Málaga

I love the sea. We made it to Málaga, Spain, along the Costa del Sol. Turns out tonight is a huge festival all along the beaches here, called Bonfires of San Juan. It´s just what it sounds like, there will be bonfires and fireworks all down the coast tonight at midnight. We found a beautiful hostel for only 20€ apiece that looks out over the harbor and is less than a 10min walk to the beach. Across the street is a series of tents in a plaza that turned out to be a 5-day long tapas festival! We dropped our packs immediately, changed into swimsuits, and headed down. Fish croquettes, pasta, rice pudding and of course iced Sangria. Mmmm. We´re going back for a mohito and dinner in a few hours.
Then came the beach! I have to say that we were unsure of what to expect of the Costa del Sol. Would it be all old British guys in yellow banana-hammocks? Or worse, a never-ending clip from an MTV summer special? In the end, we found neither! Lots of families, everyone enjoying the sun and surf, no mob scenes. The only thing distinguishing it from an American beach was the total lack of insecurity in people of all body types, and lots of people without tops. Wepulled up chairs in the sun near a family with a radio,and I figured, what the hell? I´m not going to have this chance again for a long time. So Megan and I shed our cloaks of insecurity and sun-bathed topless. It was odd at first, we kept expecting to get disdainful looks or creepy stares, but none came. There were old women and young women all around us doing the same thing! It really emphasizes the culture gap between Europe and America. In the end it was excellent, and we´re looking forward to the bonfires tonight. We took a couple pictures at the beach, and will take more this evening, so I´ll post those when we get to Barcelona day after tomorrow, since tomorrow´s the 10-hour train ride there. Viva del Sol!