The Marathon: Malaga II

Of course, it started to rain while we were landing in Malaga. The marathon was kicking us while we were down again. One of the reasons we were going to stay in Malaga an extra night was to see the processiones. Spain is an incredibly catholic country, and the influence can be seen pretty strongly during Semana Santa (“Holy Week”), the week preceding Día de la Resurreción (Easter). They have huge processions of Catholic imagery and parades of people in repentance and celebration of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. It’s really fascinating, you should Google image them and check out what they look like. It’s a lot of fanfare and can sometimes be more about who’s Church or brotherhood had the most money and the best procession, and not the religion itself (there are A LOT of people, though, who do take it to have a religious significance). My point is that the processiones do not proceed if it’s raining. The images are extraordinarily heavy and huge; it’s dangerous for them to proceed when it’s raining. When we got to the hostel they had confirmed that some of them had been cancelled earlier in the week because of the rain.

We just went to the grocery store to buy some food and made pasta in the hostel kitchen, hoping that the rain would let off and it would become dry enough for them to proceed. We showered and crawled into bed. Sona, Maya, and I were in a 8 person room and Conrad and Jake were in a separate 6 person room. The three of us passed out early, and never even heard our roommates come home. We never did make it out to see the processiones, which apparently did end up happening that night. A couple of them were able to proceed that evening, but not all of them. Jake and Conrad went to see them, but the three girls were passed out early. We were absolutely drained from the journey.

We started off the next day with a trip to the Museo Picasso Malaga. Picasso was born in Malaga and his daughter-in-law and grandson donated a large collection of his works to the city of Malaga to create a museum. We were lucky and got in for free with out Euro under 26 cards. Once again we saw the German influence on Malaga, the museum guides were in Spanish, English, and German. The museum itself was actually pretty cool too. There were a ton of “I’m pretty sure I could have drawn that at 5” paintings and other Picasso works. He was one of the most influential artists of the 20^th century, and some of the artwork was truly unique. I had already seen Guernica in the Reina Sofia, and it was interesting to see more of his work.

I really like one of the quotes we saw on the walls. Picasso referenced a Spanish saying: “Obras son amores y no buenas razones. Lo que cuenta es lo que se hace y no lo que se tenia la intencion de hacer.” It basically translates to: Love is deeds, not good reasons. What counts is what you do, not what you have the intention to do.

We walked along the beach a little afterwards to kill sometime before our train left at 6:20. It was actually pretty dirty and not the nicest beach. Us Californians are quite the beach critiques, but it truly wasn’t a fantastic beach. It was, however, nice to finally be at a beach again (even it did have a bunch of Germans trying to tan on it).

A 55 minute train ride that afternoon and I was finally back to Córdoba. My piso (apartment) has never felt more home-like and comforting as it did when I first sat on my bed Saturday afternoon. I was finally going to be able to sleep in a room alone and not wonder whether or not the sheets were truly clean or if I was going to miss a flight in the morning…

Makes me kind of ready for the same feeling when I get back to California.