Beach Day in Malaga

Today (Monday), I woke up at 10. It was so nice to sleep in. After getting ready and eating breakfast, I walked to the beach (which is essentially at the bottom of the hill where they live). When I arrived, it was very misty and you could barely see much past the shore, but after a bit, the sun burnt the mist off and it got much warmer and nicer. I went for a run on the beach which felt amazing since (other than my mad dash to the bus station while trying to get to Ronda, I haven’t run this whole trip). Afterward, I was sufficiently hot enough to get into the water which was quite chilly. But, once in, it felt nice and refreshing. It’s also very easy to float in the Mediterranean because it’s so salty. It was a little weird when I got out though, because I felt really dizzy – like, I was even walking funny. I don’t know if it was motion sickness from floating on my back (yes, this is entirely possible lol), or if, while floating, I was spinning in circles without knowing it or what. But it went away after I lay down for a while and dried off.

At 2 p.m., I sat up, ate an orange and some melted dark mint chocolate (mmmm) and then made my way back. Before going inside, I went to the pool which felt awesome and swam in there for a few minutes. I practiced my handstands, but I have to say, after getting used to doing them on land, the water handstands felt kind of lame. When I got out of the pool, I felt dizzy again, but not as bad as before. I hope I’m not getting vertigo or something. That would be bad. Haha

After showering, I was packing my things when Juande got home and started making lunch for us. We ate spaghetti and little fried fish that he called “sardinitas.” (I realized later, they were fresh sardines!) He had cooked them, as far as I know, scales and all (including the head and tail). When he put the plate of them down in front of us, I just stared at it, and he was like “I’ll show you how to eat them.” And he put one on his plate and cut off the head, than sliced open the body down the middle, pulled out the spine, cut off the tail, and ate the rest (i.e. - the meat with its fried scales). Now, some of you may know I have had a serious aversion to eating fish that look like fish since I was about 13. I actually used to cry when I saw a fish I was supposed to eat that in any way resembled a fish. So, the fact that I ate 4 of these little suckers without even wincing (on the outside) utterly surprised even myself.

I always promise myself to try anything offered me and to do my best not to be rude and you know what? It really wasn’t that bad. I’ve decided I want to be known as brave, and eating sardines was just one more step toward that goal. :)

After lunch, Juande drove me to the train station and now I’m writing this from the train on the way to Madrid. I will spend one night there with Enrique again, then fly to London where I’ll spend one more night with Meera before flying home on Wednesday morning.