In Malaga: Market Monday & Tuesday

After a dip in the sea on Monday morning we headed to the Malaga food market. The selection of fruit, vegetables and meat is incredible and the sights and smells are great. I've been to bigger more impressive markets on my travels but I like this one as it is small and accessible and spotlessly clean. There is also a fish part of the market but this was closed on the Monday that we visited.

Check out the Moorish entrance in the pic at the top - it is so attractive looking. The market is definitely worth visiting and you can get tapas and a beer on little tables just outside.

Later in the day it was time to go to the Padel Courts where Ciaran had lined up a game. I'd like to say that the sun was going down and the heat was leaving the day but can't given that it had reached well over 30 degrees during the day. It was hot for me watching but I was able to get a cold Coke Zero from the Snack Bar - I can only imagine how hot it was playing! He brought plenty of water with him.

The Padel Court was up on the roof of a gym which is pretty cool in my book!

On Tuesday our monitors arrived. I was wondering how this would be done, given that we are living in a pedestrianised area of Malaga. I had seen couriers making deliveries on bikes stacked with parcels and also DHL pull carts by bike. Our delivery came by what I presume is a little electric car. So clean and efficient it came right up to our apartment. Malaga is such a smart and civilised city and this is certainly one of the ways that makes it so.

After visiting the new studio for PIGSY we sat in Constitution Square and cooled off with a drink. I had my first ever Aperol Spritz which was just perfect in the heat. I highly recommend them and am a fan for sure!

And we finished another great day in Malaga with dinner on our terrace - not so late this time, I think we were eating by 8pm or so. Dinner was again simple, I cooked some spicy chicken that we enjoyed with salad.

After dinner we listened to an episode of the BBC podcast of Anne Enright's book "The Actress" (thanks to Cousin Kasey for the suggestion).  We are really enjoying it and are just listening to an episode a night.  It's read by the author and we are very much enjoying it. Listening to talking books or podcasts is not something we regularly do but we have enjoyed at times in the past.  At this time we only have Spanish television so after watching the news (where we try to follow along given that we don't speak Spanish) this is something novel for us to do and as I said we are very much enjoying it!

Summer time.....and the living is easy

As we begin to settle in to Malaga we are beginning to see different areas of the city and get a feel for what they are like.  We think that Soho has a bit of a hipster feel and it may be on the up, then there are very upmarket areas around Calle Larios and then where we are living is possibly best understood by an Irish person is to describe it as maybe being the Temple Bar area of Malaga. This is exactly where we wanted to be in the city (right in the heart) and is a little ironic as when we house hunted for our first apartment the year before we got married, Ciarán found a really great apartment in the centre of Temple Bar that he was really keen on buying as he was very much in favour of city living. However, we then settled on an apartment at the Phoenix Park.

So far we have found living in Malaga to be easy.  Here's just some of the things that we have done with ease and no hassles and give you an idea of what it is all like.

Printing
We received an email with a document that needed to be printed and signed yesterday.  In order to do this we walked probably 2 minutes up the road to a print copy shop to do it, returned to the apartment and signed it and then scanned on the phone and returned it by email.  All in probably less than 10 minutes and I think that we can do it quicker by going at a less busy time as the morning time seems to be busy

Art Supplies
On the way to the print shop we passed by an art supply shop.  So this is literally less than 1 minute away from the apartment.  Ciarán went in and spoke to the owner.  They make up their own canvas for sale in the store and also sell spray paint.  Again so easy to have this resource on our doorstep!

Vet for Bones
Having looked online and chosen a vet near the marina (where we stayed in an AirBnB back in February) we cycled down on the bikes a day after Ciarán & Bones arrived. The vet was really friendly and helpful and didn't mind us bringing the bikes in to the foyer as we had forgotten our locks. He spoke perfect English and gave us lots of useful advice about Bones. I asked whether it was ok for him to drink the tap water here in Malaga but he advised not as it is too hard and could give Bones kidney stones. We also bought dog food in the vets and again so easy because "Canagan" dog food was available.  This is a British brand that is familiar to me as it is marketed in most Irish pet stores. We brought over some of Bones current dog food and will mix both old and new together to wean him on to the Canagan.

Waste Disposal
Waste Management is brilliant in Malaga. Large bins are on the street and are available to dispose of rubbish. All you have to do is split your rubbish in to recyclables and then pop them in the bins. This can be done on a daily basis so it stops having big amounts of rubbish for disposal here in the apartment. Again, as you can probably guess, there are bins available for us to use a few metres away from where we live - about a min walk.

Postcards
I wrote a few postcards over coffee on the terrace having picked them up from a little Tabac shop on our morning walk. Stamps (sellos) were also available so I was conveniently able to buy all I needed in the one shop. There is a post office very close to us which will be convenient for mailing packages, etc. but it does seem to have big lines outside it from time to time.

Padel 
Having visited a few padel clubs on our last visit, Ciarán had located a club that is quite convenient to where we are living. We cycled there yesterday evening and had a look around at the courts which are on the roof top! 
He has been hooked up with a game already on Monday (Lunes) at 7pm. I will go along too and hang out in the comfortable seating area and I'll blog about how that all goes.

Simple food
Having eaten out a few times when we arrived, last night for dinner (at a very late for me 9.30pm) we made a simple omelette which we ate with a little salad along with bread for Ciarán. Blissful to eat out on the terrace listening to the hustle and bustle of the street below us. A perfect end to a Friday night.