Impromptu weekend in Spain

Last Thursday I decided at the last minute to buy a cheap flight to the south of Spain at 6:00 the next morning.  M's boat has been in the port of Algeciras for engine work the past few weeks, and I though it would be fun to surprise him with a weekend visitor.  I didn't tell him I was coming, I just packed up a small carry-on and took off....unfortunately I had a babysitting gig that ran late on Thursday evening, so I was operating on around three hours of sleep.  I was counting on my previously-exceptional Spanish skills to help me pick up a cheap rental car in Malaga and drive the 120 kilometers (that's 75 miles) south to Algeciras.  Since I spoke Spanish for two years when I lived in Guatemala, I figured it'd be just like riding a bike to fall back into speaking it again.  Ha! 

I arrived in hot, crowded Malaga and picked up the cheapest rental car available, a so-called "Smart" car that looks more like a toy than a safe form of transportation:

The woman at the counter assured me the car was safe for driving on highways, and since the car rental line was huge I grabbed the keys and got out of there.  When I got to the car, I realized that the map directions from Malaga to Algeciras that I had carefully printed out had been sitting underneath the pile of paperwork for the rental car lady.  Oh well, said my tired, impatient, blonde brain.  How hard can it be?  Keep the mountains on my right and the sea on my left and I'll be there in no time.  I pulled out of the airport, promptly got turned around, and was lost in the busy Spanish traffic for the next two hours.   I stopped three times to ask for directions, only to find the my Spanish had turned into a choppy mixture of Spanish, Swedish, and drowsy blonde "uh" sounds.  I could understand everything that was being said to me, but there was too much Swedish clogging up the language station in my brain for anything properly Spanish to make it out of there.

Once I somehow found the correct highway south, I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when I realized it wasn't such a "smart" car to be driving on the mountainous Spanish highways at 120 kph.  It felt like the wind gusts and semi trucks zooming by could have flipped my little toy car waaaaaay down to the canyons far below at any second.  I finally reached M's boat much later than I had expected, tired and dusty and shaky...not exactly the beaming surprise girlfriend I had planned, but at least in one piece.

 M's boat with Gibraltar in the background.

We ended up having a lovely weekend...M managed to escape from some of his captain duties to wander around with me.  Algeciras is not a tourist town at all, so it was fun to sit outside at the tapas bar with pitchers of sangria for a few hours and watch the Spanish nightlife go by.  The next morning we took a ferry to Gibraltar, which was absolutely a crowded tourist mecca, but fun to see regardless.

Since there was a Harley convention on Gibraltar and the place was packed, we decided to skip the touristy streets and instead hiked up the side of the mountain overlooking the city. 

The next day we walked down to the beach in Algeciras and enjoyed some swimming, ice cream, gin and tonics, and general lazing.  The weather this weekend was hazy and cloudy for the most part so my photos weren't terrific, but it was more than nice to see my Swedeheart for a few days.

I opted to drive back to Malaga on the slower seaside roads, which were much better suited to the Smart car.  I'd recommend one for driving in cities - the mileage was great and I could park just about anywhere - but you won't see me driving one on the highway again.