Someday...I´m moving to Nerja!

I had such a fun weekend, despite the slightly cool rainy weather! My friends and I left for Nerja early Friday morning on a bus from Granada. The ride was pretty short, but boy, was it a winding path! I got very bus sick on the way, but once I got off the bus, I felt much better and ready to tackle a great day in Nerja!

We found another great hostel, literally 100 ft from the bus station, which was very nice. It also had internet, free breakfast, sheets, towels, and private rooms and showers! All of this for only 11 € is pretty awesome, so we will definitely have to go there again. :)

Our first activity of the weekend was exploring the ¨cuevas¨ or caves on the side of the city. It is the 50th anniversary this year of when they were first discovered, which I thought was amazing, considering how HUGE these caves are! Five young men randomly discovered the area while hanging out one day...how amazing would it be to just happen upon something as amazing as the cuevas of Nerja? After being amazed at the beauty and enormous size of the part we had walked through, we saw that we had only gone into a third of the actual caves. The rest aren´t even open to the public because they are a little too dangerous. I would definitely recommend checking these out if you ever hit Spain, they were amazing, and definitely cannot be captured in my crappy pictures!

After the walk back to the hostel, we decided to trek out to the beach!  Unfortunately, we definitely missed the sign that pointed out the beach areas, so we ended up walking way too far to the end of town...we did find a beach though! We had a lot of fun eating our bocadillos on the sand, and dipping our toes in the cold Mediterranean Sea.

I´m actually really glad we took this wrong turn though, because on the way back, we noticed a ¨Refugio del Burro¨that we visited, which ended up being my favorite part of Nerja! The Refugio was a sanctuary for donkeys and other animals that had been abused and rescued. It was run by a bunch of people from England who were incredibly nice.

It was free to go in, and they gave us each a big bucket of lettuce and bread to feed the animals. All the animals were so friendly and seemed so happy...it was so much fun. It was really sad to think about how the animals had been treated though, there was a handout that explained how they came to be at the refuge.  Most animals had been abused and mistreated. There was a horse that had serious spinal problems because it had been ridden by adults when it was too young, and a donkey that was blind in both eyes and almost deaf.  She may not have been able to see me, but she definitely knew when I was coming with her snacks! 

After visiting the Burros, we went to the ACTUAL beaches that we meant to go to...we also went to the ´Balcon de Europa´, a really pretty area that looks out over the Mediterranean. We went down to the beaches and collected lots of pretty shells and stones. We´ll see if the stones make the cut to come home in my suitcases!