Four weeks in Málaga - leisure

Due to the Semana Santa, as the easter week is called in Spain, there was a vacation at the school. For this reason, we had plenty of time to explore the city of Málaga.

The first couple of days, I watched some of the processions, which are really impressive. It takes quite a lot of people to carry the statues of Jesus and Maria, as they are very heavy. Then there are those people with the pointed hoods, who are carrying lit candles, called, if I got it right, Nazarenos.
The children lining the streets collect wax from the candles to form big balls. Also, in the procession, there are musicians and incense is being burned. All in all, it creates quite an interesting atmosphere, especially, if you watch the processions at night. It seemed to me as an mixture of religious festival and fair. On the mornings after the processions, you can see people of the city cleaning scratching the wax off the streets and washing them with high-pressure water blasters.

Jesus being carried during a procession

Nazarenos in Calle Mariblanca

peek at some statues

I also went to the Carmen-Thyssen Museum, which has a nice collection of Spanish paintings.They had on display a painting of Alfred Dehodencq (of whom I actually had never heard before) showing a procession in the city of Sevilla, called "Una confradería pasando por la calle Génova, Sevilla". According to the sign, it dates from 1851. But the processions I watched in Málaga in 2014 looked almost the same.
The same day, I visited the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga. The entrance was free. In the first third of the one floor they have, they showed cartoons by El Roto, who also draws for El País, a big Spanish newspaper. The cartoons were very interesting, criticising economics, politics, etc. but you have to actually know some Spanish, to be able to understand the texts. In the other two-thirds of the hall, there are works of different other artists on display. They even got a picture by Andy Warhol.

Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga

We had some goup activities, too. One of them was a trip to the botanical garden, el Jardín Botánico-Histórico La Concepción, which is really nice.

With a smaller group, we visited the city of Benalmádena. We went there by train, which took us about 30 minutes. The town is the place of birth of Ibn al-Baytar, an botanist and pharmacologist of the 12th/13th century, according to the inscription on his statue.

statue of Ibn al-Baytar in Benalmádena

On the Easter weekend, it started to rain and therefore became rather chilly. But I wanted to visit the Alcazaba of Málaga, anyway. On my way up, I happened to notice a christian service, which was held in the open air theater in the park. I stopped, watching from above for some time. The priest actually was quite good and they had a lovely choir singing.
The Alcazaba is really nice. Inside, there are a lot of fountains and plants and the architecture is really beautiful. I decided to visit again on a sunnier day.

inside the Alcazaba

inside the Alcazaba

There is of course a lot more you can do in Málaga. For examples please view the posts of my fellow students on this blog.