavea), much of which is still intact. The stage and the rest of the structure have since been destroyed, but there was a visitor center that showed what it would've looked like back in the day.
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| Sun setting and the city lighting up at dusk |
We ended the night shopping at
Primark in a nearby mall (we stocked up on some winter wear). We were supposed to go out for dinner after but it was raining quite hard so we ended up eating at none other than
100 Montaditos.
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| Today's 100 Montaditos haul |
Our hostel in Málaga was
Feel Hostels Soho Málaga. It was
a really chill hostel with a lot of good vibes, though surprisingly a lot of the people there were old. Haha.
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| The lounge |
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| The lobby |
We took it easy our first day, exploring a bit and getting acquainted with our surroundings leaving the bigger sites to see for our next day.
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