I’d
decided a few weeks ago that I was just going to go to Granada. I have wanted to go for so long and it isn’t
too far from here. Hostals were really
cheap and if I didn’t hurry up and go then I could miss my chance to see La
Alhambra this year and that would have been a bit daft. So I started to look at when I could go. Then last week at our Burns/Jenna’s birthday
party I was chatting with Candice about going and she said that she wanted to
come and that Todd and Matt probably would like to as well. So by last Sunday we had booked the hostal
and the tickets for La Alhambra. And
that was that. Off to Granada we were to
go.
I
was going down straight after school on Friday and had booked my tickets
beforehand, an open return proved the most economic and gave the most freedom,
which as it turned out was need since we ended up going on a day-trip to the
coast and if I’d booked any of the earlier buses I would have missed either
them or the chance to sit on the beach in February drinking sangria and eating
some good tapas.
Fridays
are always long since it is my day with the most classes and I start at
8.15. So I took my bag down with me and did
my days work with the excitement of getting to Granada pushed back in my
mind. I left school slightly early to
make sure I caught my bus. This was a
shame actually because the kids were properly engaging with the activities but
better safe than sorry. I got onto the
bus and luckily I had the front seat which helps with my travel sickness. I arrived into Granada around five o’clock
and got to the pension shortly afterwards.
The rooms were basic but warm. I
had barely enough time to stick my bag in my room before we were off to get
Matt and Candice and then head up to the San Nicolas mirador for the
sunset.
The
mirador is on top of the hill which faces La Alhambra. I read somewhere that Bill Clinton said it
was the best sunset in the world…I also read that he says that about everywhere
and really I don’t know much about the man anyway… We dragged ourselves up the steep hills,
which reminded me of horrible Friday afternoon lectures in the Adam Smith
building in the middle of winter climbing up what is essentially a river…do I
really have to come home and go back there?
You sure I can’t stay here living the life of Riley? Anyway…we arrived just before the sunset and elbowed
our way through some tourists in order to take pictures and to see La Alhambra
in all her glory.
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| Candice and I |
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| Todd, Matt, Candice and I at the mirador |
Afterwards,
since we were just about in that area we wandered around the Albayzin area of
Granada. This is the old Moorish part of
the city and it is a maze of narrow winding streets and there are lots of spice
shops and fountains. We wandered around
up there for a while trying to decide if we were going to go see a flamenco
show or not. We bought a drink from a
shop…Sports Bebidaaa! After some more
wandering and Matt sort-of, kind-of a getting us maybe just a little but lost
we ended up in the first tapas bar of the night. It was not very good. Too expensive and quite rubbishy tapas so we
left after one drink. We walked back
towards the area where Candice had been told there was a good flamenco
show. We went into one place who were
advertising a show but 22 euro for an hour’s show is not quite within our
budget.
After
a little bit more wandering and more objectionable walking up hills we ended up
in what, from the outside, looked like a scummy bar but they said that a guy
would be playing some flamenco at some point so we went there. This place was a brilliant find. It was like a cavern with white washed walls
and the tables were in little cubby holes in the walls. The tapas was pretty good and we also ordered
a plate of meat and beans in sauce which came with freshly baked bread. I can safely say we finished the entire plate
including mopping up all the sauce with the bread. While we were eating a man started to play
his guitar and it was just something special.
I’m not a huge fan of flamenco but I do appreciate talent and in a
setting like this it just works. As we
were leaving the bar tender gave us free Carmel vodka and honey rum shots. Carmel vodka is good…
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| Todd, Matt and I in the bar |
We
were ridiculously tired after this bar but we realised that it was only like 10
pm and we couldn’t go home yet. So one
more bar was in order and we headed to one of the streets in Granada that is
just filled with tapas bars. At the top
of the street they were all full but as we walked down we found an empty
bar. We laughed that maybe this was
because it was just not good, and really the tapas was only a quarter sandwich
and a ton of crisps, but it had a good atmosphere. Before long it was full and we were lucky
that we had grabbed one of the last tables.
It was just an example of how the Spanish go tapeando-ing, like we
bar-crawl, down a street. The talk soon
turned into a serious discussion over politics, Israel and whether or not the
US should be funding things like that and the wars they are fighting. We tried to get into a club after this but
the boys didn’t have the correct shoes…trainers will not do…so we went and
played pool and each team won one…
On
the Saturday it was time to go sightseeing.
But before this it was breakfast time.
We jumped into a café next to the pension and ordered our enteras…Matt
and I actually swapped since he got one with pate to try it and hated it,
whereas I love it. We had time to kill
before La Alhambra so we went to the Cathedral…I mean we are in Spain…The
Cathedral in Granada is called the Cathedral of the Incarnation. It took 181 years to build and it contains
Baroque and Gothic designs (thanks wiki J). I always have mixed feelings in Cathedrals,
and whilst this one isn’t as grandiose as the one in Seville, it still took up
a lot of Church resources while people were starving on the streets. But at the same time it is a beautiful place
and symbol of devotion. I don’t know.
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| Todd, Matt and I in the Cathedral |
Then
it was finally time to go the La Alhambra.
I did a project last year on Moorish architecture and my building was La
Alhambra so I have been wanting to go for so long. It is just a shame that the patio with the
lion fountain, one of my favourite bits, is all but closed off while they
restore it to being functional. I
wandered around just thinking about all the history that has happened here, and
marvelling at how much work it must have taken to make something so
beautiful. I mean I know what it
symbolises and why it looks so different to Western design but to see it in
person and not on a page of a book adds another level.
It was ridiculously cold this weekend in
Granada and the temperature was around 3 or 4 degrees so I didn’t get to
properly appreciate being there. My
hands are all raw from the wind. The
building itself is so beautiful and intricate and I can’t wait to visit again
when the weather is better. Also the
gardens were barren and I’m sure they will look spectacular in the summer. One of the teachers said that I could maybe
go with them here for a proper tour so I hope that happens.
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| Me standing near to the fuente de los leones. |
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| The roof |
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| I think this looks like a monster's face :O |
We
headed back to the centre afterwards to see about buses to the coast for the
following day and to try and decide what we were going to do that night, apart
from hopefully meeting up with my Czech friend from Uni. There was still uncertainty as to whether or
not Todd was getting a lift to La Puerta or whether he would have to take the
only bus from Granada to Siles at 7.45 am.
The woman in the tourist office advised us that the best place to go to
the coast in the province of Granada was Almuñécar and that there were loads of
buses every day from Granada and back again.
There was a market in one of the squares and Candice and I went looking
whilst the boys got out their maps once again.
We were sorely tempted by the pastries but we had just had a decent
sized lunch and we decided against it.
Candice got herself an alpaca wool scarf because the poor Kiwi is
freezing.
We
were going to meet Martin at one of the plazas quite close to our pension because
he also lives near there. On the phone
he made some cryptic remark that it would only be a good place to meet if all
the birds were asleep. It wasn’t until
the end of the night that we understood what he was saying. This square is where ALL the birds in Granada
go to sleep and all the trees are covered in sleeping birds…really creepy…especially
since I have a phobia of birds flying into me….urgh. Once we met him we headed to a tapas bar that
he likes, the main street was full because of football but he told us that
there was another branch a little further up which was always empty because
people can’t be bothered to go that far.
The place was great. The drinks
were cheap enough for a city and the tapas was huge…it never hurts to have a
local.
After
sitting here for a while and catching up with Martin and the gossip about the Glasgow
Spanish department…apparently all the teachers have left and no-one knows what
the honours courses are going to be…we headed to one of Granada’s many
teterias, a Moroccan tea shop, an example of the multiculturalism which exists
in Andalucía and Granada especially. We
chilled out completely in the tea shop as a result of the combination of Arabic
music, comfy seats and warm tea.
Apparently it is traditional to have apple tea so Candice and I shared a
pot of this. Adding a lot of sugar made
it taste like warm apple juice. We didn’t
do the hubbly jubbly pipe…but I really didn’t want to and anyways my dad was
gifted one of these from Jordan…
Martin
had to leave early because one of the downsides of studying abroad is that you
have to study and he is in the middle of his exams. I was glad to see him even if it was for a
short time, and he has offered that I can stay with him one weekend. I might take him up on that when the weather
is better.
We decided that we should head in the general direction of our pension instead of heading further away and we were going to look for a bar. We ended up going into what looked like nothing special from the outside but as soon as we in the door I fell in love. The Bohemian Jazz Café…well the name says it all…the walls were lined with bookshelves and random tattered books. There was an old man playing the standards on the piano, I like to imagine that he opened this place in order to perform daily… The whole menu was themed but they seemed to do a lot of milkshakes, and alcoholic drinks with ice cream. I got a turron milkshake…it was so yummy. It had bits of turron through it and it wasn’t sickly like I thought it might be. I could live in this bar. If I can’t make up my mind about what to do after uni then I’m opening this place in Glasgow…GU Big Band members get 10% discount :P. We had some ridiculous conversations in this place and stumbled across a perfect pronunciation…tiny teddies (in a New Zealand accent).
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| Old man playing brilliant piano - Can I live here, please? |
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| Turron milkshake in the Jazz cafe :D |
We
had a little bit of a sleep on the Sunday morning but we eventually roused and
headed to the coast. The bus took only
an hour and a half and we left the cold Granada and replaced it with the quite
warm, 17/18, Almuñécar. The Americans
got really excited to see the Mediterranean Sea and we rushed to the beach. We spent a while throwing rocks into the sea,
trying to skip stones and simply enjoying being close to the ocean. There is an old Arabic castle on the hill and
after the beach we spent like an hour trying to work out how we could get up
there. The maps were useless and we
wandered through the tiny, winding streets.
There must be a big British population there because all the street
signs were in the two languages…e.g.
Calle de la conception and underneath Conception Street…
Eventually
we got up the hill and enjoyed a wonderful view across the bay. Unfortunately, the castle was shut on Sunday
afternoons and poor Todd was denied access to another place…he spent the
weekend lamenting that he couldn’t climb on battlements or up towers. So we cut our losses and went to drink
Sangria in a café on the sea front. The
tapas was paella…but it had the deadly shellfish so even though it looked
absolutely lovely I could not take one bite.
We decided to order some food, chicken meatballs in sauce with wedges…beautiful. They also brought me another tapas because we
told them I couldn’t have shellfish…they were essentially fish nuggets…and they
were also amazing. Food tastes so much
better in the sun and sea breeze.
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| I see the sea! I see the sea! |
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| Plotting... |
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| We were trying to break into the Castle...ssshhhh |
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| "Let me in! I just wanna climb one little tower!" |
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| Candice and I after Sangria sitting beside the sea :) |
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| Heading back to the bus station :( |
After
another lively discussion, this time about religion, it was time to head back
to the bus station and head for home, two buses for me and a bus then a lift
for the others (I’m still not sure how Todd got from La Puerta to Siles). I arrived back in Baeza just before midnight
and headed for my leckie blanket and bed.
Such
a brilliant weekend with great people and I look forward to many more trips
either with them or with other people and to just continue having new
experiences which, after all, is what this year is all about…
Countdown
until my (current) flight home is 133 days…
