Advertisement
Geo: 37.1765, -3.59793
If I never come home, look for me here in Granada. I never expected to fall in love with a Spanish city, but I did.
Why Granada Is Awesome:
-(1) Its got a personality. I thought Madrid was an okay city until Granada just blew it out of the water. Now I wish I had just skipped Madrid altogether and spent more time in these smaller cities. There are a few main areas in Granada... Theres the central area where we are, which is full of hostels and tapas bars and shops, etc. etc. Theres the Alhambra up on one hill... the most beautiful palace Ive seen thus far. On the opposing hill is the Albaizin, an 800 year old Muslim neighborhood. Its full of white houses on winding streets that turn every which way and get you completely stupidly lost. Beyond the Albaizin are three more hill mountains full of caves that people live in... called Hippie Caves.
-(2) Tapas... what a brilliant effing concept. You pay about 2 euro... and you get a drink (sangria, wine, beer, etc) AND a free tapa (a small dish of some sort). 2 euro is a little less then 3 dollars. Completely unheard of
back home. Its so CHEAP and the tapas are AMAZING. And what you do is hop from bar to bar getting a drink and a free tapa. After 5 bars youŕe stuffed AND drunk and youve spent only 15dollars!
-(3) There is SO much to do here and a lot of it has been organized by the awesome hostel we have been staying in, Funky Backpackers. There are a bunch of tours that are free... the guides just work for tips. You tip them like 5 euros or however much you thought they were worth. So our first afternoon we went on a nature hike into the hills above the Alhambra and Albaizin. We got to check out the old aqueduct system that that Alhambra uses to get water down from the Sierra Nevada to the city and the palace (which is full of fountains). The guide taught us all about the aqueducts, the hippie caves and left us on top of the hill above the Alhambra to watch an amazing sunset! The second day we went on a tour of the Albaizin. This is reputedly a bad area for tourists but its really a load of crap. Every so often
A Monastary in the Hills
We had a pretty good view of it up in the hills on our hike the first daya tourist might get mugged for walking through the streets in the middle of the night, but that happens anywhere. 40 years ago when it was a ghetto the crime was much much worse. Thats just not the case now. Our guide explained all the history of Granada, took us through the winding streets of the Albaizin, stopped at some really neat viewpoints, and then took us out for a drink and tapas afterwards. Both those walking tours were amazing. We went on a tapas tour that night with another guide. Yesterday we went on a tour of the Alhambra all day (like I said, its the most beautiful palace Ive seen yet. Its a Moorish palace full of intricate tiling and designs and fountains and gardens), and then last night we watched a Flamenco show in a bar in a cave, lol. Tonight we are doing the Arab baths (you can pay more for a massage, but Im really sunburnt, so i didnt think it was such a great idea, lol).
-(4) Our hostel is amazing. Besides helping to book activities for us, the staff is by far the most awesome staff we have had. Ive got two great examples.
On our tapas tour we were with a group of very rowdy Brits. After the tour we bought some more alcohol and came back to the hostel to drink and hang out. It was midnight and we were on the rooftop terrace playing a drinking card game caled Ring of Fire (its a freakin fun game I might add). And of course we were all quite loud and it didnt take long for the neighbors to call the police on the hostel. So youd think the staff would be quite pissed right? lol, not in the least! They were so nice! They had us go hide in our rooms until the cops were gone. Second awesome example... The hostel cooks dinners every so often and charges a small fee for the guests. Our first night it was BBQ. Last night it was paella. The manager said the food should be ready before we go to our flamenco show. They were running late, so Chris and I went and found some tapas somewhere else for dinner. No big deal- we didnt mind at all. The Spanish tend to be on slow time and we get that, lol. When we got back
from the show, there was a heaping plate of paella in our room! The manager felt bad we had missed dinner and left a note sayin it was on the house!
-(5) Besides the tapas, the food and drinks are just so damned cheap and good here.
-(6) The architecture is so amazing... whether its the white buildings with the vines and terraces in the winding streets of the Albaizin... or the many plazas with their fountains and dining areas... or the beautiful intricacy of the Alhambra with its lush gardens... I am just so in love with Granada. Its everything Madrid wasnt. =)
Anyway, much to our dismay, we DO plan on leaving tomorrow morning for Barcelona. We are going to be there for a few days looking at the crazy architecture by Gaudi and hopefully hiking up at Montserrat. After that we are making our way to Cinque Terre in Italy, which might take a couple days. I dont think there is one train from Barcelona to there (but we will look into it in Barcelona)... in which case we will probably have to stop in Nice, France for a night. But that should be the end of ridiculously long train
rides for awhile. =) Christoper is quite the book nerd when he doesnt have a computer to play with. He finished a book by Dean Koontz and started the first book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (that wil take him awhile!). We got lucky and have found an English bookstore here in Granada. Iḿ stil workin on Lord of the Rings... Iḿ almost finished with the first book. =)
Other updates.... Iḿ healthy again. Chris has BEEN healthy. =) Uh... our budget is still doin great. I love google docs. I just have this big spreadsheet that I keep track of our finances on. So wonderful and easy! Annnnd, I have been in contact with my work and have slowly been adding shifts to my work schedule (yay! money when I get home! I wont have to whore out Christopher for rent money!).
And I am absolutely way behind on uploading pictures, but theres not much I can do about it! The computers in this cafe wont let me upload pics from my camera. Ive been taking lots of pictures, though, so expect a big upload update sometime in the next week or so. Im just going to
have to upload less pics per entry... only put my favorite favorite pics up or something cause there are just way too many awesome shots.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.052s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.026s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
schmidddy
non-member comment
this is my favorite blog entry to date and makes me feel like I'm right there with you enjoying the beautiful views and amazing food!!! Too bad I'm actually in my living room eating slightly stale pretzels, oh well ;p Can't wait for the pic
s :)