La Playa Part II - Malagueta Beach

Far, far away I'd become a beach connoisseur. We had been to this beach almost everyday in Malaga. If we weren't in the water, we were at the shore, on the boardwalk or in a neighboring place. There are other beaches in Malaga but this is the farthest point. It is adequate as the peoples beach. The few times that we went we saw the same faces, activities, peddlers and bartenders. There was the sun leathered woman who ran the umbrella chair stand. There were her senior and expat friends who took turns running it.There was the red headed teenage girl and her friends who smoked cigarettes while lathering each other up in tanning lotion. There was the nude lesbians who swapped stories with other sunbathers about tattoos.There was the hunk making pina coladas who was the splitting image of Manny in "Scarface". In observing these natives and tourists alike I realized most people come to the beach multiple times a day. The housewives come when the laundry is done. The business men come for a mid-day shandy and tapas. The gay boys are there with their grandmothers. After a few days of observing the natives  I knew what to do.

I'm Laughing At You Now

At first I allowed karma to get her. The shower head she was so adamant about not doing anything to destroyed her. We'd parted ways and when I came in there were soaked towels laying everywhere. My immediate reaction was to get all the towels replaced. I loved watching her attempt to speak neyorican to them. Thankfully, my grade school Spanish worked just fine without her. It tickled me to come back in the room with a tower of towels, trash emptied and ask if she needed more shampoo. I enjoyed killing her with kindness, showing her that she wasn't the purveyor of everything and laughing on the inside. As much as we we're not dealing with other we still had mutual interests. The few days we didn't share any it was pure joy to have to the quiet and privacy. She took her risks, I hibernated indoors and the separation was vital. We never knew where each others head was and for me that was invincibility. I chose when I didn't want to be bothered with her and she had to work to get rid of me.

What A Long Time To Be Miserable

I keep having to wrap my finger around this. We were in Malaga for nine days. Nine days! In nine of those days I argued with my so called friend almost daily. If it wasn't a full blown argument it was a one-sided negative conversation, a combative match of wits or a firestorm of digs and zings. In a place of pure relaxation I was exhausted from it. I'm not purely recalling from memory. I mean if I were to do that facts would get lost and events would be diluted. I am using all of my resources including my picture perfect brain to tie it all together. This process even with my resources is tiring. I have photos, metadata, a planner, my phone (which is like a time capsule) and pages of blog entries I never posted. I also have some interesting perspective being able to sit down and pick up the past. There are some days when I am here and it is refreshing. I love to write about the places I've been, the food and the a-ha moments. Other days it is just as draining as the original scrapbook moment and I slam my laptop shut. I'm only having to relive a few bad times but seriously was I that miserable for that long?

Blogging and Talking

After two straight days of her bullshit she asked if we could talk. She tried to meld the conversation into a dinner invite which I declined. I mean just hours before we were arguing in the street - so I clearly wasn't breaking bread with her. Besides I had already eaten and taken refuge in the hotel. Soon she came back from her involuntary stroll and dinner for one. She immediately began prancing around while trying to explain herself. She appeared to be extremely erratic so I chose to ignore her. While she spoke I didn't even look at her. I never made eye contact with her. It was clear she wasn't expecting a response. She simply took our time to "talk" to explain her behavior and overall personality anyways. These were her excuses. These were the reasons I should allow her to go on as she had been. Basically the gist was she had always been like this. Her earlier outburst had nothing to do with money or resentment or jet lag. She just made a mistake in inviting me or anyone for that matter.

Being The Smaller Person (Looking Back)

So yeah this is the part of the trip where I don't regret my actions. I seriously don't know if there was a better way to go about things. All I can remember is being put in a very awkward and difficult situation. So here I was in a strange land with now an equally strange person. I realized this person had a lot more control of my near destiny than I did. From Madrid on, everything was booked by her. In most cases, I didn't have a clue about where we were staying, dates etc. I'd only booked travel arrangements, so trains from one destination to another and our flight to Italy. However, she held all the tickets, booking confirmations etc. So I had zero control on what came next. My friends were all saying I told you so. My mother was in fear thinking we would get into a really bad argument. I always felt like she would just up and leave. However, I was continually battling with the potential loss of things I hadn't found yet. I wanted to go home and I wanted to continue this trip of a lifetime. I was trying to assess the risk of each decision. The what ifs and the shoulda, coulda, would as. 

Trouble In Paradise

I really thought Malaga was going to redeem everything. This was a last ditch effort to make things right. I'd already bought my tickets to return to Paris. However, I hadn't bought any tickets to actually get home from there. My mother was pretty much sitting on cash for me decide what to do. I knew the longer I waited to decide I wouldn't have enough money or wind up stranded. So I pretty much put my best foot forward in being a friend. Was I really going to leave this trip early? There was still so much to see and do. I just had no idea what it was I wanted or what I could end up missing. So I let each day make the decision for me.

Seriously What's Not To Love About Malaga

So we have just arrived in paradise. We have sunk our feet in the dusty sand and in the bubbling waters. We are parched. So we come back to the shopping area and find a place to settle in. This restaurant offering a Indian and Mexican mash up lures us in with 5 Euros drinks. So we sit for a drink or two and ultimately decide to eat dinner there as well. We start with some tropical drinks, have parantha naan and then decide to get a few apps to share. I remember having the most amazing samosas and guacamole. We were seated outside directly in view of the sunset. The waitstaff rolled back the sun shades as the night began to come. Malaga has endless nights moreso than France. There was no twilight until around 9pm with an official sunset between 10 and 10:30pm. The night was forever young. We realized for the next nine days we can drink like that, eat like that and swim whenever we wanted. We were seriously in paradise.