Spring in Spain Part Two: Schmiemann Invasion!

After spending a few wonderful and relaxing days with Matthew, we were joined by his family. It had been about 7 months or so since his family had seen him, so I was glad that I could share in the reunion.

(The Schmiemann family minus Mr. Schmiemann, who was there too)

We stayed at this resort on the outside of Malaga, only a taxi, bus and train ride away! On Palm Sunday we all decided to take the lovely almost two hour excursion into the city. Luckily for them, since it was Palm Sunday, there were many holy week processionals going on. Basically every where we walked we ran into one.
(Don't worry, these are not KKK members, but part of a Spanish religious fraternity)



After the processionals, Matthew took us to the Alcazaba, a centuries old Muslim palace built on top of Roman ruins. It was absolutely beautiful and you can see all over the city of Malaga.





After exploring Malaga for most of the day, we decided to get them churros, a Spanish favorite dessert. Churros are basically fried dough with a cup of chocolate that you dip them into. What can be better than that? This soon became a Schmiemann family favorite and was requested almost every day.
(Spanish-style churros)

On Tuesday morning I was supposed to leave Malaga to go back to Norwich, but after only two days with his family, I decided to stay a bit longer because of how much fun I was having. After changing my flight, I now was able to stay until Thursday afternoon and enjoy more time with this wonderful family.

Tuesday we went to the town of Mijas, right outside of Malaga. This city was built into the mountain side, so we had a great view of Malaga and the Costa del Sol. The town, although very pretty, was very touristy, so that takes away from the beauty of the town. Once again we enjoyed some churros after a disappointing lunch. One of my favorite parts of our days in Spain though was actually coming back to the resort at night. Just like the Schells, the Schmiemanns love games, so we would spend the night playing card games and cracking jokes and doing some more eating. I couldn't think of a better way to end my days.




On Wednesday we went back to Malaga to have lunch with Matthew's host mother. Of course Matthew's real mother was eager to meet his host mother. Dora, Matthew's host mom, has always been so nice and gracious all the times I have stayed at her house, so she had nothing to worry about. Dora and her daughter Dori, made us all paella, a traditional Spanish dish that has rice, veggies, and oftentimes seafood or some kind of meat with an olive oil and saffron sauce. We had had paella the other night at a restaurant but Dora's paella was 10 times better than the restaurants. Dora only speaks Spanish so poor Matthew had to be the interpreter for all six of us the entire time. Her daughter Dori spoke a little bit of English so myself and Matthew's sisters, Kara and Hope, were successful in striking up a bit of a conversation. Overall though, everyone had a great time and despite the language barrier, we were all laughing.

That night we had to be back for a flamenco show at this excellent Italian restaurant that we had eaten at two nights before. Clearly it was that good or we would not be going back! The last time we were there I got the most delicious pumpkin ravioli, which sounds strange, but it was very good! After eating another great meal, we stayed to watch the flamenco show. I had never seen flamenco live, so it was incredible for me to watch since I love dancing. Flamenco is really only native to Andalusia (the region of Spain where Malaga is) but it is considered the dance of Spain. In Flamenco there are lots of heel stomps, clapping and castanets. At one part of it though, they decided to bring up members of the audience. Knowing how I usually get picked for these things and how much I love to dance, I was so hoping to get picked. But instead they pick Matthew to go up and dance. He won the crowd over though and I couldn't have been more proud (even though I wanted to be up there too!). Overall, it was a great day.



On my final day in Spain, Matthew planned for us all to go to Gibraltar. Even though it is technically a part of Spain, it is owned by the British and so is considered a British territory. The interesting part of Gibraltar is that you can see parts of Africa and all along the Costa del Sol in Spain. It is also a huge rock basically where there are more roads inside tunnels in the rock than outside. Matthew chose for us to do the Tunnel Tour instead of the shopping one, so I was excited. On the way to the WWII Tunnels, we took a bus up these windy, narrow pathways. What we came across though, surprised me. There are apes native to Gibraltar and there was a place where we stopped to go see them. They are wild and not on a game preserve and are the only wild monkeys that can be found in Europe. After seeing the apes, we arrived at the WWII Tunnels. During WWII Winston Churchill had the army construct a massive set of tunnels into the mountain for people to live, as well as for an army base. The incredible thing is that most soldiers would work in the caves 6 days a week and then get one day off to go out into the town. They would only get about 10 minutes or so to go out of the cave per day. The water supply was also limited, so showers only happened about twice a week. They did have running water, beds, and an entire kitchen run on electricity. After that, we had some time to eat and then had to go back on the bus.

(That's Africa in the background!!!)

(one of the many apes!)



(Matthew and his sister, Kara, in the tunnels)

(the town of Gibraltar)

We got back later than expected, so I had to say some quick good-byes before I had to leave for the airport. Since it takes a good hour and a half to get to the airport from the resort, Matthew and I were pushing it close. This was one of the first times I had to run to the airport to get there on time. Luckily all was well and I made my flight. But what an incredible time I had in Spain with Matthew and his family. I came back to rainy, cold weather in England, so I am definitely missing the sunshine of Malaga.