Granada, Spain and La Alhambra

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So I arrived in Granada from Madrid around 1700 and was surprised how hot it was. This after everyone told me it was going to be blazing fucking hot however I still was caught off guard, it’s the hottest heat I have felt in a long time that is for sure. I got to the hostel; it was pretty chill and very clean and well run. A guy named Mike who works there at the bar gives walking tours and I decided I would go on the one he was having Saturday. I wasn’t tired when I arrived so I immediately went out on the town and checked out some sights. The town reminded me of something you’d see from Northern Africa, granted I have never been to North Africa but we’ve all watched the Discovery channel long enough to know what Arabic Northern Africa looks like. Clearly the south of Spain is very near North Africa and obviously it has a lot of Arabic influence, I guess I just didn’t realize how much exactly. I walked around and took some photos of the way the city looked in the afternoon sun, it was still so hot at 8pm and you could tell the dust was in the air because of the way everything had this film on it. We were basically in the middle of the desert surrounded by arid mountains. I had some paella for dinner; it was cooked at the hostel by one of the guys who works there. It was delicious and I got my fill for sure. That night we went out to some tapas bars in the neighborhood and ate some more and rank. When you order a beer in Granada you get a plate of tapas with every order. We had chicken wings, seafood salad, croquettes, meat with a rich dark sauce, oysters, prawns, potato salad; basically if you can eat it in a small(ish) quantity you can put it on a plate and call it tapas. They were some of the best food I have had while travelling, delicious and eloquently Spanish. After that we walked to a few more bars, and I ended up with a group from the hostel and we went to this bar that was built in the natural caves that occur in the city of Granada. It was a pretty fun place. I woke up pretty late the next day and it was hot. I walked my ass up to the Alhambra to collect my ticket that I purchased online for the next day’s visit. It was a hungover walk all the way uphill and was not pleasant ahha. I got my ticket and then got pretty lost walking back down to the hostel. I found the hostel though without any help and made it just in time for the walking tour. I had to change rooms every night I was in that hostel though and that was kind of shitty but all in all it was a good place. So the walking tour was given by this guy named Mike from Poland and he’s been in Granada a year and a half. We started walking and headed up the hill and had some great views of the city. Afterwards Mike explained to us that there are thousands of natural caves that occur in the hills within Granada. There are communities of people who live in these caves; some are mansion caves, others very small and crude. Rich people live in the caves as well as a large population of gypsies and rastas that have set up shop in Granada. We were allowed into the home of a guy named Mali who is originally from Mexico but has made his home in Granada for 20 years. He’s 72 and most likely has a few screws loose by the way he talked. He was a very nice guy and honestly his message is sound, everyone needs to work together in this world to make it better for each other. We need to share love and share the gifts of our life with each other in order to work towards a better world. He was one of the founders of a place in India called Auoraville which is basically a place where every year thousands of people come together and live in harmony and peace and share teachings and wisdom about how to achieve just that. Anyways believe him or not he seemed like a pretty smart guy minus all his eccentricities. He lives in the caves and his house has eight rooms. It’s a pretty nice place considering it’s a cave in the side of the mountain, but it was really interesting to hear him talk about living there and the fact that the caves stay a constant temperature that is somewhere around 65F or so. After we visited the cave house we walked around the city some more and it was hot! It was a good time though and we saw some great views of the city as well as getting to know our way around. After the walking tour, my buddy Alex and a group of Aussies we met all had some tapas and some beers at a bar by our hostel. We sat outside and enjoyed the weather and the food and the drink, it was really great. After that we decided to go out for some more tapas after we showered up and got ready. We went out to a place called the Pescador, or the fisherman. We had squid and oysters, prawns and omelet. It was delicious. Alex recently attended a Russian wedding and had two bottles of vodka in his bag so we all decided it would be a good idea to drink them. We played some drinking games back at the hostel and listened to music. After we finished the booze we went back out to another bar down the street with tons of Rastafarians in it, they were playing all kinds of reggae and there was just a wild cross section of people at this bar. The next day I slept through my alarm for the Alhambra so I got up when I could and headed off. The Alhambra was really cool however I missed the tour of the palace that is supposed to be so amazing because it was for 9am and clearly I was hungover sleeping at that time ahhaha. Oh well it was still a cool experience and I can say I have been there. I was there for about two hours and then walked back down the hill to the hostel. I decided to get some sleep because I was just still feeling awful. I slept for a couple hours and then I went to meet a friend of my friend from Madrid Raquel. The girl’s name is Triana and she was really great! She was very welcoming and showed me around the city a little bit, she lives in Sevilla but used to live in Granada so she knows it well. We met up with some of my other friends from the hostel and went to a bar where we played some fooze ball as well as some darts. We drank more beer and then went to a coupe clubs that were dead on a Sunday night and then I headed back to the hostel. I woke up to the guy from reception telling me to get out because I had overslept. I made up some lie about not knowing when checkout was and got my shit together and left. Though I did lose my towel in the process. I went to the bus station to get a bus for Cadiz and figured it wouldn’t be a big deal, well it was. There were no tickets for the 1pm bus that I wanted so I had to buy the last ticket they had for the 1545 bus. I had to wait almost four hours in the miserable bus station, unshowered and hung over like hell. It wasn’t all that bad though I guess. I waited, the bus came and I got on it. Mike from the hostel was coincidentally on the same bus as me and we sat next to each other! Ha. He and his girlfriend are going to Cadiz because she is from there and has a house here. Anyways I arrived tonight and had some dinner by myself in a plaza nearby, it was red snapper and a mixed salad with three beers, the snapper was grilled and was served whole. It was soo delicious. However it cost way more than I expected it to so what can you do there. Tomorrow I will go to the beach and explore the town. Cheers.

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