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Published: September 24th 2012
Preface: This post was written about 10 days or so before the solace of the mountains. When I read it now it seems so far away from my current state of mind - but I post it in the spirit of a blog that is documenting the journey and states of mind as well as 'what has happened'.
Sometimes during this trip I have struggled with the concept of being 'a tourist'. The catching of flights, negotiating airport buses with unwieldy luggage and limited language skills and the unfamiliarity of a new place - well it just puts this gal a bit off her game.
The AirBnB description of the apartment we had rented said it was in the centre of the old town and although quaint and compact on first inspection, it became after a time, a bit …’claustrophobic’. Situated in an old hospital building – it was set of small apartments surrounding an inner tiled courtyard complete with marble columns, potted plants and sadly a set of ancient smelly pipes. Luckily we were our neighborhood on Calle Almeira had many small shops selling local ‘exotic’ wares that thankfully included incense…Ahh Nag Champa! Love ya
work!
What we really did enjoy was negotiating the purchase of some prawns and mussels at Mercado Central San Agustin from a fishmonger who kindly tolerated our fumbling about with our phrase book and who was clearly quite amused when we returned after a domestic negotiation for a second round of purchases! The meal we cooked was simple but delicious - doubly satisfying.
We spent the first days wandering Granada having had the best sections of the old city outlined on the map by our landlord Christian who enthusiastically inducted us to the city on arrival. He drew a line around parts of the city and told us that in four days we should just concentrate on that. He was right.
The very first thing to say about Granada is that all the best bits are uphill and the second thing is that sampling tapas with a coeliac is a challenge.
The second thing first - let me say a certain epiphany hit me that gluten in all its forms but basically as bread or as batter is a major part of the tapas experience! So OK, you have nice olives and say some sardines in
oil or perhaps a fresh tortilla but then as soon you get beyond that you get everything with ‘pan’ or everything fried in batter and it all goes a bit pear shaped. And you know what. It was OK. I realized that we could do as well with our fresh market ingredients, a bottle of tempranillo and some nectarines as we could crawling from bar to bar. I am not putting down the tapas phenomenon – but I am saying, that for us, it was not so big a part of our Granada experience.
As for the uphill part, our first day was spent roaming the Albayzin the old part of town and then an ‘off the grid’ walk to the cave homes of Sacramento. Now what our host meant when he described the caves of Sacramento was one thing and where we ended up was totally another. We clambered and clambered and found ourselves in a place high above the city that was fascinating and unsettling at the same time. We were amongst dwellings carved into the side of the hill. Some caves were deserted and blocked by rocks and bricks at the entrance; some were in use
and had patios with a mix of discarded furniture and were powered by a maze of haphazard extension cords. We climbed beyond the old city walls and set out to walk down into the river valley and back into town when we were confronted by a cave-house dog on a bald hill that did not like us. Needless to say we ‘retraced our steps’ as they say as fast as we could and made our way back down the hill as a night trip to the Palacio Nazaries of the Alhambra awaited us.
The Alhambra was a bit of a mixed experience. There is much anticipation involved in visiting it. Tickets bought in advance, much reading up about its history etc – and the walk up to its towering edifices at night was indeed quite awe inspiring until you turn the corner and find yourself among the throngs of tourists who have all arrived for the same experience, who want a better place in the queue than you, who want to take pusher in and they can’t, who want to video it all, who ignore the requests for no flash, who want to stand in front of every part
of it and have cheesy ‘strike a pose’ photos taken. And you are herded compliantly around the site obeying the ‘continuation of visit’ signs until after your 1.5hrs of assigned time you are turfed out into the night. Don’t get me wrong. It was amazing. But I enjoyed the visit next day to the less sexy Alcazaba ruins where you could take your time to wander the ruins, contemplate the technical nature of battlements etc. with far less people and no rush. I even had time to obsessively wait to for the flags to unfurl on the battlements.
I took a trip to the Hammams de Al-Andalus baths for a massage and dips in cold, warm and hot pools all dimly lit among vaulted tiled roofs. The mint tea ruled OK!
The history of Moorish and Jewish habitation followed by the somewhat brutal heterogeneous rule of Isabella and Ferdinand is well documented and Granada remains a tapestry of its past with its mix of churches, ancient palaces and central Gothic-Renaissance Catedral.
Granada was a secretive place because although there was tapas on the streets and hundreds of young uni students talking and drinking on the streets and
flamenco shows advertised by vendors in the streets I felt that the ‘secret life of Granada’ was taking place somewhere in streets off of the streets that I saw and jealously – I just wasn’t a part of it.
One experience we had where I felt we got beyond the surface of life was a particularly interesting conversation with Carolina, a waitress at our local bar The Boabdil about the significance of the Kabala and the meaning of life using drawings and a combination of Spanish and English. The Boabdil was named after the last Moor ruler to be expelled form the city. He was rumored to have shed a tear as he headed for exile in the Alpujarras.
And that’s where we were heading. To the white village of Juviles (pronounces Who- billees) deep in 70km long collection of valleys in the southern flank of the Sierra Nevada known as the Alpujarras.
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Jody O'Connor
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Louise looks fabulous
Louise, obviously this holiday is something that was long overdue. You look fabulous, so relaxed. You must really be enjoying yourselves. It's been great seeing all the fabulous photos. Love Jody.