September 7th, Thursday: Day 9

We started today off with a late start, as we were really engaged in the late soccer match on TV last night. It was about 11 AM when we got our day started. It was not a big deal for a late start as our agenda for the day only consisted of Ocean Village (Culture), then driving up to Malaga. We spent about two hours just exploring Ocean Village and looking for really cool souvenirs for back home. Tyler ended up finding something that he really liked in one of the shops, it was surprisingly light even though it looked really heavy.

The souvenir that Tyler picked up

Around that time we were all starting to get really hungry, and luckily there was a nearby restaurant. It was an Indian restaurant, which I was really excited for because I had not had any Indian food ever since we took our trip. We soon came out of the Indian restaurant all stuffed with the delicious food and were thinking of what to do next. Andre then spotted a sign advertising boat tours onto the ocean. We still had about an hour and a half to kill before we were going to head back to our hotel pack and check out. So we decided that all of us would get on the boat and roam the waters, with the captain from the company driving us. To our surprise, the ticket for the ride was only 11€ each. We knew it probably was not the smartest thing to do after eating, but it was a gorgeous day outside, so the waters were probably calm. We were right as when we stepped foot on the boat, it did not seem to shaky. As we were relaxing, we were able to make out some unusual but cool looking buildings, as well as other boats out on the waters. 

 

The view from our boat

After a very scenic boat ride, we decided it was time to head back to our hotel. It was almost time for us to drive up to Malaga in order to catch a flight from there to Barcelona. Once back at the hotel, we all finished our packing, but there was a casino downstairs and Mason really wanted to test his luck on the slot machines. There was still a half hour before we wanted to go on our long drive. Mason ended up coming out of the casino with no money made, and luckily he did not lose any. On our three hour drive to Malaga, Tyler somehow got hold of the aux and started playing his music. His jazz music did not satisfy anyone in the car, and we were all on the verge of beating him up. Fortunately ,Andre got the aux back and started to play his music. Before we knew it we arrived at the Malaga airport and were ready to catch our flight. Around 9:30 PM we boarded our flight, we all wanted to get some sleep so we all passed out right after takeoff. I was able to take such a good nap, that I only woke up when we landed around 11:00 PM. Once off the plane, we rented a car and drove down to our hotel, Porta Fira. We could tell that this was a very upscale hotel, right from the lobby. As Andre went over to check in, the rest of us just chilled on the nearby couches.

The upscaled lobby

We got our keys to our room, but were still very tired and decided to call it a day. 

Cultural - Ocean Village
Ocean village shows the culture of Spain in a vibrant way. There are vendors along the roads trying to sell unique Spanish items.