First Impressions

So, I have arrived in Malaga. And unlike when I arrived in Mexico, no-one has yet to insult my Spanish. In fact, I have been told that I have good pronunciation (granted, by one person but it's a start). Things are looking up.

I have also purchased a bike that I promptly called Henry because he is blue. And yes, that is potentially gender stereotyping but, I went with my instincts and they told me to call him Henry. Henry is potentially a child's bike (it explains why it was only 30 euros), the seat is just high enough, just. I've caught glimpses of myself in shop windows and my frame does slightly dwarf Henry but the chain hasn't fallen off yet and the gears are like butter... so I don't really care how ridiculous I may look.

One thing I have noticed that is different to Mexico is the streets are much more difficult to navigate. Kudos to North America because their streets are literally in blocks (I finally get that expression, thank you Mexico). All the streets are built straight, so navigating on Google maps was wonderfully easy. It was also much easier to locate myself because I could see the straight lines in my head. In Malaga, not so much. The streets are a lot more twisty so when I walk around, I lose all sense of direction. It also does not help that the maps on my phone doesn't understand the twistiness of the streets and also gets quite confused. I was looking for a bank and it has said that I arrived, I had not. Same for a sushi restaurant. It now takes a bit of free styling and loose interpretation of the map. This is not good as I have no sense of direction. My rule in general when navigating is to not follow my gut (for example, if I think I need to turn left, 99% of the time the location will be to the right). So if after this post you don't hear from me again, you'll probably find me wondering through an obscure corner of Malaga.

And speaking of obscure corners and not being able to locate things, there are yummy smells coming from everywhere... AND I CANNOT LOCATE THEM. My nose has betrayed me. The other day I emerged from the labyrinth of the old town and smelt the intoxicating smell of cinnamon. I sniffed, my nose told me right. Nope, no bakery selling cinnamon buns. So left I went, no luck. I back-peddled one street down (all the while sniffing like a blood hound) and still no bakery. The most frustrating thing was the most potent spot of the cinnamon was at a kind of X spot, so if I went in any direction the smell started to fade. So incredibly infuriating. I have booked myself into an emergency appointment with a otolaryngologist (yes I did have to google 'what is a nose doctor called').

And lastly, my name is still causing mass confusion among Spanish speakers. I introduced myself the other day and I got 'whore-la'... ummm that would be a no. 'Hohl-a' is another common mispronunciation. I always try and explain that there is an 'r', but I still can't really roll my r's (apparently Spanish speakers cannot hear an English 'r' because it is so soft in comparison) so that just causes more confusion. I think for the rest of my time in Spain I just need to choose another name. My mum almost called me Demelsa, I don't think that could be confusing. I was also thinking Lola because that has many of the same sounds as Orla but sounds a lot less like 'hola' and there are no 'r's'.

My first impression of Malaga is that it is a really beautiful city wth lots of places to explore. I love that it is surrounded by mountains, there's a beach and it's already t-shirt (maybe a cardigan) weather. When I first arrived I said to my mum, I already don't want to leave and I don't think that feeling is going to change any time soon.