Don't mess with Catalunya

I think if I had a younger sibling I would make fun of it and beat up on it but also be very protective of it. I gripe about the language and the politics and stuff here in Catalunya, but people who don't live here aren't allowed to. I yelled at this Canadian guy at the hostel in Granada for calling Catalan a dialect of Spanish. I don't even know what the word dialect means exactly, but I know Catalan is a separate language not a dialect, and no North American is gonna go around calling it a dialect without getting yelled at. Then in Málaga I found myself lecturing some people on the complexities of Catalan nationalism after someone referred to Catalans as separatists. I know the same could be said of me sometimes, but people shouldn't spout off about things they don't know about.

Anyway. Some final thoughts on the Andalucia trip.
All the tourists in Granada seemed to be British; Málaga was full of Germans. I wonder why the difference.
If someone else from Málaga ever becomes famous, there won't be anything left to name after him/her because everything in this place is named after Picasso.
The Málaga airport has designated smoking areas. They're these little tables scattered throughout the airport with a square marked by tape on the floor around them; you have to be inside the square to smoke. So all these otherwise uncrowded areas of the airport have all these people crowded around the little smoking tables. I should have taken a picture, but I would have felt ridiculous.
Free tapas are so great.
Oh, and this is interesting. To get to the Alcazaba (the castle) in Málaga you have to walk up a hill. The hill is next to the bullring, and on the way up there's a spot where you can look down into the bullring (the roof is open). It looked like they were practicing, but instead of bulls there were little kids running around. Now that's an idea. Not that I actually advocate the spearing of little kids, but at least then everyone would realize what a barbaric sport it is.

Some photos are posted here.