Feria!
Malaga is a town on the Southern coast of Spain that we had no intention of going to until we heard from Ouali that there was this awesome FREE festival down there! Being a short bus ride from Sevilla, we decided in was a must in our trip!
We arrived with no plans, so accommodation, and no idea what we were doing. Luckily the bus and train station were super spiffy, had a great information desk with maps and everything we needed to know about Feria, the festival! AND it has huge lockers for only 4.50 euros for 24 hours! We locked up everything important, except for our passports and my camera, brought a mat and our blanket with us, and set out to find the festivities.
Once we got out of the crappy part of town that usually surrounds the train station, we found the old town, small windy streets of Malaga! There were heaps of massive cathedrals and some huge pedestrian streets that were setting up for the next day! Already though, there were tons of street vendors selling local nuts and flowers! Brad and I stopped at the market for some water when we spotted a bottle of Tequila and made a rash decision about the rest of our night! Haha so we found a nice square with a big statue in the middle (big surprise for Europe) and played games with each other and people watched while we enjoyed the lovely taste of Tequila! Then we followed the masses to the beach around 11pm where we found craziness for the pre-festival opening party!!!
Beautiful cathedral!
The looonnngg stretch of beach was PACKED with people, young, old, families, anyone! We listened to some live music before the MUSICAL fireworks show! The soundtrack included Dirty Dancings “She’s like the wind”, Shakiras “Waka Waka” song, and Lady Gaga’s “Alexandrjo”!
Fireworks!
The families cleared out, but the beach was still packed with young people ALLLLL night! There was a DJ set with some crazy visuals, and tons of drunk kids running around and swimming in the water! It started raining so Brad and I went to explore the boardwalk a bit! Around 4am we were back on the beach and ready to sleep! We laid out our blanket and slept in the bright lights with a group of guys playing the bongo drums and chanting Spanish songs until 6am! The beach was TRASHED…i mean COVERED in trash! People were out with metal detectors and trash bags picking up lost belongings. Brad and I did wake up with 2 guys sitting practically on top of us…probably trying to get in our bag! We had nothing on us though and the camera was wrapped around my wrist and tucked in my clothes so we shooed them off and went back to sleep! Then we were woken around 8 or 9 by a masssive truck cleaning off the sand that probably would have run right over us ha, so we moved up to the grass and went back to sleep! Not much fazed us and there were tons of other people sleeping on the beach too!
Next time we woke up, the beach was spotless and actually really pretty! The water was still a bit dirty, but still swimable! We eventually got up and found ourselves some somewhat covered showers, washed off with soap and all, brushed our teeth and hair, and were on our way feeling refreshed and good as ever!
Malagueta!
Flamenca!
We knew today was the official first day of the festivities, and by the time we got to the old town, it was already a drunk fest by 4pm! It was unreal and unlike anything we have really seen! First of all, the streets were just FULL and tons of women and children were dressed up in Flamenco outfits! There were random break outs in Flamenco dancing in the streets and alleyways and everyone had flowers in their hair. The teenagers all made matching colorful outfits with names and sayings on their shirts! Then all the plazas were packed with food and drink vendors….drink really! The ground was SO sticky from spilled drinks that i had to cling onto my flip flops and lift my leg up off the ground to get unstuck! Trash everywhere! And a crowd you could barely breathe in! We were not on the same level so walked down the street to find another plaza….same story! More drunk people than i have ever seen! We watched a mom puke on the side of the street! At least she was dressed classy! ha!
I looked at Brad and said….Shizen…we just need to get a drink and get on their level. So we bought ourselves the famous Vino de Tinto which is basically Sangria in a big platic cup! You can buy all your drinks by the litre and for only a couple euros (hence the drunkeness)! We found a corner to post up on and watched the nuttiness! Eventually we explored our way to the beach to grab some grub and enjoy the sunset!
joining the festivities!
The beach was quiet and tranquil with everybody on the other side of town for the festival, but we did notice an abundance of backpackers hanging around! As soon as it was dark, everyone started setting up tents and mats and all sorts of goodness. I think we all congregated together for safety and it was a much better sleep the second night!
Sunset on the beach!
With so many hours on the beach, we had done some reading in the Lonely Planet book and found out about the Almeria Coast which apparently has beautiful beaches. So off we were the next afternoon. Goodbye Malaga…you showed us how crazy Spaniards can be!