Day 14 - Malaga, Spain - June 16

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So here´s today´s story: we thought our timeshare was booked until Sunday morning- turns out we only had it until 10am this morning. Our plan was to wake up, spend the day at the beach, find a restaurant to have a LONG dinner at, and then crash in our rental car. None of this plan, however, came to fruition. While checking out, we found a destination guide that we picked up in our travels. The guide suggested a day trip to El Churro, a small town 50km northwest of Malaga.

We decided that El Churro would be a nice day trip, especially considering we had a lot of time to kill. In Malaga, we picked up a map of the Malaga region and directions to El Churro from one of the tourist booths; we were off to find El Churro. After driving for about a half hour we realized we were moving farther and farther into rural Spain- the roads narrowed, mountains rose up, herds of goats roamed, olive farms were scattered throughout the hills, and white villiages appeared every 10 minutes or so: it was one of the most serene experiences Shaun & I have ever experienced.

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We drove on for about another hour, unsure if we were actually headed towards El Churro but enjoying the trip nonethless. We followed the narrow, windy road literally up and down the moutains. At one point we looked to our side to find ourselves on level with moutain peaks in the distance. As we scaled to the top of what seemed to be just another mountain peak, the car pulled around a sharp curve and El churro came into view. There really are no words to describe the scene before us- resembling perhaps a portion of the grand canyon, the Grandholce dam sits at the top of mountains of rock with a river running along their base. We stood in awe of the site for a while before making our way down to a beautiful hotel/restaurant/bar underlooking the dam. We had a great lunch with an even better view! (PS Shaun was feeling adventurous at lunch after all the mountain driving- he had rabbit!)... We lingered at the restaurant for a while not wanting to leave, but eventually made our way back toards Malaga. On the way home Shaun taught me how to drive a manual car, well sort of- i need a bit more practice.

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After returning to Malaga we walked around the city for a while before finding a cute pizzaria/cafe in a gorgeous plaza (the plaza ground is made of marble with fiberoptic lighting!). As we were eating Shaun decided he didnt want us to spend the night in our car afterall. After resolving we´d find a hotel/hostel for under 50€, we stumbled upon a sign directing us to Hostel Larios. We rang the Hostel bell and inquired about a free room, he had one! We made our way up the dark stairs, my grip on Shaun´s hand definitely tightened on the walk up. BUT, as we openend the hostel door we were greeted by the cutest man and a gorgeous hostel AND we have airconditioning, a TV & free laundry... the bed quite possibly is more comfortable than the timeshare too- either way this will certainly be MUCH better than spending the night in our car with our backpacks (keep in mind our rental car is one of those extremely little European cars!).

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Today was an amazing day to say the least. Though it began completely UNPLANNED we could not have planned it any better. Goodbye for now- we´re off for drinks in Malaga before resting up for Milan tomorrow. XOXO