"There's no greater pain than to be blind in GRANADA!"

Friday 6/10 – Sunday 6/12

Alhambra at night from our vista.

The passionate flamenco dancer with it's wonderfully vibrant music. 

There are plenty more pics at the bottom, but first a detailed written account of the trip is in order.  If you get bored skip down to the photos, haha.

Friday

I got up to the earliest alarm yet in my Spain stay at 6:27am.  It wasn’t hard though because I was so excited for the trip to Granada and I definitely didn’t wanna miss the bus.  The walk to the bus station still took over thirty minutes so I arrived just in time to start loading up.  Since it was just the weekend I traveled light and only packed my backpack.  I was glad I didn’t have to mess stowing and towing an extra bag or laptop like my friends did.  The 5-hour ride was painless enough, but kinda boring scenery-wise.  It actually reminded me a lot of the Wyoming countryside (M).

The bus. Pretty comfortable.  They played Marley and Me.

The countryside was rather boring, arid, and shrub-ish until we got close to Granada. 

When we got to Granada around 1:30 we immediately stopped at the information booth where we got a map with scribbles from the helper lady marking our hostel and points of interest.  She even sold us on a segway tour with the deal of 3 for the price of 2.  Since we had sometime before the tour we taxied our way to the hostel and got settled.  Since a lot of the streets (especially in the oldest Moorish neighborhood called Albaycin where we were staying) are too narrow to drive on the taxi guy just let us off around where he thought it was.  We ended up walking back and forth for a while until I called the hostel.  I was in the middle of talking to the guy when he said, “wait I hear you” and flagged me down from a door 20 feet away.  Qué suerte! 

The hostel had a lot of character with decorations, tapestries, paintings, maps, etc, but the owner had even more character.  He is a Wisconsin guy who came to Granada on vacation and the next thing he knew he it had been 5 years.  He said it was easy to find jobs here without work papers and he had been a carpenter, gardener, and now managed the hostel with his “business associate” who was in Mexico City.  He surprised us by saying that Granada was a huge party town.  “Yea man, Granada is the alternative, hippie capital of the world.  It’s pretty far out.”  From talking to him, we discovered that he had definitely experienced that firsthand, especially while smoking in bars and clubs was still legal and weed was even more accepted in Granada than Amsterdam.  Unfortunately, for him the “fascist” government is “regulating everything” nowadays and “taking away people’s economic liberties” so the only place he can smoke weed is in his hostel (or the street cuz nobody really cares).  When he offered some to us we politely turned it down.  One thing he did teach us is that Andalusian Spanish (Andalusia is the province containing Granada) is the most difficult to learn because they drop half the word when they say it.  The saying is that you have to learn it “en la cuna o en la cama” (in the cradle as a baby or in the sack with a Spanish girlfriend).  So obviously I gotta find me the latter (haha, jk E)  All in all, Blake was a good host and a very chill guy who made for an interesting stay.

Our beds.  There's a 3rd to the left.

He led us into the heart of the city when we were settled (which was really just all the way down the huge hill where our neighborhood was perched).  Our first visit was the monastery of St. Jerome.  We almost didn’t go in when we found out it cost money, but we ended up waiting for the doorman to finish his smoke break and got tickets for only 3.50 (oddly enough this was the price for the Cathedral, Cartuja, and Capilla Real also).  Anyway, I’m so glad we went in, because it was gorgeous, even though it wasn’t mentioned as one of the main must-see sights.  We learned that Granada had around 200 monasteries when it was newly conquered by Ferdinand and Isabella and the Christians and united into the rest of Spain.  They flooded the city with priests and monks to force the Moors to convert and built crazy cool buildings to impress them.  The pictures can explain the buildings better than I ever could, so I will ease up on the descriptions and let the pictures with some explanatory captions do the work.

The magnificent Monastery of St. Jerome.  Every inch of the ceiling and walls was broken up into a section that had a painting in it. 

The alter had some beautiful sculptures and reliefs in dozens of alcoves.

After knocking out this monument we went to our segway tour in La Plaza Nueva (the center of the old town/touristy section).  I was really excited to try a segway for the first time and they really weren’t that difficult.  The worst part was all the people laughing at us wearing our bright orange vests and zipping around like mad men because it was such a tourist thing to do.  Ah well!  Our tour guide Edie was very nice and spoke 4 languages (like several other people we have met (so that made me feel quite inferior).  We went on a 7 km route that led us up a huge hill to a spot in front of a monastery.  From there we could look over a large part of the city.  Edie said that only 2% of tourists ever get to that spot.  Although, the real reward was the journey.  Along the way we traveled through the Sacramonte district (on the edge of Granada).  This is where all the gypsies have made their homes out of caves built in to the mountains.  Many homes have regular house fronts, but behind that the house just goes straight into the mountain.  It’s a great idea because the rock is soft, you don’t need much building material, and the climate is controlled fairly well by the stable temperature of the mountain.  This district is also where most of the flamenco shows go down at night.  They have dozens of authentic flamenco bands and dancers performing in very close quarters inside the caves.  The art of the dance has been passed down through families and it is very important to the gypsies.

At the mid-point of the segway tour when we reached the Monastery above the city where only 2% of tourists get.

Segways are tricky at first because you always feel like you are going to fall because you are leaning one way or the other.  It actually doesn't matter how far you lean, but where you put pressure on your feet.  My favorite part was going over the speed bumps because you went slightly airborne.

Behind the trash you can see the gate to a cave where someone lives.  We learned from Blake that Andalusia is one of the poorest regions in Europe, but it spends the highest amount per person on fashion.  On the upside a family could get by with only $12000/year

After the tour we ventured back to our hostel and then went to find some dinner.  Granada is well-known for its free ‘tapa’ (appetizer) restaurants and bars.  You buy a drink and they give you a tapa.  So, Allan, Quinten, and I found this great place where we sat outside and had an order of “beers around the world” comprised of 5 beers (they gave us six somehow) from Spain, Czech R., Germany, Argentina, etc. and their corresponding tapas.  The most interesting tapa was definitely this huge bowl of snails they gave us.

Enjoying our worldly bucket of beers and 5 different tapas.

Dinner finished and “super menu” lady avoided we went to this place we ran across earlier to see a flamenco show with a 5-piece band and dancer.  When we were waiting outside the venue this guy just came around the corner and shoved a joint in our faces saying “here you go.”  It took him a couple seconds before he realized we were not his friends who were sitting there moments before. Then he offered it to us anyway.  We were quite amused and again declined.  Granada is definitely a grassy city.  The flamenco was very interesting and personal (only 5 total in the late show, but the early show was packed).  I really enjoyed the music (especially great guitar, powerful wailings of the male voice, and awkward narrative of the old lady voice) and the dancing was so passionate and decisive.  It was a great blend of elegance and power and is a very serious-looking performance.  The girl also changed outfits several times and once she even came out with a fan, which she swished around during her break.  The dancing is so tiring that she usually needed a song break between dances.  I think we all should’ve been taking breaks every other song, because we were having trouble keeping our eyes open we were so tired that late at night.  Right after the show we hiked up to bed.

There were different nature scenes and videos playing behind her the whole show.

Saturday

We woke pretty late today and planned to go to visit some of the mountain villages outside Granada and hike between them.  We took a bus to the bus station and got tickets for Capeleira.  When the time came to get on the bus we couldn’t find it anywhere.  We assumed it would be in “platform” 1 because it said bus 1 on the ticket and nothing else.  Wrong.  A bit annoyed, we walked down the length of the buses and saw nothing in the front mentioning a line to Capeleira.  We did see several Bus 1s, but they all said they were not going to Capeleira.  We concluded the bus must not be there.  Anxiety was now mounting (for me at least, the other guys went to get sandwiches) as the departure neared and then passed.  I kept patrolling the platforms.  Finally, we went to information and found it had definitely already left.  I argued and showed my frustration as much as possible in Spanish, but in the end we were out 11 Euros for the tickets.  We were definitely disappointed and annoyed, but fortunately we didn’t this hiccup ruin our day (just our morning). 

When we got back to the city we decided to hike to these graffiti murals by some famous graffiti artist Blake had told us about on the outside of town.  From there we climbed the hill towards Alhambra and found this awesome giant garden that we had never heard of with several towers, tiers, fountains, and stone buildings.  We decided it would be perfect for a paintball fight and then agreed that the best experiences are the attractions you find by accident.  It made it about 3X cooler.  After exploring the garden we climbed a wall and jumped out (because going back to the entrance would take to long).  In our climbing mood, we walked outside the grounds of the Alhambra and saw that the wall was very climb-able.  No, we didn’t sneak in, that’s illegal!  Instead, climbed up the mountain behind Alhambra and went on a long hike into this deserted park way above the city.  On our way back we were trying to reach this scenic overlook we had seen from across the valley and definitely ended up on a trail that was more like a narrow deer path.  The mountain had us pretty trapped since going up and down was too steep and going back was too troublesome.  I was having a particularly fun time traipsing through the sharp bushes in my shorts and open-toed Chacos.  Finally we found our way to the overlook called the Chair of the Moors.  Legend has it that the last Sultan who was pushed out of Granada by the Christians stood on that hill overlooking the cit and cried.  His mother lovingly said to him “You must cry like a woman, because you can’t gain glory like a man.”  From there we found a trail that eventually led us back to a road and the city.  The one interesting part was when we found an abandoned cave that one of the gypsies had squatted in with a lot of trash in it.  And don’t worry, we were never in any danger of getting lost or hurt,but I think we managed to go to a spot where only .001% of tourists go, haha.

The intricate graffiti murals that the famous artist painted all around the neighborhood where he grew up.  Most people (even many that live in Granada) don't know about these.  

Louie Armstrong and me

You could always distinguish his murals because they were much more sophisticated.

In the surprise garden we found there were people doing a photo shoot of fairytale scenes for an art project.

Falling into the fountain.

We found a hobbit hole in the deserted park that we walked in forever!

The abandoned cave-dwelling in the side of the mountain.

Next, we went to visit the Cathedral.  It was massive and you can pick it out from any hill in the city!  You could see where the giant columns had to be cut into slices and assembled in site.  Then I went to visit the Royal Chapel where Ferdinand and Isabella were buried.  I paid for the guide (as usual) and really enjoyed reading about all the different paintings and sections of the chapel.  I realized sometime ago that I usually like to take my time when going through museums, historical sites, monuments, etc.  I like to make sure I can imbibe every bit of information and put everything into proper context.  It definitely puts me behind any group that I’m traveling with and probably gets on some people’s nerves, but I don’t like to skate through things without getting something out of it.  Allan and Quinten politely waited for me outside and told me how they watched gypsies harassing people by shoving rosaries into their hands and starting to pray “with” them and claiming they bought it.  We didn’t stay together long though as I decided I wanted to go to another famous monastery, La Cartuja, while they went back to the hostel.  I caught a bus, but was dumb and got off like five stops to early.  So I decided I better jog to make sure I had enough time at La Cartuja before it closed.  Sometimes I feel like my whole life is a race and I only have one speed(E).  But if you wanna see everything in Granada in 3 days, you gotta be fast, haha.  I even jogged past the Alhambra brewery (a locally renown beer) and thought about ducking in to check it out, but it was definitely not open to the public.  La Cartuja was another ridiculously beautiful and ornate monument to God.  Again I walked through with the guide and soaked it in.  It was a lot harder to take illegal pictures in this one because it was close to closing time and I was the only one there besides the staff who were setting up for the event that night.  They were real sticklers and when I got caught the first time I had to be really discreet.  I just think it’s stupid that you pay for a ticket and they won’t let you take pictures even without a flash (that does absolutely no harm)!

The gigantic cathedral.  You can't possibly capture the size with pictures, but this is a view of the altar. 

This was the main aisle of the cathedral, but on either side there were of those columns there were wide wings with many side exhibits and shrines that wrapped all the way behind the altar and tabernacle.

One of the more ornate shrines on the side.

The side wing looking towards the back

The Capilla Real "Royal Chapel" had an impressive wrought iron grille with depictions of the passion at the top.  There were tons of pictures of the Passion throughout the chapel.

The coffins of Ferdinand and Isabella, Monarchs of Spain, under the Chapel.

The tombs resting on top of the coffins

Sculptures at the alter.

La Cartuja which was very removed from everything else I saw.  The Carthusian monks who lived their were incredibly devout.  They had vows of silence unless they were working on a project and had to talk.  They also never left their cells to eat together except Sundays and holy days.  

I thought these depictions of the martyrdom of Cathusian monks throughout Europe were morbidly amusing. 

You can hardly see it through all the other murders, but I was struck by the person in the back stirring the human stew.

The courtyard.  Many trees and courtyards around Granada had oranges.  We tried one at Alhambra and it was horribly sour.

looking up at the ceiling.  I shot all these from my hip without the flash so I wouldn't get caught.

the tabernacle.  The squiggly pillars mark the Baroque style.

The cloister. were the monks regularly prayed I think.

There were three sections to the monastery: the public part behind this partition, the laymen's (in the order, but not monks) part in front of it, and the monks part behind the alter (the most ornate).

I walked a new way back to the hostel and had a good time exploring.  I was looking for the old city walls of the Moors that I had seen in the distance, but I never could seem to find them.  I did walk through this interesting stretch of street where there were just to walls on either side of me with no windows, houses, shops, or anything.  

When I reached the hostel while people were getting ready to leave for dinner I decided to check the mass times at the nearby San Nicolaus church for the morning.  The church turned out to be closed and prolly had been for some time with all the grass that was growing on its roof.  Instead I saw the mosque next door and went to check it out (obviously the logical next step was conversion, haha).  I had never been in a mosque before, and still haven't because the inside of this one was blocked to the public.  One of the Muslims saw me looking around and asked me if he could help me.  Instead of appearing nosy I just took one of there newspapers, Islam Today, and left.  I carried it for a while, but sadly I didn't get to read a word of it before it fell into the trash can.

The three of us went to dinner with some new friends we had met at the hostel from Montreal.  They were staying in Granada for 10 days, Spain for a month, and traveling Europe for 3 months total.  That sounded excellent to me.  First we went to a bar with WiFi so some of the guys could check there stuff.  Luckily the Granada v. Celta soccer game was on which Granada ended up winning in PKs propelling them to the 1st division next year.  Everyone was pumped!  Then Kahim and Josephine showed us a fun Arabian food restaurant where I got a lamb kebap (big wrap).  We were exhausted again that night, so we went to bed pretty early after we finished dinner around 1 am.

Our Canadien friends Kahim and Josephine at the bar where we watched the Granada game.

Sunday

In the morning I had decided I wanted to get up and see the sunrise from the vista near our hostel.  The others decided to pass when I woke them.  I was surprised that I guessed the start of the sunrise just about right (6:50).  There were no vibrant colors or anything, but the merely watching the line of light slowly consume the city and illuminate Alhambra with the mountains beyond was pure and beautiful. It was extremely peaceful, especially since I was the only one there in contrast to the afternoon, when 50 people are crowded around the ledge.  Over the hour+ I was out there I heard the dozens of birds chirping, saw hot air balloon tours, heard all the bells of the city toll 7:00, sung a couple verses of Amazing Grace (M), and took a little time to thank God for my excellent travels thus far.  It always gets a bit chilly overnight, and still when I tried to crawl back into bed I was so cold that I couldn't really sleep, but it was definitely worth it.

La Plaza de San Nicolaus and the scenic overlook at the edge was very busy during the day.

The sunrise over Granada from the overlook.

Alhambra just hit by the morning sun.

All street signs were on the corners of buildings and most of them were themed like this.  Mirador = overlook

Around 9:30 we payed our dues to Blake and set out to see the Alhambra.  The Alhambra is the focal point that dominates the city and oversees its inhabitants.  It was built by the Moors over 300 years starting in 711.  The Sultans of Alhambra ruled Granada over 700 years until they were forced out by the Christians in 1492.  The massive fortress with giant wall, guard towers, a Christian and Moorish Palace, and extensive gardens is the most visited site in all Spain and second only to the Eiffel Tower in all of Europe.  The crowd is limited to 8,000 per day and you had to buy tickets in advance to get in.  We didn't do that so our only option was to go before the place opened at 8 and by the small # of reserved tickets at directly at the window, and that was risking it.  But Cole, you might say, you were busy watching the sunrise this morning.  Well what most people don't know about is secret option #3, which is appropriately named "call your program director who is overseeing another group of students on their trip to Granada which they invited you to but was to expensive so you went indy to say hi and have him offer you three leftover all-access passes to tag along with the group."  So that was a stroke of extraordinary blessing that saved us the hassle and money of getting tickets.  The Alhambra was as magnificent as I expected it to be (reference pics).  The group of students were pretty fun to hang out with too.  They were 40 something girls and two guys, all Americans from NY, Nebraska, Wisc., etc.  We were amused by the story of two of the NY girls who had to pay 100s of $ in baggage fees because one had both checked bags over 50 pounds and the other had 6 suitcases for a month's trip!  And yes they sounded like girls who would have 6 times the clothes they needed when they opened their mouths.  The best part of going with the group to me was sticking close to the director/professor and hearing all the interesting tidbits of info he had to say about Alhambra.  For example there's this plaque that marks the story of a woman and a guest passing a blind beggar on the streets and she said to the guest "give him some money because there is no greater pain than to be blind in Granada."  

The group of students we met to tour Alhambra with.

Those little sections are the foundations of rooms.  the Moors were very communal and used to very small houses.  One of the girls remarked the house was as small as her bathroom, I bet it was!   

On top of the guard tower with the EU, Andalusian, Spainish, and Granada (left of pic) flags.

You can barely see our overlook in the center with the wall.

This is part of the palace built by some Christian who never even lived in Granada.  They said the building probably saved the Moorish Alhambra from getting torn down by the Christians like all other Moorish buildings because it was Christian.

A random MC Escher exhibit in the palace.  I think this was because they decorate their buildings with geometric shapes because they never depict humans or animals in Islam. This was a particularly cool one.

This pattern is very popular in North Africa but was actually invented in Granada and put in Alhambra.

It's hard to see but the pillars, cornices, and friezes are incredibly detailed.  Besides using geometric shapes they incorporated Arabic letters into the decorations which spelled out verses from the Koran like "Blessed be the one who made the beauty of this palace."  Many of the characters were so ingrained in the design you could hardly recognize them.  It must have taken years to carve them all. 

more incredibly ornate walls.  The screens and lattices commonly used in the windows were popular because they kept out light and heat, but allowed breezes.

The bushes look like the surface of a golf course green!

Somehow, the famous author Washington Irving was allowed to stay in this room while he wrote his stories of the Alhambra.  No other person has stayed in it since.

incredible arches with more detail.

This is the focal point of Alhambra where the famous lion fountains are in the middle of the courtyard.  Sadly, the lions and the area are being restored and we only got to see the lions in a special exhibit room.  Not nearly the same effect.

The beautiful gardens of Generalife were huge and mostly in bloom.

I actually used the flower setting on my camera for this!

Water flowed from the mountains and the runoff powered all the fountains and ponds well before they had pumps.  Moors were masters of irrigation and water power.

The legend is that the Sultan had an affair here and the only one who witnessed it was the cypress.

After Alhambra we caught a taxi with loveable crazy-driver Antonio back to the bus station, made sure to grab our bus information from the info desk, and rode the 5.5-hour trip back to home sweet home in Alicante no problem.  I've really been getting into this book that I've been reading off and on for the past year called Long Knife about the conquests of the legendary George Rogers Clark during the Revolutionary War, and I strongly recommend it (M).  Although Granada was everything I ever wanted it to be I was a bit relieved to get home to my apartment and delicious dinner.  Traveling really does tucker you out!

Hasta Luego,

Cóle

All the water from fountains like these is potable (and deliciously cool)!

My Chaco tan is developing nicely!