Weekend in Nerja

My roommate and I, along with two other girls from our study abroad group decided we wanted to go to Nerja.
Nerja is a beach town along the southern coast of Spain, and just outside the town are the Cuevas (or caves) de Nerja.
So, we woke up before the sun rose and went to the bus station where we met up with three of the guys from our group that were also making the trek to the coast.
And then we slept.
When we got into town, we found our hostel, and coincidentally we had booked the same hostel as the boys, so that was convenient. We changed into out suits and strolled along the streets toward the beach, stopping here and there to look in the shops along the way.
The beach was beautiful! Blue ocean, palm trees, tan bodies everywhere...some showing more body than we wanted to see.
We picked up some food, went down to the water and laid our towels in the sand. We went into the water, we napped, and I finished my fifth book since I arrived in Spain (can you say nerd?!).
After our tanning time on la playa, we went back to our quaint little hostel and got ready for dinner. The boys, just because they are so awesome, invited us onto the terrace at the top of the hostel to drink sangría that they had made themselves - consisting of brandy, fanta limón, and some kind of wine...
So we all sat up on the terrace and watched the sun set over the mountains. And we talked and LAUGHED! Laughed and laughed and laughed. And then it was dinner time!
We walked around to this restaurant we had seen, but decided it was too expensive. It was in the middle of this plaza overlooking the ocean, and some Spaniards were break-dancing to a boom box - so cool. So we watched for a bit, and then kept going because we were starving!
We ended up eating at this Italian restaurant called El Gato Negro (which means the Black cat) that had live flamenco out front. Unfortunately, we couldn't sit outside to see it because our group was too big. So we enjoyed the muffled music from the inside.
But the ambiance inside the restaurant was great, and we started with a bottle of wine, and then ordered pizzas and pastas with seafood. Delicious doesn't even begin to describe.
We bought gelato near the ocean, and the guys were still hungry so we continued on, wandering into a Mexican restaurant.
Some people go bar hopping. We go restaurant hopping.
Even though not everyone ate, we all got little Mexican hat pins with our bill - like the way you get fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant.
And then, with full stomachs, we proceeded home.

The next morning, we got up early to catch the 8:30 bus to the caves. It took about 15 minutes to get there, the bus dropped us off, and then we read the sign posted on the door.
It didn't open until 10.
So we decide to explore...we find a playground and hang around like monkeys for awhile, and then we walk down towards the town nearby to see if there are any cafés open. Well, instead we found a buffet libre (all you can eat buffet) at a hotel just off the main road for less than 4 euros. Count us in!
By the time we got done eating, the caves were open, and we managed to just beat the crowds.

The cave we went into was so cool. The size of each chamber was just unbelievable! And we saw the biggest column of stalagmites/stalactites in the world. In this little beach town in southern Spain! It was great.
We headed back to Nerja, and back to our hostel, where we packed up and checked out. On to Málaga.

We were only in Málaga for a couple of hours, and had planned to see the Picasso museum, but when we saw that it was too far away to make it back in time for our bus, we sat down in some grass and just hung for a bit. And then we went for tapas.

Tapas. Tapas are amazing. They are almost like appetizers in the US. I think the tradition started as a way to prevent people from just getting drinks and feeling tipsy afterwards because they didn't eat beforehand. So when Spaniards go out in the evening, they get drinks and tapas...sometimes. And sometimes they just have a cerveza.

But we shared a bunch of tapas, and then passed out on the bus ride home.

It was a great weekend.