Category: Spain

Days 236-240, Monday-Friday 27-31 August 2012 – Alcaucin

Another fairly standard and non-eventful week, just how I like them!

On Monday I started painting the downstairs of No 20, balustrades – if I never see another one it will not be too soon, this lot took me three days to paint. It is fine until the sun hits about 10:00 and then it is hot work – and very dry.

The sun is rising later in the day now so working 7:30 – 2:30 after that it is just too hot to work directly in the sun, even sitting or kneeling down.

Tuesday night there was an excellent sunset, the first really colourful sunset I have seen here, I sat on the deck with a glass of vino tinto and watched it all unfold, lovely.

Thursday night the sunset was even better !!

Friday I was back working at the original house I was painting, the house has now been vacated and I will get as much as I can completed before I go. Instead of painting balustrades today I washed them – ready for painting on Monday and Tuesday – oh joy : ) It was quite cloudy today and I was hoping for some rain, which never eventuated, but it was gloriously cool for most of the day. Ian has gone away so I am dog-sitting again for the weekend.

I did get some good news this week, my Uncle Jim has said I can come and stay at his place in Dartford, which is on the outskirts of London and only a short train ride away. Jim lives by himself in my late nana’s house and I have fond memories of it from when I was a child. It was here that I learnt that one should not pick up a cactus.

 

 

 

Days 233-235, Friday-Sunday, 24-26 August 2012, Alcaucin.

Friday was work day ! The sun is starting to rise a lot later now so being on the job at 7:00 am is just not much use anymore. I had a quick garden watering job to do before heading over to number 20 to start prep for the paint job next week- house needed a good wash and scrub down first.

I spent almost four hours scrubbing down the top half of the house before stopping, very hot today and I had used up all the shaded parts, plus my head wasn’t in it. Too much on my mind, thinking about the next few weeks, no job , no home and no idea where there home could be means I am feeling a bit misplaced at the moment. It all hinges on the job, get a job, find an apartment nearby and hopefully make some friends – things will be sweet 🙂

I spent the rest of the day reading and looking at jobs and flats on the internet before making myself a not too bad chicken risotto for dinner – and finishing season 3 of The Wire 🙂

I had the crappest sleep ever Friday night, hottest night in Alcaucin and head full and spinning, I think I finally must have dropped off at 5:00. I woke at 7:00 which was a pain as I wanted to be out on the road by 7:30 and i still had to eat and walk the dogs. Finally at 7:50 I made it out on the road for a hoped for five hour run. It was humid and there was a hot wind blowing straight down the road off the hills – my calves were sore and my back stiff – not a perfect start!

My plan was just to run the road I ran a couple of weeks back, but just to keep on going down into the next valley and turn around after around two half hours. I surprised myself by running the first section to the top carpark reasonably well, I thought I was very slow but did it five minutes faster than normal! Up one of the side valleys the wind was whipping the sand and dirt up so badly I had to run with my eyes closed and my bandana over my nose and mouth. sadly my running sun glasses are in my storage unit in NZ. The wind and dust clouds were a feature throughout the run unfortunately.

At two hours fifteen of mostly continuous running (by running I mean jogging at a pace that was probably slower than a Zimmerframe oldie walks) i ended up in the valley on other side of the ridge. There were a lot of loose dogs around the farm houses so I ended up turning round and heading back up the hill again.

The views on this side were not spectacular, but the road was steep in places and I walked some of the uphills on the return.

The run back took about two and half hours, giving me a total of 4:45 on my feet, just under what I wanted and I was tempted to take a side trail for a bit, but in all honesty I was buggered, so stopped !

I had a quick shower and jumped into the pool to cool down, but got sick of Muttleys yapping at me so ended up cutting it short. I was pretty wrecked, so the afternoon was quiet – though I did spend a crap load of money and booked my flight to the UK on Sunday Sep 09 !! I also spent I some serious time researching possible Africa tours if I do not get work within a reasonable time. I have found a company I like – with a space on a tour….

Sunday – hmm, not a lot happened really, washed the rest of number 20, drank beer, ate food, wrote blog
posts.

 

 

 

Days 230-232, Tuesday-Thursday 21-23 August 2012 – Malaga

No – I didn’t hit the beers, but “Malaga, rose, rose” – just doesn’t have the same ring.

I was up early, said farewell to Ian and down at the bus stop ten minute before the bus was due,. Naturally it was late – maybe it was going to fly : )

In an unusual step I was not taking my pack, just a small case – not sure if this is a subconscious reflection on my desire to settle down for a bit and not carry the pack around with me.

The bus ride was quick, as there was not too many passengers heading all the way to Malaga the three of us who were ended up in a mini-van at Velez-Malaga and blasted the motorway into town, arriving twenty minutes early. I grabbed a cab to the Don Curro hotel and then went off and chilled in a cafe over my book and a coffee until my room was ready. I spent the afternoon in the Picasso museum and the museum of contemporary art as well as wondering the streets between. I had a massive salad and a few roses for lunch.

Rreligious objects for sale next to Santa Anna

The Picasso museum was excellent, I think I liked it better than the main one in Barcelona, and I managed to sneak a couple of shots too 🙂

The museum of contemporary arts, has been compared to the Tate Modern, which is a bit rich really, not a lot there I liked – a Warhol of course !

I also managed to pick up a power supply for my laptop so spent some quality time watching season three of The Wire before heading out for a light dinner and a couple of vodka tonics.

Wednesday was really foggy, very surprising. Breakfast in the hotel wasn’t served until 8:30 so there was no point in rushing out of bed. I managed to consume a fair amount of very average breakfast before setting out around 10:00 for a trip to the Alcazaba de Malaga and the Castilleo de Gibralfaro.

The Alcazaba starts in the centre of town and meanders up the hill towards the Castle, at this point in time they are not linked internally so getting to the top of the Alcazaba still means a walk back down. The core of the Alcazaba dates back to the 11th century when the Moors (Morocco) ruled southern Spain until the 15th century when the Spanish took over. The site has been extensively renovated with work continuing today. Large areas are closed off to the public.

There was not a lot of detail to see, I liked the water fountains as usual and I really loved these channels that run water from the top down to the bottom, via all sorts of fountains and small water falls – a very cool piece of engineering.

There was no view !!! over the harbour.

back over the city.

Up to the Castillo

From Alcazaba I took the gruelling walk up the hill to the Castillo, I was glad of the fog, at least I was not walking in the baking sun, it was bad enough as it was !

Kim – we all heart pie !

The Castillo was started in the 14the century to protect the Alcazaba palace below, again it has been extensively renovated and made safe for tourists to walk the ramparts – and again no view, it would be stunning on a clear day!

Looking down over the Alcazaba.

I enjoyed my couple of hours wandering the two sights, enjoying seeing some old stuff again!

After the tour I walked the streets in search of pizza and a few roses, I found both and had a pleasant lunch and read in a cafe. I ended up buying a bottle and sitting in my room through siesta, supping on rose and watching The Wire until a late snack was had at a local vegetarian restaurant.

I was a bit groggy when I woke up on Thursday , not hung over, just not 100% – that will teach me for having an indulgent afternoon, but it was quite exciting having my laptop back again!

After breakfast and packing up my stuff I went for a walk round the Cathedral, semi interesting, like many things in Spain it has a long and slow build history and the reason it only has the single tower is they ran out of money during the final build in the 18th century. In the top photo you can see a piece of net strung under the ceiling, these were all over the interior of the Cathededral, stopping bits of plaster from falling and killing visitors.

This guy is freaky, scare them into believing !

As I was walking to the cab rank to get a ride to the bus station I found this ATM, must be for the shorter folks amongst us.

The bus ride back to Alcaucin was uneventful and Ian had already gone for the afternoon when I arrived. Once I had done washing, walked and fed the dogs I sat down and got a whole bunch of bill paying done before ringing the UK job agency that left me a message on my phone. Sadly the role they had me in mind for was permanent, oh well, maybe they should have read my CV more closely!

The good news is number 20 has finally given the go ahead to paint the house so I have something to fill my day for the next couple of weeks – YUS !!!

Shouting “lager, lager lager”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlLWFa1b1Bc

Sorry, not my best work. Not feeling it at that moment, but am of course keeping this as my record of my travels !

 

 

 

Days 220-229, 11-20 August 2012 – Alcaucin

Apart from a couple of great runs and a movie or three, not a lot happened for the first ten days after Muttley chewed the power cord for my laptop. In hindsight, the chewing was probably a good thing (nah !) but it did mean I didn’t bore everyone with long winded and dull blog posts describing me doing sod all.

So apart from work, eat and sleep what did I do for ten days, hmmmm. Ian and I went to see the new Batman movie which was very cool, I did not rate the villain as highly as Heath Ledgers Joker (but that was impossible), but still a great movie. I also watched The Guard which was excellent and Drive. Not too sure what to say about Drive, did I enjoy it ? yes – was it what I expected, absolutely not. Three great films in one week, all different too. Pretty rare.

I did two runs though !

First was on Sat 11, three hours up the road. A great run, first time I have run shirtless, very warm and as there was no one around to scare I thought why not. This time I took a couple of bars with me as well as a gel. Ideally I should be running with the food I will eat when I do 50for50 (in what is now three weeks time), but food choices are slim at best and there is no way a Snickers would last 2 hours in a pack here !

The second run was the following weekend – Sunday 19, aim for this was to do four hours and try to get to the top of the big hill above Alcaucin. It was a really warm morning and by local standards really humid at 44% at 7:30 when I left.

I was dripping within a few minutes and once I had found the right turn off ran shirtless for an hour till I hit the single track.

The first hour was mainly running on a rough 4wd track, and all up hill, I ran most of it but there were some sections that were too steep to bother with – its not as if I was in a rush, and I will be walking the steep bits on 50for50 anyway.

The small carpark where the single track started had a big view back down to Alcaucin.

And this was where I was heading.

The single track was pretty sweat, not my preferred surface so I kept things sensible to avoid injury – and unlike Trevelez if I went down hard here there would be no-one following to find me!

The last thirty minutes was pretty much a walk and I made it to the peak I was aiming for pretty much dead on two hours, though the ranges had a way to go up yet !

The view was partially marred by some low cloud, but was still pretty spectacular – I wonder when the last person was here ? After feeding my face I took a gentle run back down. While I was at the top a couple of massive clouds closed the valley in below me , this is looking DOWN the single track !

I reached the road knowing I was going to be short of four hours but my Camelbak was bone dry and it was too hot to be running without water. I want to be able to run next week so took the wise choice and made a slow run back home, all up 3:45. I was still pleased with that, no real aches and pains – stiff to start with and worn when I finished. I was still able to walk the dogs later in the day though…

My dog chewed power cord, and my jeans too… He also had a go at my trail shoes but luckily no real damage, just a lace replacement.

 

 

 

Day 218/219, Thursday/Friday 09/10 August 2012 – Alcaucin

I Slept Ok but didn’t really get going till just before nine. It was hot in Malaga, 37 degrees when I got off the bus last night but I did not want to use the air conditioning in the room for too long as it seems to be impacting on my eyes and throat. I gave it a quick burst at four to cool the room down a bit.

I had planned on a big day. There is a lot to see in Malaga and only two buses back to Alcaucin, one in the morning and one in the evening, so I was going to get the 6:30 pm bus and see everything. Well that was the plan when I left the hotel at 9:00! Best laid plans….

My two star hotel, Carlos V, is right smack in the middle of the action, so walking out the front door, I had the cathedral on my left and the Alcazaba on my right.

I was looking for somewhere for a decent breakfast but I just all confidence in myself as I hit the street. I knew I was tired, I was really hungry – having not eaten last night and I must have been dehydrated, losing my wallet yesterday did not help either – whatever it was, I could not walk into a cafe. I must have walked for almost an hour before finally getting into a restaurant to eat. I was so hungry – and they didn’t do big breakfasts.

Once I had eaten I did feel a lot better but had resolved to take the early bus at 11:30 to my cousins place in Alcaucin and come back and do Malaga another day.

Guess this place is popular with the English !

It is only two and a bit hours by bus from home so an easy day trip. I returned to the hotel, packed up my stuff and got a cab to the bus station. The ride to Alcaucin took two half hours and there was a change in Velez-Malaga as well, but the driver helped with that thank goodness.

Ian has gone away for the weekend and I am dog-sitting, he left soon after I arrived so after a wee lie down I went up to the le Grande Rancho restaurant for lunch. Ian and I have been here a couple of times so I kind of know how it works, which was just what my confidence needed.

A lot of the restaurants in Spain (or at least in Andalucia) have a menu of the day, which often has a couple of choices of starter main, and desert for a fixed price – usually significantly cheaper than if you chose off the menu. They are a cheap option for the workers to get a good main meal for a reasonable price – remember the Spanish have their main meal at mid-day. Thursdays at le Rancho is Paella day so there was no way I was going to not have that. The gazpacho here is just lovely so I had that for a starter and melon drizzled in honey for desert. Three courses and a drink for 7 Euro – and the drink is any drink so I had a large beer : ) A perfect meal and I was stuffed full as I waddled back down the road and took the dogs for their afternoon before settling in to watch the Olympic BMX racing on TV.

The rest of the day was pretty much spent watching the Olympics, I didn’t get round to watching any more episodes of The Wire – Ian has all five seasons on DVD and I had planned on some Wire marathons.

Early to bed

I had a great and long sleep, apart from having to get up in the middle of the night to find Muttley roaming around outside the door and having to lock him back inside, this time with the windows closed!

I got up at 7:30, walked the dogs and had breakfast myself, it is going to be a hot day I can feel it already ! I spent an hour on a stepper type bit of gym equipment, I am sure it has a name, but I am not up on gym stuff. I want to try and do an hour a day at least on the days I do not get out for a proper run, only five weeks to the event so everything counts now.

Apart from completely reloading my MP3 player with more upbeat music – it is time for a change from yelly punk and broody instrumental rock, I didn’t do a lot else after a shower until I went back to el Rancho for lunch. Today was gazpacho again followed by calamari and fries and beer. With a heaving belly I went home, walked the dogs, watched the BMX semis and finals on TV. I was bummed for Marc Willers who had such an awesome run yesterday and crashed heavily on the first race today, but awesome result for the lovely Sarah Walker getting NZ another silver medal.

It is almost 7:00 PM as I write this post, I have just got out of the pool as it is 37 degrees in the shade, a hot day !

Day 217, Wednesday 08 August 2012 – ???

A much quieter night last night so a lot more sleep had and like yesterday I didn’t get up until breakfast time at 8:30. With only a small walk planned today I ate a lot more than yesterday, but still could not finish all the food.

I left for my walk about 9:15, I planned on doing two and half hours so I could get back in time for a quick shower before checking out at 12:00. I started up the path that sort of runs up the side of the Rio Trelevez. Like yesterday, I only took my cell phone for a camera and for some reason (shaky hands ?) a lot of the photos were blurred rubbish.

The walk was pleasant enough, certainly not like yesterdays and my legs were feeling surprisingly OK. They knew they had done some work though, but were much looser than I anticipated, further good news for my fitness.

I was not really in the mindset for a walk, for some reason I was feeling at a bit of a loss this morning so after forty five minutes when I came across this track covering puddle I turned around and meandered back to the hotel. I didn’t want to have to put wet running shoes into my pack for the day, good excuse huh ?

I hadn’t really come up with much of a plan of where to stay the night, Trevelez is a funny place to get out of and Alcaucin where I am ‘living’ is a funny place to get to – bus timings just didn’t seem to work out. In the end I decided on heading back to Granada and getting the next bus to Malaga and staying the night there. Tomorrow I will see Malaga and get the bus to Alcaucin at 6:30pm. Perfect !

Sadly the bus from Trevelez leaves at 4:00 PM so I had some time to kill between checking out of my room and catching the bus. Luckily I was able to use the internet in reception for a couple of hours till lunch at 2:00.

I went to a different restaurant for lunch and had a very nice salad, a change to have something healthy! I have been struggling with trying to learn even the most basic of Spanish, I started in Barcelona and have continued to attempt here in Trevelez. The pronunciation is so varied, even between towns and I had real trouble in this restaurant, depressing !

I liked Trevelez, if I had a car I would have stayed longer and done some more of the local walks. The one thing that I don’t like about it is the flies, they are terrible – it is like being in Queensland again !!

The bus to Granada was an uneventful two and three quarter hour ride, except I seem to have broken the headphones for my MP3 player, grrrrr – no music for all that time was rough. The drive is still lovely, though unusually I felt a bit queasy on the bus, very rare.

As soon as the bus pulled into the station on time at 6:45 I ran up to the ticket machine and got the last seat on the 7:00 bus to Malaga – awesome. This was the super bus, I got given water and a small snack and thankfully headphones for the in-bus sound system, wahoo they fitted my MP3 player – rubbish headphones, but headphones nonetheless. The ride to Malaga was also fantastic, such a beautiful, dry and mountainous province.

I got off the bus and into a cab to head to the hotel, and realised I did not have my wallet in my bag ! Shitburgers !! I panicked briefly, before thankfully finding I had enough coins to pay the cab driver. I knew I had the wallet on the bus as I had seen it in my bag, I am guessing it fell out by my seat somewhere. When I got to the hotel I rang the bus depot and got an answering machine, I will have to try tomorrow when I go to catch the bus home. At least this time I didn’t lose a drivers licence or anything, only 30 euros and a couple of cards- thank God I still had a spare card in my pack and was able to get some cash out.

The hotel is in the middle of all the tourist stuff, right next to the cathedral so I went for a wee stroll around with the intent of getting something to eat. Loads and loads of places but I could not decide and did not want to eat alone again, too tiring.

Not a great day sadly.

The Alcazaba in Malaga, looking fwd to visiting tomorrow.