Buenos Días, I am Kristina Klassen, from Germany.
Thanks to Erasmus, I am working for four weeks with Karol Kionka at Sail&Fun in Málaga, a company that rents boats and offers trainings and organizing events. The company is located in the middle of the Port of Málaga.
Our Hostel in the Center of Málaga, el Patio 19, is very typical for Spain, familiar, small, full of nooks and crannies, old fashioned but cozy. Much stuff is hanging on the walls. There are from 2-bed to 8-bed-rooms. You have several share showers and baths on the corridor and on the terrace. The kitchen is also allowed to use for everybody, but small.
After arriving, we had a welcome-meeting at the
school Campanillas with the spanish teacher and students and a long weekend
following. First days everyone was very motivated to plan trips and discover
the nearer area. Of course we went to the beach, Playa de la Malagueta and
eating tapas almost every day.
Day 4,
in the evening we climbed on the “Alcazaba”,
where the “Castillo de Gibralfaro” is located and you can see a beautiful
cityscape with the sea in the background, which is a stunning view at day and
night.
Later,
on a Sunday we visited the Castle, because all museums and cultural objects are
free to entry on Sundays.
The next week the weather was a little cloudy, nevertheless we took our rented bikes and drove along the promenade to “Playa del Peñón del Cuervo”, where you can climb on a little rock and have a barbecue, which we did later as the weather was better.
Day 9 we
had our first workday at Sail&Fun. Carlos, one of the founder, supervised
us through the exchange in his company and assigned us our project which
included synchronizing contacts between the Database in the company,
Google-Mail and the iCloud contacts.
The
working atmosphere in Spain generally is not as rushed and stressed as in
Germany. The whole daily routine begins later, people start working at 9 am,
not 7. Especially the Siesta in Spain, between 2 and 5 pm pushes everything
forwards, which is necessary because of the heat in midday. Even supermarkets
are closed due Siesta. So the Spaniards go to dinner and clubbing very late in
the evening and night.
More
differences to Germany are the prices in restaurants and supermarkets. Water
and staple food is much cheaper, especially vegetables that grow in Spain.
Sadly, ice cream is very expensive :(
I love the architecture of the buildings and side streets (they clean them every morning!) in Spain, every city, like Málaga, Tarifa, Nerja, Marbella or Ronda has their own style and are all worth to visit.
About
traffic I only like the traffic lights, where you can see how much time you
have to wait. The way of driving of the bus and taxi-drivers bothers me a
little.
Cultural
differences to Germany you can also see in lifestyle, music and clothes, especially
at the youths and the old fashioned side of Spain, for example, the Flamenco.
One
weekend we made a trip to Gibraltar
and Tarifa. After 3 hours with the bus we arrived at the border of Gibraltar
and Spain.
You can
see that Gibraltar belongs to England, because abruptly everything is written
in english, you hear people talking british english and see the typical red
buses and telephone boxes.
The only
way to get in the city of Gibraltar is a road across an airfield. We walked
once through the whole country, to the most southern point of Gibraltar, the
Trinity Lighthouse, where you have an amazing view on Africa. Then we took the
cable car on the mountain, where you can see the famous monkeys. We had much
fun with them, because they aren’t scared of you and want to steal everything
eatable and shiny. The views were really impressive! Messes of water from the
Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean all around us.
The
second destination was Tarifa.
After a 2 hours bus trip across the mountains with a stunning view, we arrived
in the surfer area (Playa de los lances). The beach is amazing, long and with
white, tender sand. We spend our evening there together and went there again
right on the next morning.
Oh, by
the way, in Tarifa we ate the best tapas of our lives!
An exciting trip was furthermore „el Caminito del Rey”. Once it was the most dangerous path in Europe, but it now is made safe. The cliffs, where you walk along and river in between are beautiful
.
In the
last week three of us visited some small towns in Spain, near Málaga. Which are
worth to visit just for the view! We drove to Ronda, saw the “Puente Nuevo”, to
Sentinel de las Bodegas, this town is located in a valley and some houses are built
under the cliffs, and to Zahara, a town on top of a mountain with a pretty turquoise
lake next to it.
On
Friday before departure we met with the Spanish students and teacher again in
the school Campanillas and talked about our experiences, the companies we
worked in and the culture we discovered in Spain.
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