So after arriving late in Granada, we had a bit of a sleep in and then decided to wander the streets. Besides the abundance of dog poo on every surface of the footpath, Granada is full of lovely cobblestoned windy streets. All these shops were colourful and reminded us of the Mexico we had made up in our heads, which we had not found in Barcelona. We set out first to find breakfast and stopped at a café/pub. When we were finally able to order we started with drinks and then the waiter ran off before we were able to order food. When our drinks arrived we were then able to order food, however seconds later a plate of food we hadn’t ordered arrived at our table. We insisted to the waiter that we had not in fact ordered it, but he assured us it was free. So we ate a plate of rice, chips and sandwiches before our ordered sandwich arrived. We then sat in the café for a while reading books and ordered another beverage, which again came with another plate of unordered food… at this point we couldn’t fit any more in! We later found out that this is a custom, particularly in Granada, where food is always served with any drink purchase! There are whole restaurants dedicated to only paying for drinks! We liked this place already.
Now full to the brim, we decided to work it off by walking through the maze of backstreets, full of touristy shops similar to those you would find in Bali or Thailand. They were jam packed with clothes, wallets, bags, jewelery, scarves and ceramics. We were in shopping heaven… though didn’t buy much. That night our hostel had a cheap pasta and drinks night so we hung out in the common room and met some fellow travelers.
The next day, Sara convinced me to go on the alternative walking tour – which was meant to show us street art and give us some bearings on what to see and do next. I was more willing to do the history tour but we had missed that one that morning so I agreed to go along…
We were greeted at our hostel by a lovely guide who let us know that there would be a slight hill on our tour but it was well worth it to get a view of the city… so we began our hike up a mountain and waited for some information/history… we continued to climb mountains, still waiting for our guide to talk to us. When we were almost at the top, the guide allowed us to catch our breath, wipe away the sweat, have a sip of water and respray deodorant and he finally began talking to us about some street art. This went on for at least 3 sentences, where he pointed out that a staircase had been designed by one person over two years… We then began another mountainous climb up the stairs and were stopped at his neighbors house.
We were greeted by a strange fellow, who allowed us to view his house, which is in fact a cave with a house façade, running water, and electricity. It is quite common in Granada to live in a cave dug out of the mountain, and anytime you want to renovate or add an extra room for your growing family, all you have to do it dig another room into the mountain. Manny is an eccentric Mexican, apparently a cousin of Santana, who has lived in this cave for over 20 years but spends a lot of time traveling the world, and setting up charities in small communities. He asks visitors of his house to donate or buy incense to help fund his trips and gifts he takes with him. When he took us to his lounge room in the back of the house, he asked if we would mind if we had a minute of silence so that he could bless us… he assured us he was not religious because he does not kill in the name of a god, but he is spiritual and believes in the good of himself. After a sideways glance from Sara, we kept our cool and began our silence… Manny however, broke the silence by chanting blessings on each of us… well at least those he remembered in the group. He also broke the one minute rule by continuing his blessing for at least 5 minutes… He continued his chant while throwing incense on us, so Sara and I had trouble breathing from the smell, we did VERY well not to cough, or run out of there laughing hysterically… Eventually he stopped and allowed us to leave.. we were very glad to be let out.
Once again, we were greeted by our guide and taken up another mountain. At the top we saw a view of Granada…. After a quick glance, we were then told we would descend the mountain to then go up the other side… I was not impressed and began glaring at Sara for making me come… Granada could definitely do with some escalators… and my ankle, still sore from spraining it in Nice, was not enjoying its work out and I knew I would be paying for it the following day…
So we began the decent, still in silence, and no information from our guide and arrived at a square, which apparently is full of markets except for the one day we were there… Our guide then pointed out nice restaurants and tapas bars for us, should we feel the need to climb Everest before dinner during our stay. After much huffing and puffing and multiple swear words in Sara’s direction we arrived at another square with a view of La Alhambra, a palace surrounded by a fort on the opposite mountain, and overlooked the city. Apparently the people of Granada are very proud of their views over the city, though Sara and I are unsure why. Similarly to Barcelona, all the buildings are white with brown roofs, making the view a sea of beige… so to us it looks very bland. We were told however that the area is UNESCO protected and everyone must maintain their white facades, and people are happy to comply as this is used as heat protection. Granada gets temperatures up to 47 degrees in summer so I can understand why they want to deflect any heat from the sun. This also explains why they live in caves in the mountains because they are quite cool inside. (Manny even has a heater on during summer). But again, it just looks bland…
So we caught our breath in the square and continued going up and down the mountains, with me pointing out passing buses and taxis to Sara, showing her that we could have found alternative transport to see the bland views and probably would have got more information from the taxi/bus driver, however she continued to decline my request to leave the tour and so we kept walking… and walking… and climbing… and sweating…
We then found a nice little river and walked along the flat pathway… looking around I noticed that all roads were leading upwards… I questioned our guide’s intentions and he informed us that this was the last hill and… like all the others… well worth it. He promised this would be the last one, and not as big as the ones we had already climbed. We informed him that he began the tour by telling us it was only one hill on his tour, and that he failed to mention we would be going up and down and up and down that hill multiple times, and that we had no faith in his promise that this was the last. At this point, even Sara was joining in my complaining and longing looks as passing traffic…
When we reached the top, we were amazed to find yet another bland view of the places we had just been… our guide had lied to us once again, in that he told us this would be worth it… it wasn’t…
At last, the torture was over, we were now on our way back into town… ready for a well-deserved meal of Paella… yum! We then went back to our hostel for a very early night, exhausted from our efforts of the day.
The next day, Sara informed me that she still wanted to do the history tour… after much hesitation, thinking that surely this tour could not be as bad as the previous day… and thinking that this tour would remain around the flatter area of the city to be able to point out historic monuments and churches, I agreed to go with her…
Our guide met us at the hostel, and was barely audible and had a difficult accent I could not quite understand… she then began taking us… up a mountain… I was not impressed but decided to press on in hopes it would get better… She began giving us some history of the city, of which I understood every third word… three more sets of stairs later, and more inaudible commentary… I was done. I decided that my very sore ankle could not take any more of a beating and humbly disappeared, leaving Sara to explain where I had gone. I then spent a pleasant morning relaxing in the hostel reading books and researching flights that we would soon need to get to Italy.
Sara eventually arrived red-faced and puffing, back at the hostel, and informed me that I had missed nothing, except a slightly less painful walk from the previous day. I was then able to view the bland photos of the same places I had seen and felt like I had been there right along beside her.
We then decided it was time to visit La Alhambra. We had been informed that it was just a 20 minute walk up a mountain from our hostel, or a bus… we were quite happy to take the bus… When we arrived, we got out at the wrong bus stop, walked down the hill to where we thought the palace was, but were informed by the ‘palace hotel’ that it was in fact in the opposite direction, so went back up a slight hill for 10 minutes and finally reached the entrance. After picking up our pre-booked tickets we were waiting in the entrance line, and before me I see… none other than Dylan Moran, with his family, happily on vacation. Dylan Moran is an Irish comedian of Black Books fame, who I have seen live at home, and love. So I took a deep breath and walked over to him to ask for a photo… to which he replied “sorry, I don’t do that stuff”. Disheartened, but understanding of his nature, I said ‘thanks anyway’ and went back to join the queue.
Once inside, we walked along the bland path to look at some bland buildings. We got to the Palace and waited for our pre-booked entry time and ever so slowly (we always get stuck behind prams, oblivious tourists in our way, and grandmas and pas) made our way in to have a look. The palace is white and beige, much like the rest of Granada, however each wall is covered in delicate engravings that would have taken years to complete. The detail was absolutely incredible, however, disappointing that it still looked so bland to us. In a few of the rooms you could see that colours had worn away and we were left with beige walls, so I understand that perhaps in its day it would have looked magnificent but once you saw one room, the rest were just a repetitive view of the last. In some areas there is a square with a pond in the middle, and admittedly it would have been wonderful to live in a room above with a view of it.
La Alhambra has had many purposes, it began as a fort for the Muslim military. Granada was once a very Muslim region, having concurred it, they were overwhelmed by its clean running water, and lush soil for growing greenery after having lived in the desert. It was then taken over by Christians and all Mosques were converted into churches by adding a cross on top of the 3 balls on the roofs. This was a sign to the public to either convert or move, but also showed respect for the Muslims by not tearing down their heritage, but added the cross on top to show the new order. La Alhambra was then occupied by Queen Sophia, and La Alhambra was converted into a palace, with beautiful surrounding gardens. Queen Sophia lived there for 6 years and was known by the people as the Queen of Flies, as she did not bathe for 3 years to show her faith (mmm must have been lovely to serve her during summer heats up to 47 degrees…). This was a custom as it was known that Muslims must bathe on Fridays for their religion, so Christians began not bathing so they would not be mistaken for Muslim, and therefore exiled.
After the palace, we then roamed around the gardens and guards quarters, still within the fort. I have since been made aware of the fact that for such a square, off-putting fort, seen from the city, it is amazing that there is such a contrast inside the palace area, full of lush, sculptured gardens, and I have to agree that that gardens make this place lovely. After 4 hours of wondering around the grounds, we were on our way to the exit when we found an adorable group of preschool children. Each had a yellow scarf around their neck to make sure they were not lost, and their teacher was singing to them in Spanish, using their names as part of the lyrics. Each verse was about a different student and they had to come to the front of the group to have the attention on them. We did not understand the lyrics but the boys seemed very shy when it was their turn, but the girls loved the attention, with many strutting and booty-shaking at the front when it was their turn. They were sooo cute!
We then retired back to our hostel for cheap drinks and conversation with our fellow hostellers… We were also greeted with an impromptu sing-a-long by the girl that worked in the bar, and the chef. When they had a brief break I could not contain my wish to play his guitar, which he obliged so I was able to see how my hand would cope with it… Amazingly, I am just as bad a guitarist I was when I left, but thankfully can manoeuvre my fingers around the neck of the guitar as if I had not broken my fingers at all… that is, the ring finger is almost back to full mobility!! All in all we loved Granada, even though it was bland in architecture, it was the Mexico we had been looking for.
The following day, we were heading to Madrid, and found some lovely New Zealand boys to carry our luggage down the stairs and then followed them to the bus station, as we had no idea where it was. Amazingly they sat at the front of the bus, when we sat in the middle (near the toilet, as Sara needs to be in close proximity at all times), however we did manage to find them again during the bus break at the café, which I’m sure they were thrilled about.
We had spent the night before looking at accommodation in Madrid, as we have booked most of our trip the night before leaving each city, but unfortunately found it very difficult to find availability. The tourist season was definitely beginning… there was not a single hostel in Madrid that we could afford, that had availability for our 5 days there so we booked one just out of town…
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