Note to self: No matter how cost-effective ~ do NOT book a 7 am flight out of Gatwick on a Sunday morning. Since we don’t have a car in London, we rely on public transportation. On Sundays, the trains don’t run as early as during the weekdays. The 5am train was packed and we got to Gatwick with only 1 hour and 20 minutes before the flight was scheduled to take off. Not much time to check a bag and get through security. Thankfully, we made it to the gate before they closed the doors. Confession: we did cut in line at security.
All the travel stress melted away when we landed in Malaga ~ it was a balmy 21° (68° F) and sunny! Oh, how I’ve missed you Vitamin D. Logan and I checked-in at the hotel and promptly got into the Spanish culture by taking a 2 hour siesta.
From our hotel, we walked about 10 minutes to the town center and came upon the end of Malaga’s Carnival celebration. It’s a beautiful town and we only heard one other English-speaking couple. This area is a bastion for British visitors but my understanding is most go to the beach resorts just outside of town. Logan and I preferred to get a little more into the Spanish culture and practice our Spanish (such that it is) so we opted for a stay in Malaga.
Fountain in Malaga
Glimpse of the Cathedral in Malaga
Carnival in Malaga 2013
Logan in Malaga
Statue at PLaza de la Merced
Malaga Carnival decorations
We decided to eat dinner at “La Lechuga” ~ a place called The Lettuce seemed like a good start for a couple of vegetarians. It’s located at Plaza de la Merced ~ birthplace of Picasso. La Lechuga was a great choice ~ very yummy! And not for just veggies, there were chicken, duck and other animals on the menu.
Displaced Beachbums 
Looks pretty lovely! I should visit it as well.
And oh man, I hear you on early morning flights. I moved here 8 months ago and was so happy about all these cheap 7-8AM flights, but quickly realized that waking up at 330 or 4, then cabbing and then taking the train to the airport is not always feasible… and I live in Stoke Newington, so really need to get up early for Heathrow and Gatwick.
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So far, Malaga has been wonderful. Beautiful city with friendly locals who have been so patient with my attempts at speaking Spanish. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a quick getaway. I picked it because it was the cheapest flight I could find for this week.
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And you booked a week ago, yeah? I was under the impression that, for best results, trips need to be booked 3+ mo in advance (or so)? I’ve been traveling like a maniac since I moved here too. Where did you move from?
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I actually booked the flight to Malaga about 3 weeks ago. I entered all sorts of destinations such as Portugal, Turkey, Malta, Morocco, and all kinds of destinations in Spain. Malaga was the least expensive for this week.
We moved to London from Washington DC.
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