Ok, so here's the update. But before that, I do want to preface with a, 'yes, I can be pretty dumb sometimes'. Uh-oh is right. So here we go.
Traveling to Ronda by train was a breeze. We used a youth card that gave us discounts for train, bus, some flights and hostels, etc. Anyways, we arrive and the first thing we do is go shopping. It was shoe heaven. Sales left and right. I bought a pair of comfortable heels for 15 euros... yada yada, enough about shopping. We got some gelato (even though it was cold, and even though I was coughing my head off, but I was craving it!). Then we went to a cute cafe, ordered sangria and desert (for dinner, the waiter looked at us like we were crazy... we are).
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Early next morning, we make our way towards old town. Get breakfast, and head onto La Casa de Rey Moro (the house of the moorish king). I didn't know anything about the house besides Michelle Obama's visit in August (actually, I found out after). It was sooo beautiful and it overlooked the ravine. It also had this cool but creepy mine that went down as deep as ravine. From what I know (not much), slaves used to run up and down the mine. In it, was "the room of secrets" (if you speak from a corner of the room, you wouldn't be able to here it in the center). So we slowly trek down (slowly, key word) and go not even half way because it was eerie beyond imagination. But we knew we couldn't leave without making it to the bottom (we had to get our 4 euros worth, and I wasn't going to let the chain of slave ghosts bother me!). Finally, after much panting, we reach the bottom, peeked in the room of secrets, and within seconds, we ran back up again while singing 'This little light of mine'. Despite our short visit, I'm proud to say, we did it!
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| creepy cave |
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| Tunnel we found, don't think the Moorish king would have been very happy with me |
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| our creepy but nice tour guide |
After that, we wonder down to wherever and we meet this hombre (man) who lives in Ronda. He's baldish and kind of has thick crazy eyebrows. But he starts talking to us, asking us where we're from, etc, etc. Then he starts showing us the different buildings, starts taking pictures of us, for us. Then he invites us into his house. That's when the alarm went off. Creepy, old man inviting you into his lair. (Ok, so this is where the preface of 'I can be really dumb sometimes' comes in) In my head, I was trying to figure out how I could create a weapon out of the things in my purse (keys to gouge his eyes? Ew I know). Turns out that he wanted to show us pictures that he took of celebrities (Robert Denero (sp?), Madonna, Michelle Obama--he even gave me a blurry pic of her). I also found out that he picks chestnuts for a living and I'm assuming he makes quite a lot for that. He also tells us of a place called Igualejo where you can rent a whole house for only 20 euros. After the tour of his house (oh, by the way, he has a sick view!) he takes us to different museums and talks people into letting us in for free! We went to about 4 or 5? The arab bath house, an art museum with Picasso! (who was born in Malaga--Ronda is a small pueblo in Malaga), an inquisition museum, which also had a torture museum at the bottom (freaky), and many others (he really wanted to take us to places Michelle Obama went). Then we went to the Plaza de Toros which was aaawweessomme. BUT, by then, me and Janice were getting a little bit annoyed with him, because seriously, what does this guy want? Finally, we told him we had to catch our train (which we did in an hour) and peaced out.Thank God he was only a little crazy. And I realize now that this could have been my own rendition of Taken, but with a creepy old guy (what a downgrade). I know I was so lucky, and mom if you're reading this, next time I'll be much more careful, promise!
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| Arab Bath house |
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| Funny faces |
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| Making funny faces |
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| totally illegal, will I get in more trouble for putting this up? |
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| The "new" bridge (build in the 1780ish) |
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| Head squasher. Yes, I know it's a little morbid. |
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| old fashion sex machine that witches built. Gross, mostly because it's probably used. (Also, George Clooney built one like this in Burn After Reading). So the story behind this is that back then, sex was only for procreation, and so people went to these witch doctors for...this. Yea, I know. |
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| Plaza de Torros! |
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| Came home to my neighborhood Mezquita |
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| And this :) |
So, that's pretty much it. Came home to good old Cordoba and went to the filmoteca to watch a film for less than a euro "Amor en fin". So I've definitely overstaying my regular visit to the cafe, time to leave!
Besos!
