"Margharitas filled with ice..." (July 26th)

After another afternoon at the beach, my Hungarian friend and I decided to go out in search of margharitas.

We knew full well that this is a Mexican drink, and probably blasphemy here in Spain. The problem is that I have a certain song written by a few friends that has been stuck in my head since I landed in Spain.

My new roommate (I had two surprise roommates for my first night back in Nerja: a young Korean man that stayed in the hotel room all day watching t.v. with the air conditioning on, the other a young German woman living in Sweden, working on her doctorate) joined us. The woman, of course. As for the other, we all wondered whether he had left the room yet to see a bit of the town.

The lemon one was a little strong, so I ended up needing to help my friend finish hers, and we split a strawberry. Later, at a cafe next to the sea, we had pina coladas (no milk), and sangria.

I ended up drinking a little bit more alcohol than anyone else, but at least now the song has left my head.



At night, Nerja is full of people. Lanterns affixed to white walls light the streets, the stores are open late, and tiny streets are packed with restaurants. There are a lot of tourists, mostly British, from the people I hear as I walk by. So, of course, there are restaurants offering typical English food and Irish beer. But you can sift through to find the good spots.

Even little children are walking out late, playing with balls or having their portraits done. There are horse drawn carriages in lines in the main plaza, and throughout the town you can hear them jingle through the streets.

Not everyone speaks English though. Most waiters do not, and a couple of times when asking for no eggs, they thought I was ordering one. I understand the predicament, because I do the same thing. I seize on a word I know, and make assumptions. Usually it works (I have increased my number of conversations in Spanish, admittedly, mostly about popsicles, but still), but sometimes you end up with something silly. A few times here, I have no idea what I am ordering, only that it will have no eggs, cheese or meat in it.