After the late night with San Juan, it was mutually agreed that we all needed a nice, relaxing day off. Everyone had different ideas about this – some of us went to the beach, some of us slept until the afternoon, and Jordan and I? We decided to make it a cultural experience and visit the traditional Arabic baths.
We were a little wary about it, as some of our friends in Morocco had commented on how it hadn’t been overly relaxing but it had left them scrubbed so clean they felt like they squeaked. However, we went in with a positive attitude and excited to let the stress slip away, as finals week was turning out to be a bit more stressful than expected.
We were not let down. The ambiance even when you just went into the dressing room was fantastic – it was quiet except for the soft sound of water, and it was nice and warm inside. We changed into our swim suits and went into the hallway where the woman who worked there stood, and she took us into the main bath room. All along the hallways were little candles in the old Arabic style, with little waterways pouring in towards the pools. She explained to us that the two small pools on either side of the entrance were the cold pools, the large main pool in the center of the main room was the room temperature pool, and the pool off to the back down a hallway was the hot pool. Next to the hot pool was a steam room full of hot stones to lay on, and up the stairs was a tea room where we could sit and have as much hot tea as we liked. The massage room was also upstairs, and she would call the two of us in when it was our turns. Until then, there was a variety of aromas sat out for us to smell and decide which would be best for our massage oil.
And these are just from the dressing room! I left my phone in a locker so that I could relax, but this is a start to how it looked like.
Left on our own, Jordan and I immediately started by choosing our scents. There were many different ones, and although I did enjoy the lavender smell, I ended up choosing the golden amber. Then, we began our little journey from pool to pool, from hot stones to the tea room. It was one of the most relaxing things I’ve done in my life – the ambiance was set perfectly, and everything was pristine. I wish I had gone earlier in the month, as I would definitely come back a lot more frequently.
Unfortunately, our hour and a half was up much faster than we thought it would. It was a great experience and I’m so glad that I took the opportunity to do it.
Thursday was Ariana and I’s day set aside for shopping. Immediately after school and lunch, we set out on our long journey to the campus of Universidad de Malaga to get some goodies from the campus store. After that little adventure, we turned on back around and headed back to Calle Larios to find some souvenir shops to get things for our friends and family. I ended up crossing off another last minute bucket list item here – I bought a package of Malagan almonds! They were amazing, unlike an almonds I’ve had in America. Although they were a bit pricey, I snatched up a couple more bags to bring home to my family for them to try, as my family is one that loves almonds and other nuts.
One last time on Calle Larios
Plaza de la Consituticion; it’s the plaza at the end of Calle Larios
After walking up and down Calle Larios one last time, we visited Plaza de la Merced to visit the quirky little olive oil shop we had discovered recently, fitting another bucket list item – find an unusual, unique shop! This place was devoted entirely to olive oil made in Spain – while there was just plain olive oil products, there was olive oil lotion, olive oil body wash, olive oil to-go packets, and olive oil soap – and that was just what I glanced at! Here, I got some olive oil for my family and for Shannon’s family, because you can’t leave Spain without a little Malagan olive oil.
It was finally time for us to come home for dinner, and so we enjoyed our nice walk home for the last time. I took a few more photos than usual, just so I could show you all how gorgeous any walk to my home was – I’m going to miss it, for sure.
This is a park/walkway on the street from Calle Larios to our main section of town
The fresh fish section of a market near our house
Yes, I’ll even miss you, weird colored block thing that’s near our house!
A group of kids play soccer every afternoon a building away here
That night, our host mom taught us how to cook tortillas. It was such a fun experience! We (Ariana, Alicia, Blanca, Pablo, and I) all hung out in the kitchen and listened to music while we pulled together our gigantic tortilla, while at the same time Ariana and I made an apple pie for them to try. I’ve got several pictures from that night! As you would expect, I was not the best helper in the kitchen – I did try awful hard with the potato slicer, but after all my struggle I did not get a lot done. In the end, our senora ended up giving me some money and just told me to go to the market and get some tinto verano, if that tells you anything about my cooking abilities! Haha
One down, one to go!
Then, it was our last day. This was the absolute worst – I did manage to snap a picture of our school, but after that I went straight home to make a beach visit. I wouldn’t be leaving Malaga without one more evening spent laying out!
The last night we went to the top of the AC hotel to see what was supposedly the best night view of Malaga there was. We were not disappointed. The view was gorgeous.
Unfortunately, I was unable to be out too late that night as my flight to France left at 6:50 AM and my taxi arrived at 4:30AM. So, I headed back to our house and said goodnight and goodbye to our host family one last time. It was so sad saying goodbye to them – without my family, I would never have had such a great experience or learned as much as I did.
Nikol and I waiting on our flight
Last ham-flavored chips 😦 😦
Last Malagan sunset 😦
Then, I was off on my flight to France!
Nos Vemos,
Kenna
*PS – I promise I’ll probably only have one or two more blog posts. I’ll try to condense it down into one for my weekend in France, but no promises as it was pretty amazing!
Where in the World is Kenna? 