Part 2: Midyear in Nerja

After four months in Croatian culture, entering the world of Crusade conferences was slightly overwhelming. It was gorgeous when we arrived and hard to believe that it was actually January. The city of Nerja was relaxing, but didn’t have a ton to do. The conference began on Sunday night and ended Friday night. It was such a great time of fellowship, worship, and teaching. It was so nice to take afternoons to relax, sleep, and read. Something that blessed me was having foreign food…like Chinese food and Mexican food. Although I do need to say that the Spanish have their cappuccinos’ all wrong. The second day there I thought it would be nice to sit and read outside, drinking my daily cup of coffee, but when the coffee arrived I was handed a cup that had three inches of whip cream on top. I wasn’t even sure there was coffee in there until lifting the whip cream off. So if you ever go to Spain, stick to coffee with milk, unless you really really like whip cream.

Though rain and wind interrupted the nice weather for a lot of the week, it was so nice to be outside. Monday night Flamenco dancers entertained us at the hotel. One night a group of people invaded a café to watch Football playoff games, and another night a group of us went to an Irish pub for live music. Wednesday we were given the option to go to Gibraltar or Granada for the day. I went to Granada and spent the day exploring the city and the Alhambra. A variety of funny things happened, like unknowingly asking a blind man for directions on a map, men cat calling, getting slightly lost while looking for a certain restaurant. The Alhambra was beautiful and had too much to see. One interesting man that Sunny, Alexis, and I met was Barry. He is a Englishman that has moved to Nerja and owns a bar. He told us stories of his travels and gave us tips on sightseeing around Spain. We ordered sangria from him, and while watching him put about seven alcohols in it, Barry set it before us and said “Good Luck!” We didn’t even drink half the pitcher, and joked that we should get a doggy bag and take the rest home. As we said this Barry washed out an empty plastic bottle and sent the rest with us, only for it to sit in our fridge the rest of the time. Nerja happens to be a retirement magnet, so it makes it hard to get away from the crowds of tourists. So one day when the wind picked up, I bundled up and headed out for a walk. The thought of walking alone through the city and by the beach was refreshing. I was able to enjoy empty streets and only get slightly wet. Nerja refreshed me and took me back into American culture. I left feeling as though I was alienated from the culture I had gotten used to in the past months.