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Published: June 26th 2009
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Granada and the Alhambra
After another bus ride we arrived in the city of Granada. Walking out of the bus station we were immediately taken aback by the scenery. Granada is the most European-looking city we have seen so far in Spain. It's a maze of cobble stoned alley-ways weaving their way up a hill towards the amazing Alhambra that overlooks it. Beyond the city you can see snow-capped mountains, despite the warmer weather.
Our luck continued as we made our way to the hostel we had booked, which could not have been more conveniently located, around the corner from one of the popular alleys full of lively Spanish bars and restaurants and very close to the main plaza and shopping district. The city has a really nice vibe to it and we lost ourselves wondering around the streets.
Of course the main attraction for Granada is the Alhrambra, the last Moorish Palace to fall to Christian rule, and perhaps the most elaborate alcazaba in Spain. It's so popular with tourists that you need to book your ticket in advance, or else get up really early and join the massive queue like we did! After lining up for
One of Granada's many bustling laneways
A frozen yoghurt before we make our way up to the Alhambra 45 minutes at the crack of dawn we managed to get some tickets for the afternoon entry. Boy it was worth the lining up! We only wish someone had mentioned how unbelievable it is so that we could have known how much time we needed to spend there. The fortress itself is huge, and it houses the Palace as well as a number of gardens and buildings, all within a fortified wall. The detail in the architecture is something else, it really puts our modern architecture to shame.
We left feeling mezmerised and inspired, and we splashed out and bought a print of the Alhambra as a keepsake of the experience. With only two days in Granada, this was a highlight of our travels so far.
But we had to keep moving to finish our tour of Andalusia. We hopped on another bus headed for the flamenco capital of Spain.
Sevilla
Sevilla is a very pretty place, and perhaps this is the reason for the masses of tourists that visit. From our point of view however, we couldn't quite see the appeal aside from being a nice place to stop traveling from North to South. To
Stu's delight we were fortunate enough to arrive during a book festival AND a medieval festival (two of Stu's favourite things) so the various stalls set up around the town kept us occupied for some time. We also did a walking tour through the city which look us up the main street past the cathedral, and out into a botanical garden with several monuments and a Palace at the end.
But the highlight for us was the last night when we stumbled across a really good vegetarian restaurant. When I say stumbled, we actually had to hunt the place down (Stu saw it advertised in some obscure place). The food was quite outstanding, and we were very grateful to stock up on some vegies considering that most of the Spanish daily diet consists of meat.
After a couple of nights in Sevilla we decided to complete our circuit of southern Spain and head for the southern-most point of Europe.
Tarifa
After a week of intensive sight-seeing and tourist activities, we were in desperate need of a place to get some rest and relaxation. Tarifa was the perfect place! Although it is rather windy (it is known
as the kite-surfing mecca of the world) it exceeded our expectations on every level. The vibe in Tarifa is totally chilled and everyone seems pretty happy to be there. We were told that we got there at the perfect time of year, right before summer when the weather is nice and there are few tourists. We booked in at a very nice little hostel where we had the top level all to ourselves which included a sun terrace (all within our tiny accommodation budget which made it all the more sweeter!) We spent four beautiful long days in Tarifa, and started to get back into a routine. We ran along the beach in the mornings and we found a nice little gym to work out in in the afternoons. The place is scattered with cool little cafes and bars, as well as boutique and surf shops (quite a good place to do some shopping actually).
In fact on the subject of shopping, Stu was very excited to find a pair of shoes that he had been searching the globe for. We had literally been to every surf shop we could find in all the countries we have been to
so far in search of these sandles, 'Sanuk's', and he found them when he was killing some time while I was getting a hair cut.
Whilst this was good news for Stu, I unfortunately had a bad haircut experience in Tarifa (a 'hairdresser' hacked off my hair in chunks). An attempt to fix it at another hairdresser the next day yielded a very short crop that I hadn't quite bargained for. I just hope it grows back quickly!
So, a few kilo's lighter (some of which was probably due to the haircut) we headed back up to San Martin del Tesorillo for another week working at the retreat.
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