by Bradley

Key Words
Tapas

Would We Come Back? 
Yea, there were so many pinchos!

          At our sec0nd tapas bar stop we went to a pincho bar! Pinchos are little snacks and the word pincho actually refers to the toothpick in them. The way these places work is that you serve yourself tapas buffet style and keep the pinchos. When you are done eating they will count your pinchos and charge you by how many you ate.

by Katherine

Key Words
Tapas

Would We Come Back? 
No, didn't feel like there was anything special here.

          The first stop on our tapas tour was Bar Balmes, a fairly average tapas bar. Here, we met up with our guide and other people on the tour. We sat down and were asked what we wanted to drink, we each ordered a glass of white wine. There were about 12 of us total, ranging in different ages, but everyone spoke English. The tour was a great way to meet people as we chatted with fellow tourists from America and the Netherlands. 

by Bradley

          Whenever you go to visit a city you've never been to I highly recommend checking out Viator. It is a site where you can book tours and activities, and they are often posted by individuals and not big companies. They are awesome! I have used Viator multiple times now and this tapas tour was great as well.

          We started at one tapas bar where we met our guide and others that booked the tour as well. Our guide was a Barcelona native that you can tell loves her city. She was very friendly, knowledgeable and happy to answer any questions.

by Katherine

          Most of the hotels in downtown Barcelona were pretty pricey, so we opted for the Silken Diagonal, a bit farther away but right by a metro stop. The stop services both the main subway trains as well as the train that goes to the airport, making it an ideal location for our hotel. The hotel is also next door to the Torre Agbar building, which lights up in various colors at night. After arriving from Malaga, we needed to drop our bags off, but this was also our first moment of rest in I don't know how many days...so we napped til we had to leave for our tapas tour that evening. We didn't have a king size bed, but the Queen was pretty comfortable.

by Bradley

          Most airports have the usual annoyances of long security lines and whatnot but Malaga airport was out of control. The security lines were not that bad but the airport did not seem to know what was going on at all.

          Once we had gotten through security we looked at the flight board to find our gate, it said that it was still unknown and would be posted in in an hour or something. It actually was correct about when they would post it but that also happened to be 15 minutes prior to the plane's departure.

          We thought this was ridiculous especially because there were 4 different terminals and what if your flight was at the furthest gate? And this was not just for our flight, every single flight on the board did not have its gate posted until 15 minutes before it left. This airport is a nightmare! Make sure you check with the ticket desk where your flight is before going through security!

by Katherine

Key Words
Large Variety, English Friendly, Creative Cuisine, Tapas
                 
Would We Come Back? 
Definitely, excellent twists on traditional Spanish tapas and so many choices!

          It was our last night in Malaga, and I really wanted to try the food at El Tapeo de Cervantes because I had read excellent things about it and it was right around the corner from the flamenco show. We had snacked earlier, but I knew Brad would be starving afterwards, so we opted for a late dinner. The place was a little cramped, but it had that mom and pop kinda feel to it, as the owner (I presume) greeted us like a grandpa would. I wasn't too hungry but I just wanted to try everything on the menu!

by Bradley

          Going to a Flamenco show is a must when in Spain. I was intrigued by the idea when we booked it but I had no idea that it would be as awesome as it was. We were able to book online before going to ensure that we got a seat, that was definitely a good plan because it only sat about 40 people and it filled up.

          This was the real authentic experience, there was nothing fancy about this place, it was close quarters, had a very intimate feel, amazing acoustics (the ceiling was many stories above us), only the guitarist used a microphone, the walls were highly decorated, and the performers did everything from performing to taking tickets at the door to seating us to serving food and drinks.

          Like I said, it was super authentic emphasizing the core aspects of Flamenco: percussion (hands and feet), voice (no microphones), guitar, and dance. The guitarist was better than any I have seen in person, Flamenco guitar has such a fast pace it was incredible to watch his fingers. The dancer, who was also one of the two vocalists, was the wife of the guitarist and had so much passion in her movements.

by Katherine

         A lot of waterfronts in big cities are often super touristy, kinda trashy, and way overpriced. I don't know if it was because it was still the off-season, the off time of day, or if it's cuz Malaga is just that awesome, but Malaga's waterfront was calm and a relaxing, fun place to hang out. We headed to the waterfront for a bit before we had to go back to the hotel to ready for our flamenco show later. Expecting the tourist trap I had read about,we were really shocked to find so few people around. It was  disappointing that we only had about 45 minutes to spend strolling around. We passed shops and restaurants, including Gorki, the restaurant we had eaten at two nights earlier. I regretted not knowing about the waterfront location. Being that there were multiple locations, I doubt the waterfront prices would have been any different than the one we ate at.

by Bradley

Key Words
Tapas, Reasonably Priced, English Friendly

Would We Come Back? 
Yeah, we'd go back to check out the full menu.

          After leaving the Alcazaba we wanted to grab something quick to eat because we already had lunch but knew dinner would be really late after the Flamenco show that evening. When we walked out of the Alcazaba, there was a restaurant, GARVM, right in front of us that Katherine had looked up previously so it was perfect!

by Bradley

          The Alcazaba in Malaga is a fortification that is attached to the Gibralfaro castle. For a fortification it was surprising to me, it was very low to the ground as opposed to how high you had to climb to get to the castle. It was also surprising due to the fact that it is very decorative inside.

          The walls are decorated in many places and many of the ceilings are patterned and distinctly different from each other. There are also several courtyards with gardens or reflecting pools that make it a very inviting space.