A Quickie

As you can see from the title, I shall just be popping in for a quick update this week. I have 101 things to do before this next week starts tomorrow morning. There's also a delicious curry being cooked for me which I have to attend to at 7 tonight. That may be my motivation...

This week included finding an amazing bookshop just up the road from where I live, welcoming back friends, hanging with the regulars, house parties, arguing over which movie to watch, eating Chinese, cycling until my bum was numb and bopping about Roadhouse. A lazy week with the camera was had so I don't have too many exciting things to show other than an adventure to the botanical garden with Hanne and Nalisha and our pretty rented bikes on Saturday. We cycled about 6 miles in total according to Google Maps. Needless to say I can feel it today...

I've made two goals in terms of my blog this week. The first short-term one being I will write one during the week next week and the second one is more long term. I want to be able to write a whole blog post in Spanish without using a dictionary/my grammar bible by the end of my ERASMUS. I might even do a few times! 

Ciao for now :)

Ciara

I'm a ''tarde'' girl, in a ''tarde'' world...

I've been thinking a lot recently about my trip home for Christmas. When something is constantly on my mind there is normally 50 million things that I have to do. A list is my best friend through situations like these. This week I decided to make a few lists to layout what has to be done and who has to be seen whilst being back in Éire. The list that has caused me the most pain and anguish has been my food list...

* Keane's soup

* Mother's lasagne 

* Mother's scones

* Mother's roast dinners

* Taco chips from Capital

* A fry 

* Brown bread

* Kerrygold butter

* McCambridge's deli rolls

For some moronic reason I decided to make this list on my computer desktop. It's all I think about now every time I log in to have a browse on the interwebz or bop along to some music. Alas, I refuse to delete it. The thought of home delicacies gets me through the times where I've made another plate of fish and vegetables and the potatoes are not at all like spuds. Guys, I need spuds.

This week did start out with some hearty Italian food. I was informed by my lovely friends, Charlee and Lily, that some Italianos were willing to cook us a meal before we headed out on Monday night. Italian boys cooking food? Lads, you couldn't say no. Dinner was served after the five of us polished off our second bottle of wine. It was sausage in a creamy tomato sauce. With pasta of course. I was given a mighty serving and tucked right into it. I was half way done when myself and the other two girls felt the fullness coming on. To our slight horror (not that the food was bad, it was freaking delish, but just that if you cut us we would have probably bled pasta sauce...) there was another course. Luckily, it was fried potatoes. Yay! Insert smiley face here. Even though I was full, I gobbled it right down since it was the closest thing I've had to a proper spud since I got here. A great night out was had in which I got a massive heart painted on my face. That's always great.

 That one picture I took at the Italian dinner. They set the table and everything. Nawh. 

My drunken self decided to take pictures on the way home...

Spain, like many countries in Europe, are going through some pretty rough times at the moment. Wednesday was the day of the ''huelga general del 14N''. This was a general strike in which hundreds of thousands of people protested throughout major cities in Spain against the cut backs that the Gobierno have put in place. I decided to stay in on Tuesday night after the antics of the night before and in preparation for ''Cool Night'' the next day. Around 00:20 I heard this huge bang go off. I'm still not too sure what exactly it was but it frightened the life out of me. Soon after a couple hundred people marched into the square where I live, shouting ''huelgaaa, huelgaa, huelgaa''. This was a peaceful protest in which people of all different ages participated but being in a foreign country with a crowd of people shouting outside your balcony around midnight was pretty scary. It died down quickly but come morning, evidence could be seen that Málaga was taking this day seriously. There were stickers on most shop windows saying they were closed for the huelga, other shops that were open had extra security as if things could get out of hand and the police were everywhere. The day ended peacefully and the province of Málaga came out in their hundreds of thousands. According to some unions, 140,000 people across the province marched in Wednesday's protest. Unfortunately, due to the strike, ''Cool Night'' did not go ahead. But do not fear for ''Cool Night'' was turned into ''Hat Night''. Hoorah!

  ''huelgaaaa, huelgaa, huelgaaa''

''Hat Night''

The next few days included a night in watching Mean Girls and eating Chinese food, drinking smoothies in one of my new favourite cafes, climbing into building sites on nights out, and getting back into Grey's Anatomy whilst whipping up some delicious fajitas. There were some more floods here on Saturday morning that looked absolutely crazy from what I saw on Facebook. After climbing and jumping about the city the night before, I missed seeing these as I slept in till the late afternoon. Oh lookey here, I stole a picture so you could see...

''The Dry River'' not being so dry

Sunday was a great day filled with eating 100 Montaditos, having drinks on a rooftop bar, as a result of this being convinced to go on a pub crawl, eating french toast and going to bed at 08:30. My sleeping pattern has been a biteen off since, hence me blogging on a Tuesday night. I hope all is well with everyone wherever you might be. I am looking forward to some trips around Spain before I jet back for Christmas. Christmas shopping shall be epic this year too. Better get making more lists!

Hasta pronto,

Ciara

Lo Amo

In my last ERASMUS post I mentioned that my sister, Aoife, had taken an abundance of photos from The Two's trip here last week. Here are a few of those. Big fan of her work so I am...

Asho on Hallow's Eve. Very proud of the spiderweb I did. Isn't she a beaut?

Before

After

The Two being twins 

Monday was mostly spent cleaning after the The Two left. Below you can see my clothes horse (shutters) used to dry the piles of clothes belonging to me that they had worn. Worked a charm...

Genius, I am.

On Tuesday of this week I went for a run. Yes, a run. Pretty proud of myself to be honest. The Tone It Up galz on Youtube are also a great help in reaching ULTIMATE FITNESS. Of course, I went for a massive meal afterwards. It was ''Girls Night'' in our circle of ERASMUS, English/Italian/Irish (me), girls. I highly recommend the chicken fajitas from Amigos along the port. The steak burrito...nat so mach. Wednesday was shopping day and has officially become pub night among the ''Cool Group''. That is myself, Helen and Rose. So modest. The Irish (Hagan, Robbie, Dillion) and Max tagged along and we drank weird Bulmers again, a crazy high percentage beer called Judus and there were some shots thrown in there too thanks to Max. Friday was also a great day with a Spanish movie called Amores Perros and a fabulous German house party. The movie wasn't that great actually because of dead dogs and not knowing whether them fighting each other was real or not. Saturday another run was had. Of course, pictures had to be taken...

trusty zapatos

Drinks were had that night with Hanne, Nalisha, Uli, Laura and Alex. It was a lovely night filled with mojitos, tinto de verano, Spanish design students and fried fish. On Sunday, to finish off an already great week, a trip with Rose and The Robinsons was made. We ventured to Marbella, Benahavis and Mijas. All in one day. Imagine!

Marbella

Benahavis

I think that's enough information/pictures for this week. I am a tired chica and my hot chocolate awaits!

Hasta la próxima semana,

Ciara

Girl Crush - Pixie Lott

I thought I'd write a post today since, firstly, it's absolutely lashing in Málaga at the moment, secondly, I'm just after going for a run and I am too lazy to leave my seat to take a shower and, thirdly, I stumbled across an old crush on Facebook last night and immediately decided that I needed to write a post about her. It also seems that I have a kind of ''blogging bug''. 

I first heard of Pixie Lott when her video for ''Mama Do'' came out. To be honest I wasn't too pushed with her then. She just seemed like another Pop Gal, nothing too special. But then I heard her ''Use Somebody'' cover and I became a lil obsessed. I downloaded the video straight away onto my iPod, a Facebook status was put up and I listened to her version of one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite bands on repeat for days on end. Might have sang it in the shower a few times too. You know, standard. 

Then there was the ''Endless Love'' video where I first feel in love with her ''flowers in my hair'' thing.

I had seen her style in magazines around the place too and I remember picking up a copy of Instyle  just because she was the cover girl. This is when I first started to fall in love with her style. Everything she wears I immediately lust! It's all girly, grungy and bohemian which I just adore!

This brings me back to being reminded about my dear gal, Pixie. These pictures showed up on my dashboard last night and I remembered  how much I love her...

I love the Dolce & Gabbana dress teamed with her signature crown of flowers. Sticking to her roots and what she loves. Go on Pixie!

Here she is again donning Dolce & Gabbana and her crown of flowers in June of this year. Love!

Overall she has an amazing sense of style, a gorgeous voice and seems to be a genuinely lovely person. Another girl who I seriously want to be best friends with.

I shall leave you with the music video for ''What Do You Take Me For?''. She also has an amazing pair of pins. Maybe I'll go run another 2 miles...

Hasta luego,

Ciara


(Images via Tumblr and Facebook)

Sister Sister

Well I had an absolutely fabulous week this week, friends. It all started on Tuesday morning with the arrival of two of my best friends, my sisters, Aoife and Aisling. Tuesday was a pretty chill day. It had to be really because of the downpour that decided to go on in my fair city. We went to a really good restaurant, Il Laboratorio, where they served simple pizza to The Two (who are pretty fussy eaters) and a gorgeous bolognese to myself. The rest of the day was pretty chill. The galz were tired from travelling and I was a little hungover from kicking off the Halloween celebrations the night before. As you can see I went crazy Halloween in an all black ensemble...spooky...

Wednesday was the beginning of the shopping trip for us galz! Along with seeing their great sister, Aoife and Aisling also came to Spain to complete the mission that is getting jeans/clothes that actually fit them. Being the skinny minis that they are, Spain is the perfect place for them to shop as they are the same size as most fully grown Spanish women. Wednesday also happened to be Halloween which meant shopping for a costume. Of course with Spain being Spain the Halloween shop was closed for siesta by the time we got there...at 2pm. So in the end we ''dressed up'' in the clothes we bought that day. Myself as a doll, Aoife as a person from the 60's and Aisling as a spider. Once again, spooky. Here's the one picture I managed to take on Halloween due to the fact that I forgot to charge my camera. I'm great. 

Thursday was a gorgeous day in Málaga. Alas, Aisling wasn't feeling too hot so was bedridden for the day. Aoife and I made a trip to the pharmacy to grab some Panadol while also stopping along the way for a lovely fry. Aisling was brought back some ice-cream and was nursed back to health for the rest of the day. That evening we went for a lovely meal in a place called Terra Sana which is situated in a gorgeous part of the city. Thursday was the 1st of November which meant the start of Movember. There was a shave-off event in one of the ERASMUS bars so we popped in there for a look-see. It was strange to see some of my hairier male friends become hair free and look more boy-like than man-like. It's really great that there is charity work going on in our ERASMUS group and I can't wait to see all the moustaches at the end of the month.

Friday was our wandering day in which we wandered Málaga and my talented sister, Aoife, got to take her photos (I shall post some of those later this week. For now you have to do with mine.). That night we went to a great Irish bar called Morrisey's. Hence the weird looking Bulmers...

  Aoife 

  

 Aisling 

 Crazy Spain being crazy

Weird looking Bulmers

Saturday more shopping had to be done and the galz' last night here to be hit hard. Once again we hit up Morrisey's. This time with some of my ERASMUS friends. Later in the evening myself, the galz, Helen and Rose went to Roadhouse. Roadhouse is without a doubt one of my favourite bars in Málaga. It's a rock bar but they mostly play golden oldies such as MJ, Prince and Stevie Wonder. They have a stage to dance on too, which is the best part.

Then Sunday came. Departure Day. Breakfast was had for the last day at La Canasta, a visit to the Alcazaba was made and my sisters left me.

Aoife enjoyed breakfast

I really had an amazing week with The Two. I love them with all my heart!

In other news, I can now look forward to Christmas. I am so excited for this year to be reunited with family, friends, food and my car. Yep. A lot coming up in the next couple of weeks with weekend trips to be taken, Barcelona to see and Christmas shopping to be done. I also get to download Christmas music now. Beyond excited for this and the fact that I'm turning 20.

Hasta pronto,

Ciara

P.S. hello to you and your hairstyle.