Love from Málaga
In your inbox — Tuesdays. A story about Málaga: its people, places, history, what’s happening in town, and the small details that make it feel like home. If you want to belong to Málaga, not just live here, you’re in the right place.
Málaga’s Loudest Guiris: The Green Parrots' Secrets
Málaga’s Loudest Guiris: The Green Parrots and Their Secrets Today I’d like to introduce you to Málaga’s loudest guiris (= foreigners). And no, I’m not referring to a group of Northern Europeans stumbling home from a night at the club. I’m talking about the parakeets, Málaga’s beautiful green parrots, the Monk parakeet and the Rose-ringed parakeet that have made this city their home. You’ve probably stopped to watch them at least once. Tourists do all the time, phones lifted, fascinated by...
Why Málaga Burns a Giant Fish Every Year
The Funeral of the Anchovy: Málaga’s Unique Way of Ending Carnival It is half past six on a Sunday in mid-February, that tender hour when the weekend hesitates between rest and return to productivity. You go out for a walk to clear your thoughts. The light over the port is bright, the wind sharpened by winter, families orbiting one another. And then you see it. A giant anchovy, solemn, magnificent, faintly absurd, advancing toward the beach. There are musicians, and figures dressed in...
How Málaga Earned the Title “Very Hospitable”
A Shipwreck, a Bridge, and How Malaga Became Known for Its Hospitality I moved to Málaga after several years in Germany. So you can imagine my surprise when, on one of my very first walks from my new flat, I crossed a bridge over the Guadalmedina, glanced at the plaque, and read: Puente de los Alemanes — Bridge of the Germans. I smirked. There they are again. Even here. What I did not know then was that an extraordinary story was hiding behind that bridge, a story that would come to explain...
Clouds, Smurfs and Other Things Málaga Has for Breakfast
Clouds, Smurfs and Other Things Málaga Has for Breakfast Imagine walking into a local bar for the first time. You’re still half-asleep. Your eyes are adjusting to the light. Your brain hasn’t quite clocked in yet. You scan the counter. You listen in. And the person next to you orders: “Un nube y un pitufo.” A cloud and a smurf. You blink. You glance around. For a brief second, you wonder whether you’re still in bed, dreaming you’ve wandered into a children’s cartoon. But the waiter doesn’t...
How to Stir Imagination So It Doesn’t Break — Estrada at the MUCAC
How to Stir Imagination So It Doesn’t Break — Estrada at the MUCAC We live bullet-point lives. Constantly asked to optimize ourselves, to back our decisions with data, to make sense of everything before we even allow ourselves to move. We ask logic to decide who we love, when to leave, which dreams are realistic, which paths are acceptable, which longings are allowed to stay. We gather information, analyze, compare, and wait for certainty. And when certainty takes too long to arrive — as it...
Why’s Hans Christian Andersen in Málaga?
What’s Hans Christian Andersen doing on the Plaza de la Marina? If you’ve ever walked past the bronze figure sitting so casually on the bench — top hat, book in hand, duck peeking out of his bag — you might have wondered who that is, seated so centrally in town, as if he belongs there. Hans Christian Andersen arrived in Málaga in the autumn of 1862, in the middle of one of his long wanderings through Europe. He stayed several days at the Fonda de Oriente on Alameda Principal, watching life...
You Walk Here All the Time: But Do You Know Why?
Plaza de la Marina: Where Málaga Learned to Be Welcoming Before Plaza de la Marina became a place where people meet, wait, kiss, argue, laugh, or watch the city pass…it was a threshold. A line between guarded Málaga and welcoming Málaga. I. When the City Was Still Holding Its Breath In the early 1800s, Málaga was still wrapped in her old walls, remnants of her Muslim past, heavy with defense. The sea was there, yes, but the city stood guarded and cautious. The current Plaza de la Marina...
This Is How Málaga Welcomes New Beginnings
Los Reyes in Málaga: A Letter to New Beginnings While much of Europe tightens its coat buttons, Málaga exhales. The sun lingers like a lover who won’t go home yet. Not even if it’s January. The streets have taken off the glitter of December, and the tourist chatter has softened just enough for the city to ask: “Okay. Now tell me the truth. How are you, really?” And maybe January is the most honest month.It’s the month where we look back at what we tried, what we carried longer than we meant...
In your inbox — Tuesdays. A story about Málaga: its people, places, history, what’s happening in town, and the small details that make it feel like home. If you want to belong to Málaga, not just live here, you’re in the right place.