Final full day in Málaga

I was always going to be a bit sore after spending so long walking around Málaga, so I wasn’t that shocked to find out I needed a couple of Tylenol to move about. As it happened, today was a work day, so I could sit around and mope a bit.

Went out for a walk mid-afternoon, just in the neighbourhood around the apartment. One thing I have to day about the Spanish, they like their tagging or graffiti or whatever you call it. It’s a real art form. This was on the outside of a school.

Back for dinner and to pack up, as I have to leave for France tomorrow. Went for another walk once it had all been done, as I wanted a drink but didn’t want to open a bottle. Ended up again at the local café where I bumped into Antonio again. He’d just done a 14-hour day as a chef. Fair enough.

When he learned I was leaving to go to Madrid and then on to France, there was another round of drinks (not, I hope, because I was leaving) and then he pointed me to the TV screen, where apparently Madrid had been hit by a generational snow storm. There were journalists in the streets, cars sliding across roads, images of planes grounded and trains stuck in snowbanks.

“Where is this?” I asked.
“Madrid,” he said. “Today. Big storm. Probably going to last for a week. You’ll be stuck here for a long time.”

I must have looked horror stricken because I was handed a brandy, which of course I gladly accepted. The conversation ranged on and on with me trying to get hold of Renfe to see what was going on.

Ten minutes or so later, he and the barman burst out laughing. They’d been playing a YouTube video of a storm two years or so ago on the café’s close circuit TV.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. So, I had another drink.