One of the best views in the world, 27/12/08

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It was one of the best, if not the best, days of this trip. First of all, we visited Albaicin. Secondly, four spanish friends came from Valencia to meet us in Granada and we had a great time.
Let me introduce Albaicin: It's the old town of Granada, founded in 1228 by the Moorish. Built on a hill, it seems like a village in the middle of the city, since it's full of white houses and typical villas with gardens (I think they are called carmenes). It's better to discover it on foot, since driving through its narrow streets is an extreme sport.
When we visited Albaicin it was so empty that we could almost hear our steps while we were climbing to the top (Mirador de San Nicolas). I could imagine these streets during summer, full of life, children playing and old ladies gossiping and couples kissing on the corner and smells from home cooked food coming from the interior of the houses (mmmm!). But I'm afraid that it will be full of noisy tourists, more or less like Plaka in Athens, a folklor scenery. Anyway, we continued climbing until we arrived at Mirador de San Nicolas, with a picturesque view to Alhambra. Behind Alhambra we could see the white peaks of Sierra Nevada;despite the winter breeze, I didn't regret visiting Granada during this season.
Back to a Bodega close to the Plaza Nueva for lunch. Unfortunately we had to eat standing, what an uncomfortable spanish habit, but the tapas were delicious, especially a plate with salami and roquefort. After lunch it was tea time, so we went to a teteria, with perfect tea and oriental decoration. Granada is full of this kind of places. The owner, a massive Arab, was very funny and probably stoned. He wanted to exchange a friend of ours with a few camels.
When we left the teteria it was getting dark, so we walked through Paseo de los Tristes to visit again the Mirador de San Nicolas for the night view. Paseo de los Tristes means Passage of the Sad People or something like that (sorry, I tried to translate spanish into english and the result must have been very bad!). As a friend from Granada explained, the road owes its name to the fact that in the past the funerals passed through it. What a pity, the pain of losing a person their love must have been stronger with all this beauty around them.

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Photos

So many colours...
The streets of Granada are full of open air shops that sell spices

Mirador de San Nicolas
The view to Alhambra. Behind it you can see (I hope!) the white peaks of Sierra Nevada

Bodega
The typical interior of a Bodega. I'm hungry!

Comments

[Niki Geronikolou]

another perspective...
Since I was there too,I have to say that I wasn't as fascinated from Granada as I expected to be.That doesn't mean that it wasn't a very beautiful place.It all depend on how often you travel throughout Europe.If you do it often then the architecture,the big rivers that cross the capitals may seem the same..Of course the culture ,the history,the way of living and interacting may differ a lot.But that is something you need to explore,to discover..the trip takes a total new meaning that doesn't have to do with buildings and bridges and rivers..It has to do with smells and details and words.It has to do with the way someone holds his fork or says good morning. I was more fascinated by the total aura of the trip.I was fascinated from the kindness and hospitality of Spanish people,from their habit to eat standing in Granada(after a while I stopped wearing high heels!),from the nice company we had that made the trip unforgettable and the connection we developed with those friends from Spain.That was for me the most significant part of the trip.