the rain in spain...

...falls mainly on Malaga.
I don't know if this is normal but it hasn't really stopped raining since I arrived. There have been brief breaks in the rain but it always seems to start up again. This has made it difficult to see the city but what I have seen is pretty nice and I think I'll come back later on.

I arrived on Friday which coincidentally was the first day of the Malaga Film Festival and the main theatre (the one with the red carpet and screaming crowds and Spanish film stars that I don't recognize) is about 2 blocks away from the hostel. Walking around the first night I came across this scene and of course had to settle in to watch. I think I saw the woman from Y Tu Mama Tambien and then got very excited thinking that maybe her costars would appear but if they were there I didn't see them. I kept waiting for Antonio Banderas to appear (I don't know if he's in attendance but apparently this is his home town) but since I couldn't see over the crowd anymore, and it was raining, I gave up and went home.

After 2 very late nights in Granada (and with the sneaking suspicion that I was getting a cold) I told myself that I was going to be a good girl and go to bed early. I forgot that it was Friday. And St. Patrick's Day. So I went down to the lounge and in two or three hours found myself with a group of others at an Irish Pub swilling Heiniken. How does this happen? I don't know. But I managed to extricate myself at the reasonable hour of 3 a.m. (I don't know what the deal is with liquor laws here in Spain but I haven't heard anything about 'last call' since I arrived)

There are a few french guys staying and working here so I've been practicing with them...it's hard though. One guy I can barely understand (too bad too because he's really cute...okay I have to go off on a tangent here. Before I came to Spain all I heard about was the hotness of Spanish men. Someone needs to answer for this because I feel I have been misled. Don't get me wrong, there are many attractive people in this country but in a contest of 'hot guys seen on the street on any given day' I think France wins, hands down.)

The rain yesterday was unbelievable but it let up a little in the evening and we met up with this great Welsh couple we had met the night before for drinks. It's great to go out with people who actually live in a place because they've already tested it and know where to go and what to do. They've also generously offered me a place to stay if I come back and since I would like to see Malaga in the sun I think I will take them up on that when I come back south.
We went to a great place (all big wooden tables and stools and tiled walls) for tapas and then to El Pimpi, a very cool bar that in addition to being Antonio Banderas' favourite bar in Malaga is also room after room after patio after room of bar. I think it must be two or three buildings spliced together because rooms just seem to breed other rooms. Also it has this great wall with photos of famous visitors including one of Tony Blair crouching next to or hugging a cask or something, looking like a dork.

Around 1 I really wasn't feeling well so went home all excited about the great fantastic 10 hour sleep I was going to have. What I got were an Italian couple whispering to each other from their bunks, drunken idiots screaming and breaking bottles in the street outside at 3 a.m., a roommate who came home at 4 a.m., a couple people who packed up their stuff and left around...I don't know...but it was too early. Note to anyone who stays in a hostel. Don't pack all of your stuff in fucking noisy plastic bags. And don't put them in your backpack, and then pull them out, and put them back in again...etc etc. How many times can one person insert and remove a plastic bag from a backpack? A lot of times as I discovered this morning. Really, if you're leaving early and you're only there for one night, why would you unpack all your shit in the first place? Anyway. Needless to say the anticipated 10 hour sleep did not happen.

I'm sure I'll be able to make up for it tonight though, when I hop on the 10:30 train that arrives in Valencia at around 5 a.m. tomorrow...if I'm lucky Las Fallas will still be happening and I might see something burn!

After that, looks like the cheap room in Barcelona is on so I will probably stay there for a couple weeks at least. Of course this all depends on the guys I'm staying with (I've not met them before) and the room itself...hopefully it's not a closet with a mattress on the floor! But I hope for good things.

Finally I may also have a local tour guide in the form of Mr Louis Vuitton sac (aka mr. soccer game or mr. darcy) who has sent me an email indicating he would "love to see" me. Frankly I find this a bit dodgy as I was neither looking my best nor at my most charming that night. To be honest I was pretty drunk on beer and sangria (and I was not alone....Mom...) and my lazy eye was probably in full effect. Maybe he has a thing for cross-eyed girls. We shall see.