Granada

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Well, its time for another update, only several weeks delayed. Granada was in many ways the best place we have visited so far. But I will start from the beginning.

We got up early on Wednesday the 5th to catch the 12:00 bus to Granada and meet Katie and Elizabeth (The two Americans I met in Seville.) We made it and began a three hour journey across Andalucia, through which Yohei napped and I chatted with the girls. As we talked, I noticed that the entire time we drove all the land in sight was cultivated in the same manner with the same type of tree, which I believe to be olive. It was startling to see so much land devoted to one crop. I was also impressed by the size of the mountains we began to see as we approached Granada. When we arrived, I made plans to meet the two girls for hot chocolate at a place they recommended (as my Mom constantly assured me that Spanish hot chocolate is the best) and then left to find our hostel.

The Hostel, Funky Backpackers, was a small and amazing place filled with nothing but interesting and fun people. Although small, the roof had tons of games to play, a bar, and a guitar for playing on in addition to nighttime meals and an incredible view of Granada. Cozy if not exactly warm, we ended up spending a good deal of time on the roof chatting with interesting people. I ended up taking the title of Chess Champion, after several long, incredibly difficult games against an old Spanish man everyone referred to as "Grandmaster."

Anyway, upon arriving Yohei went to take pictures and I to take a run, which ended up lasting 3 hours and covering a lot of Granada. Granada is a majestic city, easily as beautiful, if not more so, than Sevilla. With the Alhambra dominating the foreground the Sierra Nevada mountains finish the picture, soaring into the sky behind the city. They ring Granada, with the highest peaks snow capped and apparently providing year-round skiing. The city's cathedral isn't nearly as impressive as Seville's, but the city's parks, plazas, and river add more than enough scenery to make up the deficit. The streets, cobblestone, are narrow and cute where they are are not wide boulevards dotted with monuments and fountains. When I ran through Granada, I paused at the top of a rise to take in the view and was even more impressed than before. Viewed from above, Granada spreads out before you, beautiful and clean while bathing in the warm light of an Andalucian winter.

Returning from my run, I met Yohei and two other Japanese guys, Masa and Shin. Masa is traveling for enjoyment, while Shin has a scholarship from the Japanese government for sculpture, and is spending a year in Paris in order to polish his skills and get inspiration for his next work. After spending a good amount of time chatting with the two, I got entangled in a game of chess with an English women from Devonshire named Linda, who besides playing chess very well kept up a constant light banter that was both interesting and amusing. It was during the games with her that the Spanish man made his challenge, and I took it up later that night. The first game had us very evenly matched, with me at a slight disadvantage, until he made a mistake and I took the game. The second game, which he started without asking me, resulted in another difficult fight but a win on my side. By the end of the third game at 2:30 am, he was cursing in 4 different languages and pulling at his hair. I enjoyed it terribly.

The party at which I had met all these people had started at 7 though, and centered around a huge pot of paella. Besides those already mentioned, I met an Australian, a Scottish elderly gent, a beautiful Swedish girl, an Australian, some Canadians and many more. Apparently, I had found a stoner hostel,and most of the people I met were giggling and laughing, sharing various stories and items. It lasted until 2 am or so, although my game lasted until 2:30. An incredible time, and the place I would recommend many to stay were they to be in Granada.

After an early, free breakfast of bread and jam, Yohei and I left to see the Alhambra. Situated on a hill overlooking Granada, it was an awesome sight. Consisting of massive walls, more massive walls, the largest towers I have ever seen and a castle the size of a town, it is easy to see why it was considered so formidable. The main plaza, accessed from a long guarded path, was overlooked by the two towers of the main keep and a smaller building, a circular ampitheatre like building, on the opposite side. With a breathtaking view of Granada and the surrounding countryside, it was worth spending several hours taking in the view. While there, I noticed a mountain in the background with a wall winding up it and made the decision to climb it on the morrow. After enjoying the view, we entered the amptitheatre where I discovered that whoever was in the very center would have even their whispers amplified such as to be heard throughout the building. With a second floor of elegant arches, I envisioned frenetic councils of war being held here as Christian crusaders approached the bastion during the Spanish Reconquista.

After looking around the city a bit more, we returned to the hostel where I met Sara, the Swedish girl. After talking to her for a while, we decided to go out and experience the tapas/bar scene in Granada. Here, when one goes to a bar and orders a beer, tapas comes along with it free of charge. Depending on the place it could be a sandwich or a small plate of olives, but regardless it is very fun. Doing it for just one night, I could easily see how the Granada night-scene might revolve around bar hopping. After 3 bars and 3 drinks, we were feeling sleepy and headed back to the hostel, where I ran into Shin and Masa and sat talking with them until Yohei returned. He had gone to a hot spring on a trip sponsored by the hostel, to which I was supposed to go as well but skipped in order to go bar hopping. We took a razor and had Shin, the sculptor, shave most of his head.

The next day, after another breakfast, we left in order to visit Sacremonte. Now, we didn't know what Sacremonte was, but we had heard it was great. As we headed towards where we believed it to be, we were afforded incredible sweeping vistas of the Alhambra and Granada. At one point, we passed an old painter painting an incredible panoramic of the area. After searching a bit longer, we realized that our search for Sacremonte was in vain. Sacremonte wasn't a building or place, but the entire mountain we were on. Not upset at all, we continued our journey up a nearby mountain where we discovered that hippies had built caves and paths inside it and created a hippie/gypsy community.

After reaching the top of the neighboring mountain and avoiding falling into any hippie's homes, we stopped for a while to take once again the view. On the next mountaintop, I noticed a church and the wall I had seen from the Alhambra the day before. On our way over to it, I found a small, quiet path winding through a ravine between the two and, following it, discovered a small, beautiful home with a couple having a picnic and toast under the cool shade of evergreen trees. I backed off slowly as not to disturb them and rejoined Yohei by the church. On our way down, I did exactly what my mother told me not to do and scaled the wall, 15 feet or so, pausing every few feet while pieces of the wall I had grabbed crumbled and broke under my hands and feet. Making it to the top, I found that it was perhaps 3 feet wide and slippery with loose rock, but nevertheless I walked down the mountain on top of it, eventually jumping down near the bottom.

After returning to the hostel, we met up with Masa and left to visit a small plaza, Mirador de San Nicola. Yohei had heard that it was a hang-out place of the locals, and when we arrived we found out that this was indeed true. With a beautiful view of Granada and the Alhambra, it was packed with locals drinking, laughing, and generally making merry. Vendors, mostly young hippie types, rubbed shoulders with street performers as they hawked their wares. Despite the small space, guitarists were everywhere playing to crowds of differing sizes. At one point, a bagpiper walked into the very center and played a melody that caused the rest of the plaza to fall silent. When he was done, he quickly deflated his bagpipe and left without saying a word, despite thunderous applause from his audience. Yohei was in photographer heaven, and Masa found an old man who apparently could speak Japanese to drink and smoke with. Meanwhile, I saw a juggler and we talked for a while, in broken Spanish/English, while juggling to a very small crowd. He taught me how to pass balls between us, and we practiced for a while before I left to join the others. After 3 hours here I was forced to leave in order to make my engagement with the two American girls at the chocolate place, and making it in time enjoyed a fun if quick chocolate with them. Returning at a run to the hostel, I met up with an Australian girl I had met and Masa so we could go together to the hot spring, which I decided to do earlier during the day.

The hot springs turned out to be a hole in the ground in the middle of a field, with absolutely no buildings around and populated by naked hippies for the most part. I too, joined them, with only the light of the stars illuminating the incredibly warm and pleasant waters of this natural hot spring. As I looked up at the sky, a shooting star streaked towards Orion, and everything was good in the world.

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