Spirit of Adventure blog

Having Malaga as the first port of call is always good as the port has many nice tours on offer and our guests can also explore independently..

We docked in the darkness as sunrise was 45 min after arrival. It turned into a beautiful sunny day with the temperature rising to 27 deg C. I had asked our pilot to recommend a restaurant or a tavern for lunch. Although we were offering a shuttle service to the city centre, I chose to walk there and back and use it as an excuse for my daily exercise.

The restaurant that was recommended looked lovely with some 20 people occupying tables. Nobody was paying any attention to me, so I went to sit down at one of the empty tables. The waiter approached and in a quite unwelcoming tone said that the restaurant is not yet open (it was 12:40 and they were opening at 13:00), but when I asked about the other people in the restaurant, he told me that is different. So much for friendliness towards tourists. I told him that he won’t be seeing me at 13:00, or ever again.

New mission: find a nice tavern on my own. I was exploring the old city centre for over half an hour before I decided to sit down in a small tavern where the owner spoke very little English. As I was passing by he came out with hands full of seafood plates smelling beautifully. He offered a local appetizer (serrano ham with garlic mayo, shrimps and mushrooms) and recommended grilled calamari. The appetizer was excellent. The main course wasn’t calamari, it was one calamaro. A massive one. I was quite surprised how tender it was as those big ones do tend to be a bit chewy. They had carved one side and used garlic butter and olive oil while grilling. Beautiful.

On the way back to the ship I passed by a lovely ice cream shop. I couldn’t resist the temptation and ended getting a combo of coffee and hazelnut flavours to help me complete my daily workout.

Departure was in the safe hands of our Staff Captain, Denis. He swung the ship off the berth and took us out of harbour and on to the easterly course towards our next stop, and my favourite port, Valletta, Malta.

Kind Regards
Captain Franko Papić