Andalucia

Barcelona is a beautiful and lively city. I had some great accommodation at the No Worries house and getting to know people was easy there as there were only 4 rooms, the price was right and the location was great. I could have easily stayed for another week, but my room was booked and I wouldn’t stay anywhere else in Barcelona. Because I was having so much fun with the other residents, I didn’t do as much sightseeing as I should have, perhaps I’ll have to go back.

More Gaudi, I couldn’t get enough.


Rooftop of Casa Mila, more glass bottles in his mosaics.


A ceiling inside a Gaudi apartment, no straight lines, the surface is rippled like wet sand.


Gaudi hung strings & chains, then inverted them to develop the form for his buildings, this is his model for Casa Mila reflected in a mirror, do you get it?


Casa Batllo


Another Spanish plaza


View of Barcelona from the Palace/Museum, Montjuic, lots of great Roman, Baroque and Renaissance art


Deal or No Deal in Spanish, this one's for you Magarey


Spain is a little cheaper than Ireland, thankfully. And warmer. My Spanish is very slowly improving, but I’m too cheap to buy a Spanish dictionary as I have two at home and one in Ireland (that I forgot), but the people of Malaga are a little more understanding than Catalanyans.

I was a little disappointed in Malaga at first, there is lots of construction going on here and it’s not as beautiful as Barcelona, but it is much friendlier. It’s the entry point to the Costa del Sol, but thankfully most of ‘those’ kind of tourists head out of town immediately. And it is the birthplace of Picasso.

I went to the Picasso museum today, it was my primary reason for coming to Malaga. It was amazing, and one of those moment I wished I had someone to share it and discuss it with. The works were donated by Picasso's grandson and dated back as early as 1896 when he was 15 years old.

In addition to the permanent exhibition, there was ‘Models and muses’ portraits, mainly of his wives and children, my favourites were the ones of Jacueline, his last wife. Seeing so many of his works in one place, with the variations in styles was absorbing, his passion, humour and daring was (I know it sounds corny) inspiring. I went out and bought a little sketch book afterwards. I would have loved to have taken some photos but no cameras allowed.

Alcazaba (Moor stronghold), Malaga


Malaga is growing on me though, I’m here for a few days at least. I met a couple of English longgrassers in my first 5 minutes in town. After the usual ‘Ned Kelly’ joke and a discussion about ‘A Town like Alice’ with the guy who thought he looked like John Mills (actually he did, and he was very theatrical as well), I was rewarded with a toothless peck on the cheek when I produced 2 euros for a morning vino. Welcome to Malaga.

Outside the bullfighting ring, Malaga (Bullfighting not so popular in Barcelona)