Málaga 2016

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Days 133 - 140 (8.1.-15.1.) Mostly Cooking & Procrastinating

Katka came back!!! Yay! I stayed over at hers due to my lack of proper heating at my place. We cooked, we laughed, switched amazing christmas presents, tried to study even with sunday protests and expensive coffee. I was exhausted most of the time, but it was still wonderful to study with friends. How I love Málaga.

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Days 123 - 132 (29.12.-7.1.) New Year, Sickness and Flight Back The days around Nkew Year’s Eve were filled with my cough and a loooot of Netflix. Good thing was that I got caught up on a lot of tv shows I’ve been missing. I’m sad I couldn’t meet my friends but I was sick and it was -19 degrees a lot of the time. However, we had amazing cheese founduw with my family and Lenka came to visit and we could say goodbye. On saturday 7th I flew back to Málaga. The flight was at 6:55 am which was a killer. I felt like I would freeze to death. We had to wake up at 3am and drive to Vienna but it was worth it. I got to go back to Málaga. I didn’t really feel like going back but that was because I was still sick but I went back to 18 degrees, friends and a sea. Just perfect. O was so happy to be back.

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Days 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122 : The Holidays and Sickness The Holidays were amazing. We celebrated Christmas in Prague with my family. I’m so happy we went. I met a new addition to our family - Penne. A little puppy who bites everything and everyone. So cute! We ate, we laughed, we had a fantastic time. Also, I met with Káťa in Prague (yeah we don’t spend enough time together 😂). On Tuesday I got sick and still am. Coughing my lungs out and fever is so much fun. Hopefully I’ll feel better soon. Kisses.

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Days 112, 113, 114, 115 : Exams, Flights and Home Monday = Exam in a typical spanish fashion : it took us 20 minutes to sit down for the exam and 10 to actually write it. I hope I've managed to pass it and to celebrate it I went to sleep at Káťa's again. After a fantastic sleepover I went home to pack, because guess what, I'm going home! It's the Holidays and I can finally go home for a while. Still not feeling the Christmas atmosphere I went to buy some final presents and then we had a little get together in our apartement. On Wednesday I flew home! I missed everything!!!! On Thursday I saw my friends, went to get some sushi and then in the evening I went to the christmas market. I must say it is so so so cold! I felt like going back to Málaga a few times in the day. We also decorated the christmas tree and the house and it was incredible. We listened to christmas songs and talked and just had a quality family time. I love Christmas because everything is so calm and peaceful. I already miss my firends from Málaga, but I am happy I get to be home. Kisses.

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Days 109, 110, 111 : Presenatation Madness This weekend was full of studying, again. It's getting really boring. I've spent more time in Starbucks then at home, which is honestly ridiculous. But everything got better on saturday evening when we had a little Christmas Party. We has a lot of fun and I loved being there. Of course, I was supposed to study, but I had such a good time I didn't want to leave. It finally felt a little bit like Christmas. On sunday I cleaned the whole apartement as a way of procrastinating on studying. Then I went to Starbucks, again (I should get like a bonus card or something) and then went to Káťas' to study again. Of course I ended up sleeping over. I think we both need to go home because all the studying is making us even crazier then we normally are. And that is dangerous for the whole public. Anyhow. Only 3 days until home. Finally! Kisses.

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Days 106, 107, 108 : More Studying and Sleepovers The past few days were all about me studying, going to school and drinking copious amounts of coffee (and occasionally smoothies). On Thursday night, however, after spending a lot of time in Starbucks, I got invited for a dinner at Káťa's. We had amazing food and a lot of fun and as it happens, we stayed up way too late so I had to sleepover at hers. It was great! Even though we have to study a lot, we still have good times. I will miss this. But, only 5 days 'till I go home. Christmas is almost here! Yay!

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Day 105 : Wonderful Day This might be the only time in my life I'll ever say this but what a beautiful monday I had. The weather was just amazing and it's only 12 days until Christmas. I'm just not used to this kind of warmth in December. I still had to go to school but we got coffee and smoothies and then I've done some shopping and watched my favourite films. Simply a great day. Kisses.

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Day 104 : Madrid Part 2 The last day of our little weekend trip started by us having breakfast at the hostel. I finally had my favourite type of coffee so it was a great day already. After that we packed and checked out of the hostel. From there we went to Madrid Palacio, which was incredible. Originally, we wanted to spend only an hour there but we've spent so much more time there and we haven't seen it all. After the beauty we visited Museum Reina Sofia with Dáli and Picasso. Later, in the afternoon we walked through the El Retiro park and from there to eat a little and for a train home. Amazing but very tiring day. A little observation about Madrid though, people love waiting in queues and they must have lots and lots of money since there were giant queues everywhere for the lottery. To sum up the weekend - it was incredible and I enjoyed it so much. Thanks Jef for going with me. Kisses.

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Day 103 : Magical Toledo I am in love! I have never imagined such a wonderful place as Toledo could even exist. Toledo is a town about half an hour train ride from Madrid. The reason why it is so special is that there are 3 different cultures and religions living peacefully next to each other. We arrived to Toledo around 10 and I immediately knew I would love the city. But I had not idea how much. After successfully getting the bus to the center we started our tour at the tourist information where we got a map and off we went. From there we went from mosques, through tiny street to beatuiful churches and amazing views from the towers. We have walked for hours and hours and somehow, there were more sights to see. In the morning we focused on mosques and chruches and in the afternoon we visited the jewish quarter with amazing synagogues and a breathtaking view across the river. The whole town was so calm and peaceful I couldn't help but feel at home. We certainly didn't want to leave. Unfortunately, after a cozy dinner we had to go on a train back to Madrid. What a wonderful day. Kisses.

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Day 102 : Madrid I really despise waking up at 5am. But it's usually for travel reasons so that makes it so much better. Today we embarked upon a new adventure : Madrid & Toledo. We went by the fast-trains Renfe, which was really cool since I've never traveled by one. Once we arrived, we got lost a little bit but fortunately it was a very easily fixed mishap. After that we went to our hostel Los Amigos, which is right in the heart of Madrid. There we couldn't check-in until 1 so we left our luggage inside and went to wonder around the city. Observation : There are far too many people everywhere. The city, however is great. It's not the best I've seen but certainly worth viaiting. We've walked for hours and hours through all the necesarry plazas and cathedrals and gardens. We had stops formfood and coffee and then we went to the hostel to check-in and rest a little. It is a nice hostel, with nice 10-mixed shared rooms and shared bathrooms. After a well deserved nap, we went out for a hunt for food. Luckily, after a while we found Dia (tomorrow's breakfast) and a nice kebab place near Gran Vía. Then we walked and walked some more until we came back to the hostel. Having walked almost 20km, I took a shower and it was the weirdest shower of my life. The guy showering in the stall next to me made the strangest noises. To end this blog entry, I would like to sum up my impressions from Madrid. I am very happy I got to visit this city and that I will have time on sunday to explore it more but it is not one of the 'great' cities I've visited. It's not comparable to any other spanish cities and honestly, Barcelona has something more. But I still like it here. Kisses.

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Day 101 : Laundry and Fiestas Another fiesta in Spain. Not that you'll hear me complain. I love that I only had to go to school on monday this week. This morning, I woke up with a little sore muscles from all the walking and excitement from the day before. After all the stress and panic I decided I would make thursday as calm as possible. So I've done my laundry, went for a coffee and a smothie to El Ultimo Mono. It means The Last Monkey, which after yesterday is kind of ironic, but even for the unfortunate name, it still is my favourite coffee place in town. After walking around the town for a bit I went home, packed for Madrid and watched some films. It was a very relaxed but very well deserved day of doing nothing productive. Kisses. Only 15 days till I'm home.

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Day 100 : 100 days and Monkey Attacks I've never really liked monkeys that much but after today, I can say with 100% certainity, I never want to see another monkey for as long as I live. Even in the ZOO I will walk around the monkey territory with kilometers inbetween us. You might be asking yourself, why? I'll tell you why. But first story of how we got to the monkeys in the first place. After my first failed attempt to get to Gibraltar (sorry Leni, again), me, Káťa and Jacob (Káťa's bf) decided to go to Gibraltar together. Our trip was met with problems from the beginnig, like a blah blah car driver cancelling our journey so we had to take the bus instead. After the usual drill, waking up at 5, sitting in a bus for 3 hours, checking my ID for the 100th time, we finally got there. I wasn't an immigrant anymore! I felt a little like a tour guide since I know the "town" La Línea de la Concepción by heart, but it was a useful knowledge. So after getting through the borders, we saw the Gibraltar airport with cars and people crossing the runway. After that, we went to the town underneath The Rock, walked around, drank coffee, heard english, everything was amazing. After all this excitement, we decided to go to the top of The Rock to see the famous monkeys and have a great hiking trip. For like an hour everything was fantastic, we laughed, sweated out our souls, walked and made photos. Then we finally got to almost the middle of the mountain and we spotted the first monkeys. After necessary photoshoot with said monkeys, we continued through a little unsteady bridge and even Káťa, with her fear of hights made it through. And then it all went sideways. We got this amazing idea to shorten our way and go by steps to the top of the hill. But that is the monkeys territory. The first pair of monkeys just layed on the steps, eating the flees out of their furs so we just stepped around them and that was it. The second and the third pair were basically the same. But then the fourth were the problem. Káťa and Jacob walked by them without much problems, but the furry little bastards waited for me and circled around me, literally cutting my way up the stairs. When the first monkey sat on my shoulder it was fun. The second on my back, not so much. The third holding my hair and the fourth sitting on my head was just plain scary. So frozen in panic and fear I just stood on the stairs, surrounded by monkeys who opened my bag and tried to steal stuff from it. I had no idea what to do. I was scared they would get angry and become agressive and the one sitting on my back had her teeth too close to my neck. Godammit, that was scary. Somehow, I escaped the little bastards and managed to keep my head together to the top of the stairs. To shorten the story, one panic attack later, we were at the top and immediately wanted to go back down. Luckily we had Jacob with us because me and Káťa were scared shitless and tere were monkeys everywhere. In the trees, in the cable car, on the road, everywhere. After a very fearful way down, still with shaking hands and knees and a pounding heart we were finally back in safety and out of that hell-hole. One very necessary beer later, we went to shop for magnets and food and went the hell away from there. To sum it up, I am happy I went and happy for this experience but I can honestly say, that it was the first and the last time I've ever visited Gibraltar. For the love of all that's good and pure, I hope I won't ever see a live monkey near me ever again and that I won't have nightmares for the rest of my life. I must say, it was an incredibly adventurous 100th day. 💯 Hugs and kisses.

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Days 98, 99 : Almost Home and Mikuláš We all hate mondays. It’s a well known fact. But when you have to spend it all in school until 8pm, the hate gets on a new level. That was and always will be the truth. And these are my mondays here in Málaga. However this week it helped that today ( tuesday ) it was fiesta, here in Málaga. Why? Because it was Saint Nichlaus (Mikuláš) today! And what an amazing day it was! We got to go to the beach, because it was incredibly warm for december and we went to El Último Mono, of course, since we're there almost every day. On the way back from beach we decided to go to El Corte because we believed that it would be open. The journey there was extremely stressful, due to the fact that we had to cycle around almost everyone from Málaga because they've never seen the lights before, I guess, and people jumped infront of our bikes and just had a death wish in general. Once we arrived we found out that it was closed so we had to walk back home and instead of 20 minutes as it usually takes me, it took us 35 and we were still very lucky. I don't know what is it with fiestas but people go crazy on those days. To celebrate my survival, me and my roommate decided to sit outside on the balcony with a glass of wine and judge people around us. Yes, I know, we're going to hell. Miss you. Kisses.

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Days 96, 97 : More Christmas Shopping Only 17 days until I'm home! Just FYI. This weekend I haven't done anything productive really. I've slept, eaten, gone for a coffee shopped for christmas (even though it still doesn't feel like christmas at all) but I'll be home for Christmas, soon! (See what I did there? 😉). It's been raining quite hard, level 2 of flood danger has been announced. Yesterday, there was a football match Madrid - Barcelona, so of course the whole town went into mayhem. Drunk people everywhere, they even broke a window on our building. Terrible. Well I am certainly looking forward to going home. Kisses.

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Caminito Del Rey

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Day 95 : El Caminito Del Rey What a day! I still can not believe the day I had. It started at 6.30am after 3 hours of sleep, when I had to crawl out of my bed to get a coffee to actually survive. After successfully getting on a bus in a zombie-like state I’ve met great new people and the adventure could start. I won’t bore you with details of how we got there, so I’ll jump right to actual Caminito. (Imagine us walking to El Caminito while I tell you the history). El Caminito is a hiking/ rock climbing spot for all adrenaline junkies and has been so for many years. It’s been built more that a century ago and until 2014 hasn’t gone through any reconstructions. It was one of the most dangerous hiking trails in the world. After the unfortunate death of 3 people, the original trail was closed and rebuilt for tourists. Now it is a natural marvel for tourists as well as rock climbers. Now, back to my story. When we arrived, we got great helmets and instructions about behaviour and rules and off we went. And I was speechles. My vocabulary in all the languages is too small for the beauty that I’ve witnessed. I couldn’t really do anything just stare and breathe in the nature. I still can’t believe how can this exist. Anyhow, we walked for around 12 kilometres, observed the old trail with holes and no ground and jumps necessary at some places and then went through a very unsteady bridge. It was such a rush!! Simply amazing! When we got back I had to make a human out of myself again and then we witnessed a fire underneath our windows and I’ve had more then enough adrenaline for one day so I called it a day and went to sleep. Kisses.

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Days 93, 94 : Sleep and Doing Nothing

Wednesday morning was one of the funniest mornings I’ve had in a while. We had a test from Introductions to Economics on Wednesday and it was very...spanish. Once again in my life I was very glad for my punctuality since there were more students then seats available so the late-comers had nowhere to sit. The first problem was that Aula Magna was occupied (again very spanish) and there were far too many people attending the course. So after our teacher arrived she realized that we had a tiny problem and we were forced to move to different lecture hall. Of course, we didn’t fit in there also. So we moved one more time. I think that was the first time and the last time in my life I’ve said that, but I was actually happy we were finally able to write the goddamn test. After handing in the test I was finally free. I, almost literally, ran home to my beautiful bed, where I fell into a coma . Later, I woke up after 4 hours which felt like centuries and did the normal things around the apartement like laundry and cooking. In the evening I went to Káťa’s place where a cooked dinner, amazing czech films and wine, were waiting for me. 

Thursday was spent in a similar fashion, more laundry, spanish class, coffee, cooking, doing nothing and sleeping. Thank god for naps. Kisses.