Sav´s travels

Hi everyone! As always I hope that anyone reading, friend or stranger, is doing well...it is Thursday my last full night in Spain...I fly to London tommorrow evening, overnight it and then make it to Vancouver on Sunday...I had a really good lunch with my sister Pam today with lots of wrap up talk and her famous "Top 1-5" questions, which I enjoy thoroughly...I am on and off again sad today at leaving...but what I am excited about is having the chance to be with friends and family at home and room for perspective on this trip...I have 28 hours in Spain and as far as I am concerned that´s plenty of time for adventure...we´ll see...

The two previous days were a total treat...I had to go to Malaga to wrap up some remaining passport fun and planned on heading straight back to Granada. Two hours in the dry, decorative-free Canadian consulate and I had my emergency passport...good for one travel only, and to be submitted and destroyed upon arrival! Yessir! Anyway, it´s funny what good can come from not-so-good...I decided that after all this, I was going to really visit Malaga and change my opinion of it from the first time, which was really that I had no opinion...I had only made it to the outskirts around the bus-station so of course, nothing to really impress or see. This time however, I found the historic centre which is large and was wowed repeatedly at every street I visited...the buildings, the empty buildings, the buildings just waiting to be explored...I must have about 50 pics alone of these streets (in the world of non-digital, this is a lot)...I visited the Alcazaba and the Castillo, had some unique (tasty!) tapas and got lost...so lost in fact that I came to a big theatre and decided to consult my map...as I was opening my map, my eyes were caught by a poster on the front of the theatre advertising the one and only Van Morrison...immediately I was lost in wow, wouldn´t that be amazing, daydreaming...I have forever wanted to see this man play but he´s not known for making it to Edmonton or Canada too much for that matter (I think)...anyhow, the concert happened to be for that evening and the next...at that point, I easily convinced myself that things happen for a reason and that I was meant to end up in Malaga to get a new passport and meant to get a little lost...of course... so I went to the nearest internet cafe to see prices and the cheapest was 30€´s so instead decided on the spot to get a hostal and see if I could get a scalper´s ticket...and if I couldn´t I could just stay another day in Malaga as there really was so much more to see and do. I got my hostal, and headed out again...I got to the theatre and stood around and watched people try to sell their 60€ box tickets...it didn´t look too promising so decided on settling outside to see if I could catch scraps of his voice...I happened to be standing near two men who I found out were from the States, and they wondered if I wanted their ticket..I said I couldn´t and 5 minutes later when they knew they weren´t going to sell it for their no-show friend, they said, "here you go kid"...and I had myself a box-seat to see VM....I had to maintain composure, very difficult...at this point, they invited me to a glass of wine in the lobby and we went our separate ways...I truly had the best seat in the house...about 50 ft away from him with a full view of the 9 piece band...it was incredible...incredible, incredible....I have no other words at the moment...sharing the box with me was a man from Ceuta and his sister, who was my age...we had lots of fun dancing and singing and decided afterwards to go out for drinks, us and the American fellows...we had great tapas, lots of Moscatel and wine and then walked to a close-by salsa bar where we danced for about 2 hours straight, and until I wanted to collapse...I left these fun, gracious, people who felt like friends by the end, and after an exchange of emails went "home" to bed...the next day, I explored the Castle and the town some more, ate tapas Catalunya style (counting toothpicks at the end) and finally got on the 5pm bus, sunburned, walked-out and very happy that those jerks in Barcelona inadvertently gave me two wonderful days in Malaga...

So, that brings me to here and if anything fun to report happens tonite or tommorrow, will be back to report...I am addicted to this machine...

Ciao!
Savannah