Rosie loved spending one month living in a quiet suburb of Malaga in Spain whilst The Operator was at home working in New Zealand. Rosie was as far away from the beach resorts and tourist areas as she could be. And, whilst being apprehensive at first grew to love this area of Plaza de la Victoria making some great friends along the way in a place where she seemed to be the only non Spanish person around.
Rosie pretty much stuck to her neighborhood for the month, it had everything she needed in a small walk able radius, supermarket, butcher, baker, fruit shop, cafes, restaurants, bookshop, pharmacy and hairdressers. Rosie would venture forth and explore more as needs must if she required anything out of the ordinary…like a tube of cardboard to store posters in without them getting crushed in my suitcase. You would think a cardboard tube would be easy to buy, right?
First try to find the right words in Spanish, practice saying it over and over…go to the post office, surely people post these things…no, don’t have any. Go to a courier postal company, no. Go to a bookshop….no, they only sell books! Go to a stationery shop, no. Go to a photocopy shop, they still have heaps of these places here, go figure, no. Even try the $1 shop, a very traumatic no, with the owner only speaking Chinese and having trouble with understanding my Spanish and definitely speaking no English!
Last resort….the university print shop, Rosie stood in line with the youngsters who were collecting printed architectural plans, photography students getting A3 poster prints of work….Rosie’s turn, yes!!!! Success! and three sizes to choose from! Wow, Rosie sure needs a coffee and a Churro after that one! What a morning! Churros here are just the deep fried churro batter, you can add your own sugar from the table and a small minority do…but, most eat them as is dunked in their coffee! Yum!
Some of Rosie’s elderly coffee chums at ISamoa recommended things that she must see and helped her along the way to getting there. One day we were discussing the wealth of the Catholic Church in Spain and how the churches are so impressive and opulent here compared to Italy, where the head of the church is based. These conversations were awesome, remember Rosie only speaks Spanglish and The Coffee Chums spoke three English words between them. Yet, we understood each other and got there…not quickly…but we got there.
One of The Coffee Chums asked if Rosie had seen the secret chapel in the local church, Rosie said she had been in there but wasn’tware of the secret chapel, you will know it if you have seen it, interjected another Chum….well, Rosie was intrigued, along she went to The Basilica de Santa Maria de la Victoria two hundred meters up the road and asked the priest if she could see the chapel…..and oh, my goodness.
There, in plain view from inside the church in the middle of the altarpiece is an arch cut out. Standing in the cut out is a statue…this statue stands in the middle of the chapel which is behind the altar. When you enter the room that is the chapel from a small innocuous side door behind the alter, you can look out through the arch into the church where the congregation would be sitting. Rosie got tears in her eyes and couldn’t speak for a full moment as she stood and stared in wonder around her, this place was so overwhelming.
The large arch above the alter is a cut out. The statue in the middle of the arch sits in the middle of the Secret Chapel.
The dome, which you cannot see at all inside the church just soared up above her head into the sky above. This towering small vault was full of intricate, exquisite sculptures, which sat on every single part of the wall rising skyward, it was incredible. This style of chapel was one of the first of its kind in Spain and was fashioned in the 1650s, and to have all this amazingness to myself! Wow, this is definitely the best kept secret in Malaga.
Upon leaving the church gaping like a goldfish, Rosie saw this group of schoolkids were about to enter. They are as cute as buttons and look at their immaculate school uniforms and tidy appearances. Well, except for the girl that is pulling her shirt up….. lol.
Rosie’s mouth was still hanging open when she went back to the coffee shop. The Coffee Chums, chuckled and smiled smugly. Muy Bonito eh? Si…said Rosie….Mucho. It’s a shame that the crypt is closed for renovation, they said….Rosie googled the crypt…gutted!!!! PS. This is the outside of the church…pretty unassuming eh, never judge a book by its cover.
Rosie sat at the tables on the sidewalks of local restaurants for lunch in the mid afternoon sun. After a couple of visits they knew it was just me and still allowed me to have the best tables instead of shoving me out the back. Rosie particularly liked her goat cheese salad from El Caldero….roll on summer at home, this is going to be my go to!
Walking home, the journey took all of about 6 minutes…all up hill. Rosie likes her views over the cities she stays in and forgets to get high you have to walk up hill… still better to get hot and bothered on the way home. These are some of the houses in the neighborhood that Rosie walks past to get home. It seems to be a bit of a posh area with big houses and all of the houses are ‘named’… check out Villa Maria.
Rosie also spent a lot of time in her apartment writing and planning her next lot of holidays. Breaks on the balcony reading and watching the world go by were standard and even though Rosie lived in a cul de sac it was extremely busy with a lot of comings and goings. All of the locals with dogs walked up this street to cut into the forest behind Rosie’s apartment to take advantage of the dog walking tracks there.
Rosies Apartment – Top Right
Looking down St from Rosie Balcony – Tobias lives in the yard on the left, just past the scooter.
Rosie never ventured on these tracks…the locals found it hard enough to pick their dog crap up off the street let alone on a path in the woods…those paths would be landmine central. Rosie got to recognize the dogs and their owners as they walked past…the dogs would race in from the forest off lead first with the owners tagging along behind. Tobias was the neighbors annoying dog who would bark at anything and anyone at anytime of the day and night. As soon as a dog would race into the street he would start barking…the walking dogs would rarely join in, they would just stand and stare at this stupid dog whilst their owners caught up and put them back on the lead.
Tobias was mercilessly tormented by the local cats who liked to parade and sit on the fence across the road right in front of him…Tobias would bark and bark and just go nuts whilst the cats…sat and watched. Tobias elderly mother would then come out and yell at the dog…then go inside and repeat…one day she picked up a handful of stones from her garden and threw them at the cat…cause it was the cats fault her dog was going nuts…Rosie is watching from the balcony as the stones miss the cat and clatter off the parked cars. No, no, no Rosie called out from her balcony wagging her finger at Tobias Mother, hands on hips Rosie got a barrage of Spanish and barking Tobias was dragged inside, still barking.
Parking in the cul de sac was also exciting to watch…lots of cars drove up the steep doglegged street to discover there was no parking available…it was first come first served in the street. Most backed down the street and out, others did a million point turn and off they went. Parallel parking was fun to watch as was this guy (below) one morning trying to get his car out of a tight spot…he went forward and back and forward and back…he tooted his horn to try and get the other car owner to maybe look out his window and move…then he rung the police…the police came and basically told him to not be a nancy and get in the car and I will give you directions on how to get out…honestly, thirty seconds later he was embarrassingly driving off with the cop shaking his head.
The man in the apartment behind Rosie carves churches and palaces out of tree trunks…he has them sitting along a retaining wall and they are so decorative and cool. Rosie has never met the man but two new churches joined the line up whilst Rosie was staying there.
Even though these are simple memories of my neighborhood, coupled with the last post on People of my Neighborhood, these have made my time in Malaga super special and memorable. Malaga will always have a special place in my heart and Rosie hopes to return there one day.
