Malaga, Spain

We’ve spent the past few days cruising around the Iberian penninsula (Spain and Portugal). Northwest Spain is called the kitchen of Spain because of the amazing food. It’s true too – you should see the seafood in this place.

We docked at Vigo for the day. I might have better enjoyed the cuisine if I hadn’t had a loud and obnoxious Spainard right next to me. I don’t know what he was yelling at the waitress, but you can bet it wasn’t clean enough for the ears of the wide-eyed kid staring at him from two tables down. Nevertheless, the haddock was great.

I’m not one for shopping much, especially not for useless souveniers. I think that the best thing that you can take from each place you visit is a taste of the local food. In every port we go to these are my usual activities:

I get off, I find the nearest tourist bus and take an overview tour of the city.

Then I quickly find a cafe for lunch (the best cafes are the ones that are a.] near the beach and b.] full of people that look like they might very well be locals. Note: locals do not take pictures of their food when it comes out.). It is important to order something you are unfamiliar with. Yesterday in Cadiz, Spain I had deep fried shrimp tortillas; the waiter said they were a local food (that undoubtably means that I will order them) – they were good, if not good for me. If you order beer, be sure to (at least at first) order just “a beer”. Don’t specify. That way they will give you the local beer – the beer everyone else drinks.

Also, and this is from my roomate: when you get a cab in Morocco, don’t ask the cab driver “Do you speak English?” because whatever the actual answer, he will reply “YES YES COME IN I TAKE YOU WHERE YOU WANT”. Instead, ask him “Does it snow often here?”. The ones that don’t speak English will look at you funny, and the ones that do will reply “YES YES COME IN I TAKE YOU WHERE YOU WANT”. I see this coming in handy someday.

After lunch, I go off to take a closer look at something historic that I saw on the earlier bus tour. Knowing me, I usually try to go find something nature-ish, like a park or beach or something like that. Cruise ships take you to cities, not nature preserves, so if you’re a nature freak you really gotta go find it.

After inspecting the historical marker to satisfaction, I then find another cafe and order coffee. (If you are in Scandinavia, you can also jump into a bookstore for coffee. Spain and Portugal don’t seem to have the plethora of English book stores like Scandinavia does.) Never order just coffee. Instead, order something much more interesting, like “Spanish Coffee” or “Cafe Latte”. Alright, fine, if you want just coffee, then order it. But down here in the Mediterranean, you’d be missing out if you didn’t try the Espresso.

Once the coffee has arrived it’s time to either journal or people watch. Reading is acceptable too, as long as the cafe isn’t extremely busy and crowded.

If I still have time, I go find the beach again and listen to music. Then I get back on the ship and get ready to play piano somewhere.

It’s a nice life.

Today we are in Malaga, Spain and I did none of the above. I laid by the pool in the back on the ship and listened to Jimmy Buffet. This is acceptable too.