Story 1: Arriving in Malaga.

Arriving in Malaga

It is very late in the evening, but I have finally arrived at my apartment. It is surreal to think that this will be my home for the next upcoming five months. A girl named Cristina lets me inside and shows me the apartment which is actually a studio. It is a considerably large apartment for one person and it even has two small balconies. The living room is separated from the bedroom with a wall. The ceilings are from wood and Cristina tells me that this is a typical Spanish concept and that it is also known as ‘Artesonado’. As for school, I will have to go to an informative meeting on the 2nd of February and the day after that I have an appointment with the international office to officialise my enrolment at the UMA. After that I have a week off and my father and I will enjoy this week together. My father came with me to make sure that I arrived safely and to, of course, enjoy the one-week holiday with me. Furthermore, I signed myself up for a 2 hour historic walk through the city, that my University organised for the Erasmus students, because I wanted to be acquainted with how Malaga was originated.

Malaga city history

I have been in Malaga twice before and I was absolutely mesmerised by the beauty of this old captivating city. During the historic walk the tour guide explained that Malaga was originally named Malaka when the Phoenicians colonized this city. The Phoenicians came from the eastern Mediterranean region such as Southern Syria, Lebanon and Northern Israel. The word Malaka is believed to have been deprived from the Phoenician word ‘Malac’ which means ‘to salt’. The Phoenician people particularly came to Malaga for salt, seeing as the whole city, as it is known today, was underwater. After the reign of the Muslims in Malaga it became part of the Roman Empire and many citizens were converted to Christianity. In the end, Malaga was transformed into a Christian town with lots of churches while all of the Moorish structures were demolished. The only exceptions are the forts of Gibralfaro and Alcazaba. 

Larios streetlights

As you can see in the picture the main street, which is called Calle Larios, is enlightened with dazzling arches that illuminate the entire street with blue and yellow lights. These lights are here especially around Christmas time and there even is a very spectacular light and sound show that thousands of people from all over the world are anticipating to see. That is why this is one of the biggest events that takes place in Malaga as well as the Easter celebration and the Feria. It is also undoubtedly the most expensive street to live on in Malaga and the 11th most expensive to live on in all of Spain. This street was founded by the Larios family and Manuel Domingo Larios, the second Marques de Larios had two conditions. The first one was that the street should be named after him and the second condition was that there were to be a statue of him at the beginning of the street. Though, this is not just an ordinary statue, seeing as it has a story to tell that often only citizens from Malaga know about. During the elections in 1932 the left-wing and Republican parties obtained an extensive victory over the monarchist and conservative parties. This resulted in the king being deposed and the start of the second republic. The poor population was ecstatic about this and decided to throw the statue in all euphoria into the harbour. The figure of labour was put onto the place of the statue of the Marques to show that the street was constructed by workers and not the rich people like family Larios. When Franco took the reign in 1937 the labourers were compelled to tell where the statue could be found. On this day, the statue of the Marques is back where it is “supposed” to be.

Next week there will be a Carnival in Malaga and I can’t wait to tell you all about it in my next story!

Un saludo,

Lisanne