How to Spend an Afternoon in Mijas

Our home owners got back from their travels and were very pleased with us, which is always nice to hear. They took us out for lunch (full English Breakfast for me, Churros for Tanbay) and then insisted that we drink lots of Spanish beer with them. We've been pretty much teetotal since we left Germany so needless to say we got drunk very quickly, which made for a fun evening!

The next day we had to catch our flight back, which was a shame as they asked us to stay on longer. As a last treat they took us to Mijas, which is an amazing little town about half an hour's drive from where we've been house sitting.

Although it was the only day ever that it wasn't sunny in Spain we still really enjoyed it. Here are the highlights:

The Flamenco Dancers 

These flamenco dancers are definitely in our top five dancers we've seen live. They were fantastic! We saw three of the women dance and one guy, when they weren't dancing they were singing and or playing guitar. The lead singer in particular was epic, her voice was so strong and so full of emotion! 

These guys perform every Wednesday in Mijas, so if you're in the area on a Wednesday it's an absolute must - it's completely free and completely authentic. The council of Mijas pays them to perform in an effort to boost tourism. 

I even managed to make a video of the best flamenco dancer: 

The Market 

When the market people of Mijas saw how popular the flamenco dancers were, they grabbed at their chance to have a part of it. So, every Wednesday opposite the performers the market pitches up and after the tourists are done admiring the flamenco dancers they wander over to do some shopping. 

The market was interesting, and much better than the one we went to in Fuengirola. They were selling lots of arts and crafts, cheeses and snacks. They were selling four churros for 1 Euro, but by the time we got to the head of the queue they'd run out, so we bought some honey roasted nuts instead.

Our home owner bought some delicious Spanish cheese: manchego. She kindly shared it with us on fresh bread. Even Tanbay loved it and Tanbay is renowned for his weird dislike of sheep cheese (I know it's weird right). Manchego is quite mild, hard and delicious!

The Other Shops in Mijas

Mijas has a lot of shops and although they are pretty much all aimed at tourists, they were still all awesome! There were lots of shops selling real leather which smelt amazing. There were also lots of shops selling really cute little (pointless) bowls that had been hand painted. I had to exercise a lot of self control not to buy them all.

The Creepy Churches 

Wherever we are we love to have a look at the churches - they're normally free and outstanding examples of architecture. We had a look in three churches in Mijas and I've got to admit they were a bit creepy! 

The first one had these massive doll figures of Jesus and Mary which even if you haven't seen 'Annabelle' yet should weird you out. The second church was even creepier - loads more figures and the baptism room looked like a medical room - very clinical and clean. I don't know maybe I'm a demon or something but catholic churches give me the collywobbles. 

But there may yet be a chance to save my soul, because the third church was nice. It's called "Virgen de la Pena" Shrine and it's from the 17th Century. A monk spent 30 years excavating it (!)

Man I hope he went to heaven. Anyway, there was no creepiness in here and it was surprisingly warm for a cave. 

The Mija's Bullring

Mijas has a pretty unique bull ring - the seats are only at both ends (not all the way around the edge as is tradition).  It's also the smallest bullring in Spain (according to Trip Advisor). We didn't see any bull fights in Spain we think it's a bit cruel. Saying that we don't really know anything about shows involving bulls - only that bulls dislike the way the flag waves not the fact that's it red (thank you GCSE science). 

The View from Mijas

Even on the only dreary day ever in Spain, the view was still fantastic! With the mountain on the left and the sea straight ahead it really was breathtaking. We would have loved to see it on a sunny day (we'll just have to come back). Saying that, we went for a nice walk around Mijas which would have been a lot harder with the usual sun.. Here's what we saw on the walk: 

The Medival Mija's Mine

These mines are super old - the mineral affluence of the town attracted the ancient Greeks(!) 

Nowadays they are used for two things: climbing and as pigeonholes. We will definitely be coming back to Mijas and when we do we will do the climbing. As to the pigeonholes, they're used as a pigeon hotel - pigeons from all over visit these luxurious pigeonholes, luckily there are more holes than pigeons so the Pigeonhole Principle need not be applied. 

The Donkeys!

I love donkeys; they're very cute, they smell great and they're not egotistical like horses. I loved this donkey especially because he was dressed up very fancily (yet still not conceited). 

There were also donkeys that you could ride (for money). We didn't want to for two reason: 1) They looked really grumpy and didn't seem to be enjoying their fancy costumes and 2) We got to ride the metal one free!

All in all we really loved Mijas and the surrounding areas, we're so glad we got to go there and will definitely be going back! It was the perfect end to our six week house sit in Spain.