The Road Trip Saga: Do You Know Scooter? (Malaga)

Yup, it's your boy back at it again with them sick blog posts... I'll stop. 
What's up, guys? Another week, another couple hundred meltdowns from exam stress, social obligations and probably an unhealthy sleep pattern but hey, it's all about having fun in university, right?... Here's to a good study period and good luck with any exams or presentations.

So this is the second part of the Road Trip diary on what we did and where we went on the 6 day Road Trip in the Andalusian area of Spain. In the previous installment, you would have read about things like; Turning a normal Skoda into a dope trap car full of bangers, the different cat-related restaurants and the relaxing experience looking at the Alhambra.
With Granada now behind us, let's move on to the next stop and the amazing experience that is... Malaga!
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As the last part ended, we just finished eating in 4Gatos and picked up Olli and Frans, the two Finnish guys that joined us in Granada. After picking them up, our plan was to take the really coastal road to Malaga so that we could get a good look out at the sea and have some really nice views. As we were just leaving the city of Granada, a semi-coastal and not nearly as winding road was offered up as an alternative route. We would still get the views and get to see some mountains and lakes. Trusting the direction of Olli and Frans, we took their route towards Malaga. 
This route was in the direction of Motril. We followed the directions and we weren't disappointed. This route for sure gave us some of the best views I think I have seen in a really long time. The sun was beating down hard but the sunshine was just perfect as we came towards the coast. As we drove, on the right were sights like the Embalse de Béznar, the Sierra Nevada mountain range and other bodies of water that was just a treat for the eyes.
There were no stops on the way to Malaga, as it was just a 2 hour drive. We left Granada at around 2:30 and were in Malaga at around 4:30 in the afternoon. When we got to Malaga, the sun was still high. As we were in separate groups

with two cars, the others were already ahead of us and we all had to wait a while before we were able to get the keys and enter our Airbnb. The others were in Malaga and having lunch somewhere by the time we arrived in the city so we parked up our car and decided to walk around the city for a while.
The idea to walk around was somewhat squashed by the fact that we had our luggage and were also just tired and as soon as the word "beer" was mentioned, it was the priority. We left our car parked in some unmarked parking area that still had an attendant, or maybe he was just there wearing a visibility vest... He still took a euro from us but hey, the car was parked straight so no complaints. We walked around the corner and up the street to the nearest cafeteria. The place was kind like the typical cafeteria/bar places you'd see nestled beside an alimentacion or something. However, we went in and ordered a beer each and decided we'd have a look at the fruit machines they had.
Man vs Machine. That's the best way I can describe what happened at the fruit machines. "Everything on red" at the roulette games just wasn't working for us. Our money and game credits were like sand in our hands. If anyone could fish out 50 cents, then were betting all on red and still losing 😂 We watched the locals and how they were just constantly winning. I took a chance at the fruit machine with absolutely no clue whatsoever but still managed to turn 50 cent into €3.20, so not bad but... it immediately went on all red and I lost it as quickly as I won it. Frans was the only other one of us successful on the games. But the Man vs Machine was not about the game but the battle to get a container of snus (tobacco powder for your upper lip) out of the cup holder of the fruit machine. After admitting it was a bad idea to do so but persuaded to do it anyway, Max slipped the container into the holder. It was pure comedic gold to watch him get it out 😆
Before getting into the apartment, we walked towards the street of our

apartment and decided to grab a bite to eat. Across the street from our apartment was a cafeteria called "Cafe Vicente" on the Plaza de Capuchinos. There, we got ourselves bocadillos and beers. The bocadillos were actually quite good and it was the most chill place. The bartender smoking inside. Everyone just relaxed with a beer. It was a mixture of different things, I guess. As we finished up, the others came to us to tell us that the Airbnb was ready and we could head over there. So we let them go ahead as we finished up and followed them over. 
The apartment we booked was a pretty cool place. The place we got was a loft apartment with ability to host 9 people. One bathroom, two rooms and a lot of beds. The bed I got was sharing the sofa bed. It was one of those pull out beds. But we didn't do anything with it as we were all looking to get out and take a look around the marina. We left the apartment and walked towards the town center. The town was full of people celebrating and there were large processions of people in their celebratory garb for the Santa Semana. It was

even bigger than that of Granada. Each side of the street was full of people, so it made it difficult to walk.
 Eventually making it into open space, we made our way down and reached the Paseo España, a nice walkway parallel to the marina. We stayed there for around 10 to 15 minutes, looking out at the marina as the sun was setting. It was really perfect actually and it was really beautiful to watch. But soon, the beauty of the marina and the sunset was soon overshadowed by the hunger that was creeping up on us and also the Barcelona v Juventus match that was soon to start. So realizing we were all hungry, we left towards the boardwalk area of the Marina where the restaurants were. We didn't really had to walk terribly far because as soon as we came onto the boardwalk, we spotted The Good

Burger. After quick inspection, we found out they were showing the match. So, this was our place for the evening. 
Two burgers, a couple of beers and 90 minutes later, we were full and happy with the 3-0 win from Juventus. The girls sat outside during the match, which was a nice place to sit with the marina just beside them. So after a quick chat, it was decided that we would continue on to find a bar and have a couple of drinks before going back home to bed. Walking through the streets now loaded with people, it was hard to find a place. Passing by Irish bars (breaking my heart), we eventually found a place that had seats outside. The bar was called "Baraboo Gin y Copas" and one of the main draws is that the place had Finnish Gin, Napue Gin or the best Gin in the world. We sat at the Baraboo bar, ordered a round of drinks and shisha. Perfect setting to chat and let Olli and Frans get to know those of us they didn't know. As we drank, the Santa Semana celebrations continued behind us. We smoked the shisha and had our drinks. Maybe getting a bit of the buzz. The Napue Gin, I have to say

was really good. I'll for sure drink it again if I get the chance, it was really nice. Full bodied and nice flavor to it. We drank up and then decided to have a nightcap back at the house before our day at the beach. 
We got home, cracked open some beers and played some bangers. Two different conversations happening, all while Teemu prepared himself for a job interview the following morning. Some of us were talking about different music. Speaking about German music, the musician Scooter came up in conversation, prompting me to ask an open question "Do you know Scooter?" followed by me playing one of his tracks. Long story short, my right to play bangers was revoked... After this, it was kind of a blur as we all headed to bed.
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The next day we woke at around 10-ish. The girls were already up and out, going to see some sights around the city before they headed to the beach. We all got ourselves ready as Teemu took his phone interview. Realizing I didn't pack any swim shorts, I had to borrow some sport shorts as a substitute from Teemu (Thanks man 😊). Lathering myself with sun cream because I easily burn with my pale, Irish skin and packing a duffel bag, we were all set to go.
On our way to the beach, we decided to stop not far away from our apartment for some breakfast. Not too far away and on our way to the beach was a little corner place called "Cafe Baena". Immediately when we walked in, we were greeted by the cook, a British lady. Their advertised English breakfast now got me excited, knowing a British person was cooking. Most of us ordered the English breakfast with coffee, juice and toast. The juice was fresh, coffee was helpful in perking us up but the breakfast itself was kind of a let down. There was a lot of space on the plate they gave us as the portion was actually just quite small, I thought. It was like... half an English breakfast but I wasn't 100%

satisfied.

After this, we walked down towards the beach, looking for a place in which we could purchase some beach equipment. Coming to the Marina, we came to a beach side alimentacion, just off of the beach. We went and bought a beach ball and bought matching hats. Cause you know. All gangs need to have a thing. Sun lotion and hats is ours. I wasn't complaining about the hat, it was quite helpful when you wanted to relax. 
We got to the beach and to the place where the girls had rented sun loungers under the sun. We set out our beach towels, got ourselves covered up in sun lotion and laid in the sun for a little while before making it to the water. The sand was hot, the water was initially cold. The run to the bathroom was difficult with the skin burning on the bottom of your feet. Playing in the water with the ball was difficult, being blinded by salt water made it quite hard indeed. But the coolest thing we saw however was when we were just laying out, noticing a helicopter circling the beach. We thought they were searching for something but people came parachuting out of the helicopters, which was really cool! We watched as they landed not too far up the beach from us.
At around 4 was when hunger struck. Behind us was a beach restaurant called "El Cachalote" where we had to make a reservation 30 minutes before eating. We waited with beers, Max, Jan and I as they got our table ready. We eventually sat, next to the girls who were eating here also. At this place, they were serving grilled fish which attracted a lot of attention. Teemu and I ordered the grilled chicken while the others grilled fish, I want to say Seabass. Half of our fries

were still cold but the chicken was actually quite good. And the fish was said to be good but just small, as they were still kind of hungry afterwards.
As we went back to relax, coming towards us were the people we were waiting for. Morten, Stephan, Sascha and François. The boys from Madrid on a road trip themselves. They laid out beside us before a game of football started up. Finland v Others. Jan, the girls and I laid spectating at the comical sight. But when the game was coming to an end, so did our time at the beach. The girls already left, as we had a dinner reservation in the evening. We weren't long following them back. We arrived back and got ready for dinner. 
We made the reservation for the restaurant on TripAdvisor. So with this, we got a 30% discount on our final bill. The place we reserved dinner was a restaurant called "Sabor a Fuego" on Paseo de Sancha. A bit of a walk from our place but it was a nice walk. At was on the next street from the beach, so we were quite close. We got there at 9:30, in time for our reservation.
Probably the nicest meal we had on the trip. The waiter was really attentive to our table. Telling us the best offers and combinations of things to get, personal recommendations with the food and with the wine. The food. I ordered the Beef Milanese. A breaded cut of beef with a side of butternut squash pureé and mashed potato. It was amazing. The beef was well done and exactly how I like

it. The word from the others who ordered things like the beef entrecote and the steak was that it was really good. With our offer, we all got desserts afterwards, some going for the Espresso martini's or the Cava Ice-cream. I had just the

typical ice-cream with chocolate sauce. Aw it was heaven. It was perfect, just after the main course and with red wine. It left us full and happy.
After dinner, it was drinking time. Deciding what to do was the hard part. Not wanting to go all the way back to our place but with no where else to go, buying from an alimentacion and going to a park was just the answer we needed. It was hilarious there. Conversations ranged from: Favourite Superhero to If we should save the pigeon that a cat is chasing... As we got drunker, the pigeon definitely needed to be saved. So, before leaving. Lotta and I almost went into the bushes to find either the cat or the pigeon... Yup. Almost IN the bushes. 
"I'm loving angels instead..." We sang walking from the park near the marina to the center of town. Our destination, Sala Gold Night Club. Did I bring my ID? No I did not. I had to walk all the way back to the apartment to get my ID while the others went in, which ended up in me taking a wrong turn and what was supposed to be a 20 minute venture for my ID, ended up being an hour. But when I got to the club, it was pretty awesome! The boys were still on the dancefloor. I joined them, ordering my drinks and dancing a bit. When we noticed the girls in the VIP area, our mission then was to join them. A guy offered the girls to come into the VIP section, who then managed to get us into the area also, which I give good credit for because the bouncer was a hard-faced man.
The guy whose table we kinda crashed, had 2 big bottles of gin (Bombey Sapphire and Beefeater), two shisha and a lot of glasses. The only conversations he seemed to want was to just tell us to drink up. Good chat. I didn't disagree with what he said, nor did the rest of us. 
Two bottles of gin and two bottles of champagne later, it was 7:30 already and we had to be up in a few hours to be out of the apartment. We left the club and went straight for kebab. A place in the center was still open, so we bought our kebabs and made our way home. On the way home. I'd say two meters of police tape just laid on the ground. So, being a good person, I picked it all up and took it into the apartment. Someone could have tripped on that on the street...
Going to sleep was a blur. But waking up 2 hours later with the landlady of the Airbnb at the door was also not the best sight. And for her, seeing all of us

dressed in our party clothes in bed, with police tape on the floor and also me sleeping on a mattress on the floor, must not have been ideal. Hence why we all have the memory of her walking in with "Hola. Get out". I laugh every time. So I would say in 30 minutes, we were up, packed and sitting outside the door. The plan for the rest of the day? Breakfast and sleep on the beach.
Jan, Erika, Lotta and I drove to the beach where we parked at an underground car park and then went to eat at a place called "La Canasta". It was nice but the breakfast was hard to digest and we all just felt bad from, I wanna say the night before but it was just a few hours before. As we ate, Frans walked past us on his way to the bus station as he was leaving for Granada. Hugs and handshakes goodbye as he went his way, we paid and left for the beach. 
On the beach, Teemu, Olli, Max, Frank and Morten were there and we all just went under the palm trees and slept for two hours I would say. After the nap on the beach it was a case of dine and dash to get to the next city. So, back to The Good Burger for some road food. It was good food for the stomach. We ate, and then Erika, Jan, Lotta and I were out and hit the road.

Malaga was awesome. The memories from Malaga are just comical. Between the VIP area, Max's Snus/Fruit machine situation, hunting for wildlife with Lotta... It was all pretty amazing in Malaga. 
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Stay tuned for the next installment where we eat, drink and laugh even more!
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And remember to hit us up on our social media!
Max: immonenmax
Me: DavidCandyKeane
Erika: erikaojala

And my snapchat: Dave_Keane

The Road Trip Saga: Granada

Hey guys! What a month it's been! A couple of midterm exams, a presentation or two and this road trip has been and gone. Santa Semana just finished also. Santa Semana is the Easter Week of Spain, which I think could be a bigger celebration that what I have experienced in Ireland. I hope you all, Erasmus or otherwise are getting ready for the final exams and remember, live the last few weeks of Erasmus to the absolute max! 

But what Road Trip did I mean? I'm talking about the 5/6 Day Road Trip I just completed with my friends down the South of Spain on the Costa del Sol in three incredible cities! That road trip of course! It's been hard to not upload all the picture I took of the incredible places on The Poor Student Traveller facebook page, which if you haven't, be sure to give a like! https://www.facebook.com/ThePoorStudentTraveller/
So on to the road trip itself! I'm excited to share the experience with you all! I guess lets begin with the set-up for the trip and the first destination!

The Set-Up

Around a month or so before we actually departed Madrid to go anywhere, my friends and I were discussing the possibility of doing something on Easter Week. Most of us were not really interested in heading home just for a few days when we have an amazing country that we haven't discovered much of. So with the concept of at least traveling on Easter Week, my friends Max (who has been mentioned in one or two posts before), Erika, Lotta, Jan and I met up in Madrid one evening to discuss the possibilities and the different things we would need for a road trip. We discussed everything, Locations, transport, people and what we would do and see at these places.
One of the biggest factors for the trip had to be BEACH! Living in Madrid and with the temperatures reaching around 24->30 degrees celsius, as much as I like the city, it sucks being here without a body of water or no beach to chill at. After a lengthy discussion, we finally came to the conclusion that the places we wanted to visit were: Granada, Malaga and Sevilla. We would rent cars, depending on the amount of people going and rent AirBnB apartments! After this discussion, up until the week before the trip was spent getting numbers on how many were going and making sure all accommodation and transportation was sorted out! After that... We were ready to go!

Granada

To begin with the first destination, Max, my friend Teemu and I left Madrid at around 10:30 after an hour spent in the office of Hertz/Thrifty, the company we were renting on of the cars from. At the Thrifty office, we were there with the attendant of the office discussing the different prices and different insurance packages we could get with the car we were renting. In total, the whole car altogether cost close to 473€. Within this mount included theft and damage insurance, which we took due to the fact that it was Santa Semana, as well as the car itself. Initially. we were supposed to be getting a Seat Ibiza, but were upgraded to a Skoda Superback. A car perfect for our trip, with enough room, The almost 500€ price was maybe 100 or 150 euro over what we estimated but with an upgraded car, it wasn't the worst price. 

From there it took around 4 hours to get to Granada. We carried water, peanuts, bananas, croissants and chips with us for the journey, you know, essential road trip snacks. Not satisfying our growing hunger, we stopped at a little roadside restaurant about one 45 minutes to an hour outside of Madrid where we sat, had a coffee to refresh ourselves and ate some bocadillos before hitting the road. The drive was quite nice with Max and Teemu. The car was rocking from a mixture of Big Sean, Drake, 21 Savage, Black Eyed Peas and my

favourite... JVG from Finland!

We arrived in the city of Granada at around 3:30 or 4pm, with the sun still shining and it was still quite warm. As we came into the city of Granada, the first thing we could see was the Sierra Nevada mountains, The snow covered peaks could be seen and it made for a spectacular view as we drove and made our way into the city. We drove around the city of Granada for about 20 minutes both trying to find our Airbnb location and also a good parking spot that would be close enough to our apartment and easily accessible. Eventually, we managed to find a spot just off the Camino de Ronda, the street in Granada with a phenomenal view of the Sierra Nevada peaks. Our parking spot was a 3 to 5 minute walk away from our Airbnb. We parked up, took our bags and made our way to the Airbnb where the remainder of our road trip group, Jan, Erika, Lotta and Laura were waiting for us to arrive. 

The other group took their car promptly from Centurion Car rental from the San Fernando area of Madrid which is quite close to the airport and is adjacent to the AC Hotel in that area. They took a Fiat 500L, which provided both room and comfort for even five people as well as luggage.

We got to the apartment. The apartment we rented from Airbnb was only 44€/night. As we stayed only one night, it was perfect. The apartment consisted of 4 bedrooms and 7 beds, enough for the seven of us, comfortably. The apartment was also fitted with two terraces, one with a perfect view of the Alhambra, 2 bathrooms and an appropriately sized kitchen. It was perfect!

After gathering our surroundings, we left the apartment in search of a place to eat and also get a good look at the city. As it was Semana Santa, it made it quite difficult to move around the streets as the pilgrims and devotees, some dressed in their Santa Semana costumes, filled the streets. We found ourselves at a restaurant not too far away from the Cathedral of Granada. The place was called Meson de Mar. Here, my friends Max, Teemu and I ordered the grilled chicken breast with fries. Lotta and Laura ordered the potato, prawn and asparagus. Out of all the places we ate at during the whole 5 day trip, I think the general consensus leads to believe that the Meson de Mar was not the best restaurant we visited on the trip. The portions were really small and the service was not that good, they forgot our requests quite often. I didn't even take a

picture of the food, it was quite disappointing. And you know how important food is for me...
After dinner, we made our way through the small streets of Granada, going through the crowds of celebrations until we came out on one of the main streets and almost immediately, we made the first pitstop at Massimo Dutti, the clothing retailer where Max was eager to find and buy a new shirt. After a comical 15/2o minutes at the store, we left empty handed with Max not finding what he wanted. We then moved forward towards the base of the climb towards the Alhambra where we looked in awe and also mild fright at the procession of people in the Santa Semana festivities. We watched and waited for two Finnish friends to meet us. The two friends, Olli and Frans met us and then decided to guide us up the climb to the Alhambra viewpoint. The walk up was really cool. We passed through the really interesting Arabic market area which had really cool smells and the products all looked really interesting. 
We kept climbing and eventually came to the viewpoint with our beers. We all took our touristy pictures, had our beers and had nice chats as the sun hit our faces. After maybe 20 or 30 minutes just chilling at this viewpoint, we

wondered about going higher to get an even better view of the Alhambra as the sunset. We climbed and climbed higher until we came to a nice resting area. This place was so beautiful with the Alhambra being lit up by the sun on its back. From my friends, you could feel the relaxation and from myself also. It was peaceful. 
Our stomachs were mostly the reason for leaving the high viewpoint of the Alhambra. We were getting hungry, and not surprising after the lunch we had 😂. Olli and Frans, our Finnish friends, suggested and accompanied us to a restaurant. Back down to the main streets of Granada, the two boys led us to the restaurant, "7Gatos" or "7Cats". The place had a good atmosphere, and had our reservation ready for us. We freshened up and took our seats. A big push came from Olli and Frans to take the burrito, their recommendation. A majority of the group ordered the burrito, I ordered the cheddar calzone (I hadn't had a calzone since my time in Italy). Max and Frans ordered the hamburgers. We got our beers. The Alhambra beer in Granada is really nice, I would recommend trying it! We were given mini burritos on a bed of couscous as an appetizer before our food, and my god... if it was an indicator for the food to come, then we were in for a treat because they were delicious. I just couldn't stop eating the couscous.
We got our food in what felt like no time at all. The burritos all looked really really tasty. I was internally jealous but I received my cheddar calzone which looked just so good. We all chowed down and conversed about Granada, what we did in the day etc. The drinks went down well and so did the food. I don't think there wasn't an empty plate! We finished up, paid and left. The plan for then was to just chill for the night, after a long day.
We went to an alimentacion, bought some drinks, went back to our apartment and just had a really nice and relaxing evening.
The next morning, after a little lie in, we packed up our cars, left the Airbnb and went for breakfast. The place we went was on the climb up to the Alhambra. The girls already left before us so

they were already there. The place where we ate was called "4Gatos". No idea about the fascination with cats in Andalusia, but oh well! 4Gatos was so good. It was a small-ish place but the food was really really good! I ordered the granola with banana and some toast and coffee. Max and Teemu ordered the Omega 3 salmon toast and Jan ordered the muesli with cinnemon.  The food was so delicious with fresh orange juice and really good coffee, but also at a reasonable price. If anyone is going to Granada, I recommend eating in 4Gatos!
After breakfast, we were back down and into the cars, picked up Olli and Frans to bring to Malaga with us and away we were onto the next city!

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Next will be the post about Malaga! Stay tuned for that!

Thanks to Erika for use of some of her Granada pictures! 
Be sure to follow on Instagram: erikaojala 
And to Max for his advice also. Check him on insta: immonenmax
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And be sure to check up with my 'gram!: Dave_Keane