City Love Companions

I have very warm childhood memories involving Málaga. Not the city, mind you, but a type of chocolate candy. It had this creamy filling with chopped raisins. It was also spiked with alcohol and I probably shouldn’t have had any of that back then. Why was it even called “Malaga”? No one knows. Probably just because it sounded cool and exotic. Those two words perfectly describe this city. Málaga is the quintessential Mediterranean destination. Thoroughly Spanish but with clear Arabic and ancient Roman flavours. Locals say that it’s sunny for over 300 days a year. They’re not wrong. It’s also very hot here, as Málaga is shielded from cold winds by mountain ranges. You can see their outline from the Port, one of the most popular districts of this city. The water is warm enough t...

People come to Madrid because it’s the capital. People visit Barcelona because it was in Woody Allen’s masterpiece Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Those are the two staple cities on every trip to Spain: immensely popular and visited by millions of international tourists every year. What if you want to experience all that the Iberian Peninsula has to offer, but you hate crowds? Well, you’re screwed because it’s crowded everywhere. Valencia, however, might provide a little bit more breathing space. It’s unmistakably Spanish, but certain hints make it unique. Catalonia lies to the north. That region influenced Valencia to the point that they speak a Catalonian dialect. Some even consider their land a part of the Catalan nation. I don’t want to get into the entire “autonomous community...

Seville (Sevilla in Spanish) is not only the capital of Spain's southernmost and autonomous region Andalusia. Sevilla is also the quintessential city for everything Spanish. It’s pocket Spain. The flamenco, the bullfighting, the tapas, the nightlife; it’s all there. What makes Seville distinctly unique is its rich history. Legend says that Hercules founded the city. It went through major development when Romans conquered the region. You can see what remains of those times in the Antiquarium; an underground exhibition below the Metropol Parasol. The Moors took over Seville in the year 712. That’s when it started to bloom with a beautiful Muslim aesthetic. It’s not really Muslim, it’s Christian made to look Muslim, go figure. Mudéjar is the actual name of that style and the Alcáz...

Ibiza is one of the Spanish Balearic Islands, and probably the most famous one. It’s also the name of the isle’s main city and capital, which is officially called Ibiza Town or Elvissa in Catalan language. It’s the promised land of every horny European kid. Let me rephrase that: every horny European party person ever. It’s hot, it’s loud, and it’s colourful. Pure awesomeness…if you’re young. The 90s and early 2000s were all about trance music. I still get goose bumps thinking about those times. Ibiza was trance culture incarnate; they call it EDM (electronic dance music) now. The administration is trying to transform Ibiza into a family-friendly destination. I don’t think it’s possible at this point. It will always remain a party island, heaven for visitors and hell for...

Everyone heard about Mallorca, whether they wanted to or not. The hit song by Loft from the 90s has been covered and remixed more times that I could count. I remember those years, that island felt as unreachable as the moon, reserved only for the rich and famous. Palma de Mallorca was somewhere in the background. Most people didn’t even know it’s the capital; people didn’t even bother leaving their hotel enclosures. Even my friends, relatively young people, went to Mallorca for a week and didn’t even bother checking out the capital. Why would they? They had sandy beaches as far as the eye could see, drinks and the Mediterranean just outside of their lodging. The locals are rather annoyed by the tourists, sarcastically saying that Palma de Mallorca became a district of Berlin and th...

Marbella is famous for being a playground for the rich at the Spanish Costa del Sol in the Andalusia region. Crowded with B-class movie actors and “the new rich” Marbella is not much more than a resort, a pretty face with nothing between the ears. That’s okay; some people like to spend their time away from home, sunbathing on a beach while sipping on a Piña colada, or playing golf, or clubbing during warm Mediterranean nights. La Milla de Oro (The Golden Mile) is the focal promenade of the area. The best clubs, boutiques, restaurants and out-of-this-world villas are located on that strip reaching west to Puerto Banús where the real money is docked at a yacht marina. That’s pretty much it: yachts and villas, cocaine and caviar. [caption id="attachment_8807" align="alignleft" wi...

Madrid stands for everything a modern European capital should be about: a rich cultural core with an entertaining nightlife outlining. It was built in 854, as one of many Muslim outposts that were supposed to protect the Iberian Peninsula from the Christian re-conquest. It was called Magerit back then, derived from majira, which means “water source” in Arabic. During the early 14th century Madrid began to attract the wealthy and powerful of Spain, because of its localization in the centre of the peninsula, but it was a pretty grim sight back then. People heard that the royal family was slowly settling there, so they followed the money, just to arrive to a huge mess. A hundred years later, Madrid started looking like a proper city, but only from a distance, towers and walls were built f...

Three kinds of people visit Barcelona: architecture geeks, football fans and LSD enthusiasts. Barcelona is slightly smaller than Madrid and one of the most vibrant harbours on the Mediterranean. The capital of Catalonia is a city of artists and procrastinators. Everything takes years to finish, everyone is always late and slightly pissed off. The Gothic Quarter (Barri Gòtic in Catalan) is the pulsing heartbeat of Barcelona: small, claustrophobic alleys and a huge cathedral. The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia (Catalan: Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia) took three centuries to build, but it was clearly worth the effort. There’s even a Well of Geese in its courtyard; those feathered little beasts caused many tourists an injury. Getting pecked by poultry isn’t eve...