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Published: November 5th 2007
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Ahlambra
water features played a big part in the landscapes We visited the Moorish fortress and palace “the Ahlambra” near Granada. This was an absolutely huge and amazing site. We toured the Moorish gardens, bath houses, palaces and a very imposing fortress, with views across Granada.
After a full day at the Ahlambra we took a drink at a nearby hotel and met Jake and his wife. He had spent some years living in Brisbane, was originally from England and had now settled with his wife in a small village in the mountains near Granada. He gave us some tips on what we could do that night which turned out to be a lot of fun.
We set off on foot around the walls of the fortress and made our way down to the Moroccan quarter of Granada. After navigating our way along the walls of the fortress we found ourselves in a very old part of the city, narrow lanes and streets and very old houses. We took a look in some shops selling all kinds of Moroccan art and craft. We got talking to a girl in one shop who taught us the Moroccan words for please and thank you. She told us she was the world’s
laziest University student and that she had come from Morocco to Spain to study pharmacy, but had found the Spanish way of life more conducive to partying than to study.
We followed her instructions to a Moroccan restaurant owned by a gentleman called Mustafa. This turned out to be a great suggestion, an example of why it is so good to engage local people in conversation and follow their advice. Mustafa served up what he claimed was a typically Moroccan meal, washed down with home made lemonade. The meal was fantastic and Mustafa kept us entertained with his views on politics and life. He was impressed that we had learnt a few courteous Moroccan words and tried to teach us a little more, but unfortunately it all slipped through my sieve of a mind too quickly.
Mustafa certainly held some opinions that were rather controversial regarding 9/11 and Americas involvement in the Middle East. Then he had some opinions that I could not help but agree with, like the role that religions of all kinds have played in dividing people across the world when their basic teachings were much the same. So, after some lengthy, but light hearted
discussions both he and I decided that should we ever find ourselves as world leaders that we would share power, forget religion, and do our best to end world poverty, until then we would treat others with respect and enjoy life.
We set off into the night in search of our car, which we had left somewhere up the hill on the other side of the Ahlambra. We found our way through the narrow streets to a crowded square, it was a colorful area and at 1am there were still a lot of people of all ages enjoying the night, walking and talking with friends.
Deciding to skip the walk up the hill we took a taxi instead and eventually found the car. It was hard staying awake on the drive back to Nerja, the moon was high in the sky and the granite hills and mountains were glowing in the night. A very enjoyable excursion indeed!
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