Granada

Day 1:

We arrived in Granada around 3pm and immediately took a city bus to Central Granada. The weather was beautiful and warm (yay for no rain!). On the bus we met an Aussie who was traveling by herself and was in the same boat as to where to get off. We got off at the Cathedral stop (however you couldn’t see the Cathedral from Gran Via) and made the long trek up the cobblestone streets of the Albaycin. The Albaycin is the old part of town, where there are many Arabic shops and Teterias (tea shops) along the way up on Caldereria Nueva. In order to get to our hostel (Makuto) we had to go through the narrow uphill streets which was very tiring (which made me, Michelle, want to leave half of my clothes and toiletries right there in the street). Once we got there we relaxed for a couple hours in their tree house and on their hammocks! Makuto has a great, chill/hippy-esque atmosphere and I could understand why others have spent countless hours in the hostel instead of venturing elsewhere. Our room was basically in a cave, or on the bottom floor and we shared a room with 2 other girls (for the first night) who were from Minnesota. Before we went to dinner, we stopped by Plaza de Saint Nicholas (a look out point a few streets up from our hostel) to see the breathtaking view of the Alhambra and surrounding areas. It was beautiful! We (or Michelle) chatted with some locals while enjoying the view. Then we went to a tapas bar that night for dinner called Bodega Antigua where they had amazing sangria and mojitos and the drinks came with a tapa- bocadillo and fries (in fact this is what Granada is known for - free tapas with any drink ordered…score). Afterwards, we tagged along with some other people from the hostel to see a flamenco show and this one only cost 5 Euros! The style of flamenco was a little bit different then the one we saw in Sevilla but it was equally as good. However, this time the performance was done in the corner of the bar so it was hard to see sometimes since the place was packed. The male singer was much better than the one in Sevilla.

Day 2:

We woke up early, had breakfast and made our way to the Alhambra! The walk to the ticket office was a beautiful hike beneath a canopy of trees glittering with what appeared to be heavenly beams of light breaking through scattered breaks in the canopy. As I, Michelle, walked along taking in this beauty, my musing was abruptly interrupted by a rather elderly gypsy in the bushes that caught my attention. It took a minute before I noticed that she was actually taking a squat… peeing on the side of this gorgeous scene without effort through her jean skirt…cute. I started to feel bad for her as she moaned “Aye mi barriga.” But shortly after did I notice that she was all the while holding a bouquet of greenery that she immediately after began handing to people in return for euros… not the most sanitary. I now have a new respect for the warnings I had been given regarding taking gifts from gypsies…Here is a picture of the gypsy "cleaning" her plants...

Getting our tickets was a breeze because we reserved it online and there wasn’t much of a line for reserved tickets. We first went through the Generalife where there was a beautiful garden and then through Charles V Palace, the Fort (where there was an amazing view of Granada) and then at 1:30pm Palacio Nazario. While waiting in line for the Palace, we ended up chatting with this guy from Madrid (who use to work for E&Y) and was on holiday with his family. The Alhambra overall was amazing. I, Rachel, just love the Moorish architecture, the view, and the history of it all. I would definitely recommend it over the Alcazaba in Sevilla. We bought and shared a falafel afterwards (Which was delicious) and hung around the hostel until we decided to have dinner. We were suppose to meet up with our friends from Germany that we met in Sevilla however we couldn’t find each other. We were waiting at different places near the cathedral…oh well. Michelle and I then decided that we didn’t want tapas so we found Chinese restaurant! It was somewhat hard knowing what was what on the menu so I just decided to talk/order in Chinese (Michelle finally got a taste of how Rachel has been feeling the whole trip in Spain, not knowing the language). The food wasn’t the best, but it was a good and welcomed change from the Spanish food we were eating everyday. The server was nice and gave us a complimentary shot of this wine from China. I was kind of skeptical at first, but it was actually sweet and easy to drink. And of course we had to get dessert, so we went to one of the Morrocian/Arabic dessert places and I had the baklavah and Michelle had a tarte/pie that was very nutty.

Later that night we decided to look for a discoteca and found one that played funk music. It was an interesting scene, Rachel at first was uncomfortable with the change from her hip hop music preference but eventually warmed up to it and had a great time. That night we met a Spaniard from Granada who lived in London, and his friend from Italy who was also living in London and, like us, was checking out the Granada scene. They were very nice and little did we know we would randomly see them again the following night at a tapas bar. Small town! I (Rachel) am still amazed how late the Spainards start their night. They don’t start going out till 2am which is usually when nightlife venues in the states close! We were only able to stay up that late due to the fact that we took naps after dinner and we had café cortado (Rachel) and café con leche (Michelle) and at a café nearby just before hand (this coffee break was only because we left at 1am and realized we were too early! Imagine that.)

Day 3:

Today was the day that Rachel, our new friend from the hostel, Henry, and I went to explore the caves. We had heard interesting things about the caves in Granada - places that were free to live for anyone who found one vacant. Because of this property tax haven the caves are inhabited with the otherwise homeless and gypsies for the most part. We got directions from our hostel and headed on our way. It was a fun hike just outside the city walls. As we were exploring the area (and I know this might sound dangerous but I assure you tourists go there often) we were greeted by one friendly cave dweller whose cave was exquisite! Nothing like the holes in the mountain that you would typically think of. This particular cave dweller had constructed an entire façade in the front of his cave complete with a beautiful chimney decorated with glass bottles. The man allowed us a peek into his cave/home where it turns out is his vacation home. He is from Germany originally and so hit it off with our German friend, Henry. He completely reconstructed the inside and the cave reminded me of an episode I had seen on the travel channel where people seek to purchase homes in other countries. One episode dealt with caves that sold for upwards of 200,000 Euro and they looked like this one that the guy found for free!! Nuts. Except they get no running water (obviously) so they have to trek up the hill to the nearby church for water each day. I don’t think I’d want to live in a cave…

Anyway the caveman (*snicker*) told us about a festival that just happened to be going on at that church. So we thought we would check it out. It was so great to be able to witness this church come together and celebrate its Saint. There were women decked out in Flamenco dresses, horses, ponies, free food, a band, and merriment all around. After visiting for a while we headed back down the hill to our hostel walking through the charming city streets and taking in the quaint cobblestone streets, gorgeous architecture, and creative graffiti along the way.

We chilled at the hostel for a while that night before heading out again to see the city Cathedral and, in the words of Prof. Mock, peruse the downtown area. One thing I love about Granada is that there are so many different neighborhoods within a small area and each has its own unique character and feel. This gives the visitor the feeling of visiting several different cities in one!

That night we had dinner at a tapas bar that we noticed was playing a futbol game. As watching a futbol game at a sports bar was one of my, Michelle’s, goals of the trip we went in immediately and noticed it was actually Real Madrid vs. Sevilla! A very exciting game for the residents of the area. We rooted for Sevilla as we were in Andalusia and felt it only appropriate. Good thing too because they won!! There was where we ran into our friends from the night before very randomly. We agreed to meet up with them after Rachel and I got some tea at a Moroccan place as we wanted to experience the ambiance that was typical of the Albaycin. Our new friends wanted to show us Granada Flamenco but since we had been there done that we went to check out the view of the Alhambra lit up at night time. We took some awesome pictures and then called it a night. After all it was off to Malaga in the morning!