Nerja

Thursday night (Feb. 26) a few friends and I went to the movie theater and saw “Valkiria,” which was a very good movie, although it was kind of strange to see Tom Cruise and yet hear Spanish. The popcorn was great, more salty than drowned in butter.

Friday morning (Feb. 27) Whitney and I met our friend Sara at the bus station in Granada and we all bought tickets to Nerja. Nerja is about a two hour bus ride to the Costa del Sol on the Mediterranean Sea, kind of south west from Granada. When we arrived our hostel was literally right next to the bus stop, which was very nice since we didn’t have to haul our stuff around for a while looking for it. It was also a very nice place to stay; we had a three person private room with our own bathroom, towels, tv, breakfast in the morning, and internet access in the lobby. After we checked in and dropped our stuff off we got a bus to Las Cuevas de Nerja (the caves). This year is the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the caves by five young men. The caves were really cool and huge, although we only were able to see about a third of the whole thing (that is all that is currently open to the public). In one of the center caverns is a gigantic column that actually holds the Guinness Record for largest/tallest in a cave. The next bus into town was not scheduled to arrive for over an hour by the time we were done cave exploring. It was a very pleasant day so we just decided to walk back, it took about 45 minutes. I am glad we opted for walking because we were able to stop and take pictures along the way of the town, coast, and a couple Roman Aqueducts. After our long walk back we were pretty warm and decided to hit the beach. The man at the hostel had told us it was only a 10 minute walk to the sea from where the hostel is located. Well, he described it wrong to us and the sign we needed was hidden and facing the wrong way, so our 10 minute walk to the beach took over 35 minutes. This lovely walk also happened to be along a highway were every male that drove by honked and waved at us. We finally located a beach and set out our towels and had a picnic with the food we had brought. The wind was blowing, which made the weather a little chilly, but we still at least stuck our feet in the water to say we’ve been in the Mediterranean. When it got to be a little too cold for comfort we walked back into town. I love traveling because I can take as long of a shower as I want, whereas we really have to be quick and limit water usage at home. After we all showered we walked around the town exploring and looking for the Balcón de Europa (an old fortress that is now a huge lookout point over the sea along the coast). Oh, and we finally found the correct way to the beach that did only take 10 minutes. On the way we encountered a pharmacy and I stopped in and bought my first souvenir, cough and decongestion medicine for the sinus infection I’ve been battling the last week or so. Then we kept walking and finally found the lookout point, although it was night by then and we couldn’t see anything. We ate dinner at a bar nearby and got a salad, chicken, potatoes, desert, and a drink for a very reasonable price.

Saturday morning (Feb. 28) we ate breakfast at the hostel, which was very good and free! Then we walked back down the road we took to the beach the day before to a donkey refugee we had found. We went in and we able to pet and feed the animals. There were mainly donkeys (obviously), but also a few dogs, horses, sheep, goats, roosters, pigs, and a very mean turkey. One very large pig kept chasing us, waddling as fast as it could anyway, because it knew we had food. It was so much fun, probably my favorite part of the whole trip! When we were done playing with animals we went back to the hostel and got our beach stuff again. On our (correct) way to the beach we stopped and bought drinks, bread, and fruit for lunch. The sand was a little wet because it had been raining on and off throughout the day, so we found some planks of wood to sit on and have another picnic. We spent the rest of the afternoon there searching for sea shells and just hanging out, it was very relaxing. When it started to rain more we packed up and headed out; we got back into Granada a little before dinner.