I have noticed that Auditor has been asking our recently-returned travelling members for their travel blog. I haven't been anywhere much in the last few weeks, but with the sun, my mind is wandering abroad.
Where I would like to be right now is in a back street in a shady teteria in Malaga City, sipping from a small painted glass of ‘mil y uno noches’ tea. The teterias are tea drinking dens frequented mainly by the young of Malaga. They are Arabic in origin, and the only drinks they serve are tea, from a menu of maybe 100 choices, and ‘batidos’ – iced milk whipped with fruit or nuts and honey. Teterias are not big into food; some ‘dulces arabes’ (little sweet pastries) or a tiny pistachio cake are about it.
They are open, but quiet, most of the day, but at about 10 at night suddenly fill up mainly with chattering girls and moody couples, clustered around circular tables with candles with a buzz of conversation that merges with music till late.
The Malaga teterias vary from minimalist chic, to grungy, but are mainly tall, dark spaces with vaulted ceilings, with stone or brick columns around a central courtyard: the archetypal Moorish house plan that survives behind some of Malaga’s19th century facades. In one of my favourites, Teteria el Haren, at night you would sometimes find a comedian acting out long incomprehensible Spanish stories, a singer or a belly dancer. In the daytime you can get a massage or an Arabic lesson. They are a good place to be on a hot day.
Portal