The capital

I'm going to speak a little about the city where I spent most of my youth. This is the city that I felt in love with, even though ironically it was the city that I rejected to move to when I was sixteen.

Let me give you a little bit more context about the subject. Even though I was born in Caracas - Venezuela, all my origins come from Malaga. My parents moved from Malaga to Caracas when they were young in hope for a better future (all emigrants will feel identified with this), and that's where I was born.

They thought, including myself that we were going to stay in Caracas forever, but life has demonstrated to us that things can change, in ways that you can't even imagine, so because the situation of the country, they decided to go back to Spain. And this is where this story begins.

Like I said before, I was fifteen and I moved to this city without understanding really what was going on. The only thing that I thought around that time was that I want it to go back to Caracas where all my friends were and go back to my normal life, or at the least the life that I knew back then.

Everything was difficult for me, I just started university, the language was different, the people were different, my friends were more than eight hours away, I just saw an endless list of cons. It was not a great place to be.

People say time heals wounds, and in a way I think they are right. It was a really tough year, but I started meeting people that changed completely my way of seeing life, started discovering places that brought me a lot of good feelings, and of course I was living the history of my family in the city itself. In this article I'll speak about the first places that I got to know.

I think one of the first where I felt a strong connection with, was near the sea, close to the port. I used to spend a lot of time after university around the area, either because of difficult moments or just because it was peaceful, and gave me a lot of time to think about everything. From there I had a complete view of the open sea and a big piece of the history of the city.

By then it looked a little different. There was no port, there were only rocks, sea and the city in the distance. Today is the main turistic port of the capital where all the cruices stop and a lot of people walk around with their families and/or friends.

Another place that I felt in love with was not that far away but on the mountain, called "Mirador de Gibralfaro". So many dawns, sunsets and even during the middle of day I have spent in that area. I think you can't explain it too much until you go there, but from there you can have one of the most beatiful views of the coast.

Malaga is characterized by having a lot of narrow streets that end up in plazas or main streets. The reason of the narrow streets is because of the weather and the air, but going back to my original idea, it is really nice that after passing through one of these streets you end up in a beatiful place. For example, the Cathedral.

I'll start with this monument, I guess because it has a really interesting history, but also because what really caught me was the shape of the towers. Is also called "La Manquita" or in english one-armed lady. If you observe one of the two main towers is incomplete. There is a plaque at the base of the tower wich states "the funds raised by the parish to finish it, were used instead to help the British colonies to gain their independence from Great Britain and become the United States of America". There is a reason behind this, which I will let you find out, since is not my purpose to give a history lesson, but is funny how even around that time people could sacrifice big projects to help other people.

The other big example about small streets ending in a big plaza is what is called "Plaza La Constitucion". Even in the Nazari era it was an important plaza, but after that, it continue beeing the scenario of political and public events. Today has become symbol of freedom, where you can see on the floor some of the papers celebrating the first constitution of Spain, that's why the name that it has today.

The plaza is connected with the main comercial street called "Calle Larios". In my opinion is one of the most beatiful streets of Malaga. It changes the atmosphere depending on the season. Is the place of meeting for a lot of people and where you go for walks, see stores, eat and so many other things. Related with food I completely recommend you that you go to "Casa Mira" in that street, is the best place to eat turron or ice cream of turron. Everybody that has been there knows what I'm speaking about.

Like I started this article I once rejected coming to this city, today I'm in a completely different position. This city has teached me a lot and still does. So like I said in a previous article, I will continue sharing my experiences so other people get the opportunity to discover the good things about it, like I did.