‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ – millions of Indians especially hindi movie buffs wanted to take a trip like that at least once in their lives and so did I! Pristine beaches, sparkling blue waters, white villages, the adrenaline rush associated with bull racing, the fun element of throwing tomatoes at each other and of-course the foot-tapping music and dance of Flamenco—these are the thoughts which crisscrossed my mind when I was planning for this trip. The only additional thing which I could think of was Tapas bars and restaurants. Also, I made a mental note to myself for looking up ‘Google Bhai’ for the shopping possibilities.
The thought of vacation itself was soul-stirring for me having been stuck at home and that too under the horrendous pressure of my little one writing her first board exams. We also made a major deviation from our usual travel planning this time – of getting ourselves a ‘travel buddy’- something which we had never experimented with in our many previous holidays. A common friend proposed ‘Catterfly’ and we decided to ‘fly’ along. For once we thought of leaving the planning to someone else and thus we land up in Malaga some couple of months later! (By the way, we had a very interesting journey of travelling via Moscow and I was already repenting for not including it in our itinerary. The view outside the airport was magnificent even though we were freezing inside the airport with all our jackets happily checked in (after all we were vacationing in Spain!!!).
The first aerial view of Malaga excited me beyond words but hubby dear was more excited about getting into a car and driving. Now for a vehophobic person like me (in case you don’t know what it means, it’s fear of driving), I was absolutely going insane at the thought of right hand driving in Spain (to me it felt like asking to eat with left hand when all you know is eating with RIGHT HAND only!!). Hubby surprised the hell out of me by driving the car just like a duck takes to water… it’s a matter of preferences I guess ;). We had only a few minor hitches. We drove around the same place at least 4 times to find the right way to the hotel, and then waited in the hotel lobby for 2 hours (Yes – two hours!!! Sometimes I wish ki yeh India wala ‘Bhaiiya zara thik se dekhie….mujhe dekhne dijiye’ tactics works everywhere. It makes life so simpler instead of relying so heavily on technology) because the hotel management mixed up names while booking. But finally, we checked into our room which had a grand view of the clear blue of the Mediterranean Sea. The next three days was tripping on the unadulterated beauty of amazing Andalusia.
Nestled in the Southern part of Spain lies the culturally rich and alluring region of Andalusia consisting of 8 provinces: Seville, Malaga, Granada, Jaen, Cordoba, Almeria, Cadiz, and Huelva. The three of us were ready to soak in some sun, Spanish culture, and road trip fun. With its interesting crossover of Moorish past and Roman relics, rustic Spanish charm and mind-blowingly beautiful countryside, Andalusia stole our heart.
We did a lot in three days; explored Malaga in and out, travelled to Granada, Nerja, Marbella, Puerto Banus, Ronda and finally ended the road trip in a sweet and romantic note in Seville.
