Spring in Spain: Granada

On Easter Monday I set off bright and early for my 7am flight to Granada.

Well, I don't know if I can use the word "bright" since the sun hadn't come up yet. Also, the flight wasn't to Granada. I went through London and Madrid before getting to Malaga, where I caught a bus that takes two hours to get to Granada. So after a really long travel day, I made it to Granada! Paulina and I met up and she helped me find my hostel and then we planned the next day's adventures. As soon as possible, though, we went to bed, because the next day was going to be busy!

We met up at 9, which is pretty early for Spain, to go hiking. After breakfast, our plan was to grab some bocadillos (sandwiches) for a picnic on our hike, but none of the shops were open yet. We did have a bunch of snacks and we decided to get food in the village where the trail started. We ended up catching the bus just after 10, and when we got to the village at almost 11, the restaurants that might have been able to sell us bocadillos were still not open. This was my first experience with the completely different schedule that Spain runs on.

We headed out anyway and had such a lovely hike!

The trail had a few wobbly bridges and narrow sections, which made it really fun.

There were parts of the trail where you had to hang on to the handles in the rocks because you would have fallen off the trail otherwise. That was my favorite part!

After the hike, we went back into town. We did end up finding bocadillos at a more acceptable lunch time (2pm), and we ate lunch in a park. We then set out to do some errands, namely find tickets for the Alhambra.

As you might have been able to tell by the first picture of this post, the Alhambra is a giant fortress on top of the biggest hill in Granada. We walked up there only to discover that you can't buy tickets in advance. We were a little bummed, but then we found out that to get tickets day-of you have to be at the Alhambra at 7am. I really didn't feel like doing that, so we decided to find another way.

Before that, however, Paulina showed me around a bit more.

We went to the Albayzin and walked around there a bit and that's where the aforementioned first picture of the post and lovely shot of the Alhambra was taken - at the Mirador de San Nicolas.

On the way back down, we stumbled across this garden 

 

We also caught another nice view of the Alhambra with some spring-y flowers!

Then we went to get the first batch of churros and chocolate of the trip. If you are in Spain, get the churros and chocolate. It's great and one of many food recommendations I will probably give.

Our next stop was the book store. Aside from grocery stores, book stores are probably my favorite type of store to go in while I am in foreign countries, especially if I have studied the language they speak in that country (which is more often than not the case). I decided before I went in that I was going to get at least one book in Spanish as part of my plan to improve my Spanish. After trying to decide between rereading 1984 or the Book Thief or reading something I knew very little about, I chose the latter and am now reading the Da Vinci Code in Spanish.

Finally, after all that, we headed back to Paulina's school to figure out the Alhambra tickets, and the picture below is the view we had while we figured all this out!

We googled around for a bit, and then we decided to ask the cleaning staff at the school. We obviously had to carry out this entire conversation in Spanish, which was interesting since the guy who worked there had a very thick Andalusian accent. Eventually we came up with a plan and started running (literally) around Granada before shops started to close looking for advance tickets to the Alhambra.

The two shops we thought might sell tickets had just closed by the time we got there, but our third option turned out to be the best solution! It turns out that you can buy advance tickets to the Alhambra at any Caixa ATM. It seems too simple, but it works! You have to pay €1.40 more, which is the same fee you have to pay if you buy the tickets day-of at the Alhambra with a credit card instead of cash. 

After our great victory, we hit the bar... for tapas. I actually wasn't that hungry so we only got one round of tapas. The great food discovery of this meal was tinto de verano. I am not a wine person, but this is one of my new favorite drinks. It's lemon soda and red wine and it's great. The nice thing about Granada is it's the only city in Spain where the tapas are completely free with your drink. So dinner that night cost me the cost of that one drink!

After tapas, we got gelato and we ate it on the way back to my hostel, where we finalized our plans for the rest of my time in Granada.

The next morning I didn't have to get up particularly early and I was on my own, so I got to completely make up my schedule. My first stop was finding breakfast. I decided to go back to the place we had been to the previous day, which was a bar that was open for breakfast. There you can get a pan tostado con tomate and a cafe con leche for  €1.80! This is my new favorite breakfast, which is crazy because only a couple of months ago I could barely stand tomatoes and I would never have touched a cup of coffee. I am very proud of this meal because it was so cheap and delicious and I highly recommend it.

After the amazing breakfast that I apparently can't shut up about, I headed to explore over by the Albayzin again. I first went to the Bañuelo, which was just an ancient bath house. It was really beautiful.

From there I wandered around a bit. I really got a lot of time that day to explore, which is what I love to do in new cities.

Then I headed up to Sacromonte which is another historical district near the Albayzin, where the houses are built into the side of the hill. That is, people live in caves. I didn't really get any good pictures of the way the houses were built into the hill, but this is one of the facades. The wall that is flush with the door is pretty much the hill.

 Below is the view from Sacromonte.

I meandered around there for a bit and eventually ended up back the Albayzin and the Arabic-esque markets.

From there I made my way to Plaza Nueva, which is right between the Albayzin and the Alhambra. I found lunch and then went up the giant hill again.

I still had a bit of time to kill before I could get into the Alhambra, so I climbed up Silla del Moro, which is more of many places to get an amazing panoramic view of Granada and a comprehensive view of the Alhambra, which as you can see is massive.

Now the whole ordeal with the Alhambra made me question whether it was worth the work to get the tickets. Let me tell you, it was. It was so cool! I kind of wish I had had a guide or something to read, because I don't feel like I really learned anything about the history or the architecture, but I had a great time exploring the complex.

Overall, what really struck me was how much detail was put into the intricate carvings that are on EVERYTHING. Also, all of the gardens were amazing. Like I said, I can't really say much about the history, except I do recall overhearing a tour group talking about how one part had been destroyed by Napoleon. Thanks, Napoleon.

After the Alhambra, I went to chill at my hostel for a bit and then I met up with Paulina for dinner and once again we planned for the next day and went to bed as soon as possible. 

My last day in Granada, I got up and packed up all my stuff. I left it at Paulina's school so I could walk around with just my small backpack. 

The first thing I did was go to the house of Federico Garcia Lorca, who wrote La Casa de Bernarda Alba, which is a play we read in my Spanish class last year. You have to see the house with a guide, which is good because there's nothing to read. One thing to note is that the tour is in Spanish, so if you're not fluent in Spanish, it might be difficult to get anything out of the tour. I find Garcia Lorca's life really interesting, because he was killed just at the start of the Spanish Civil War, but no one really knows why. I also thought the play we read was cool because every single character is female. This is not really a stop I would recommend if you don't care about these things.

After that, I went to the Cathedral, which is enormous and beautiful. This wasn't really a long stop, as there's not much to do, but it was very pretty.

After this, I met up with Paulina for a bit and we wandered around and bought some snacks for the bus later.

I splurged for lunch, since I hadn't been spending very much of food. Now, since this is Spain, I still spent less than I would have on any meal at a pub in Scotland and I got a four-course meal.

Stuffed, I rolled out of the restaurant in the direction of some other things Paulina recommended.

I found la Puerta de Elvira.

I kept walking and got to an area called Cartuja. I did keep walking all the way to the University (which is really far away), but didn't find anything of interest. 

I turned back and went back to the school to get my bag and meet Paulina so we could get the bus to Murcia. 

The adventure continues here!