Thursday, August 02, 2007

Tinto de Verano

Madrid, Spain

I went to Granada. The days were amazing. The nights sucked. I spent two out of three nights trying to sleep on the floor because the bed was too hot. After a month in morocco, I woke up my last morning and decided I was done with the heat, and it was time to go north and east, away from the euro, and hopefully away from the heat. Tonight I take the night bus to Barcelona, and then I plan to camp on the ferry to Genoa, and then take a train to venice and another train to slovenia or the czech republic or somewhere.

Granada was amazing. Standing at the bus stop Gran Via 3 I met Liesje, from Brussels. She had also just arrived and neither of us had a hostel. We decided to join forces and went to visit the hostel I had heard about. They had no space and sent us to this place way up the hill near the enterance to the Alhambra. The redeeming aspect of the place was that it had a freezing cold swimming pool on the roof. That night we walked down the hill and I had my first tapas in spain, and also tinto de verano. For someone who likes cute food and to taste lots of things tapas are amazing. And in Granada, every time you order a drink, they bring you tapas. I hear they don't do that everywhere in spain. Tinto de verano is red wine mixed with fizzy lemonade. It sounds weird, I know, but it's really really good. Although we ordered food the first night, we realized that if we ordered enough drinks we could just have a meal with the tapas.

The next day we got a room in the hostel we tried the day before - Oasis. The hostel is in a building that is centered around a courtyard. It's a nice place, although not as fantastic as I had heard. We explored around the cathedral, and then in the afternoon walked up the hill that faces the alhambra. The neighborhood there is really nice, little windy streets and whitewashed buildings. They also have some really nice grafiti. There are lots of hidden squares with cafes and lots of churches, but in Granada all the churches always seem to be closed. We ended up at this viewpoint that had a fantastic view of the alhambra.

A girl at the hostel told us that everyone goes to the alhambra at 8 in the morning to try to get in, but it's much better to go in the afternoon because there's no line and we would almost certainly get in. She said that many people who go in the morning get turned away. This is after we had tried to find tickets at all the websites and banks suggested. What a mess. But when we got there at 3 we only had to wait 10 minutes. The ticket has three parts - the generalife gardens, the nasrid palaces, and the alcazabah (the kasbah). The gardens are amazing! There are lots of fountains, hedge walls with arched doorways, courtyards with pools of water, and roses. My favorite thing though was a staircase that had really cold water running down the hand rails. The drinking fountains in spain are nice, because unlike morocco, you can actually drink out of them.

The nasrid palaces are amazing, but I think they are more amazing for other people. It's the same style of decoration that is used all over moroco - the mosaic, carved plaster and wood ceilings. This was the most elaborate example I had seen, but it was also the most crowded, which took away from the beauty. On the ticket, they alot everyone a 30 minute time slot in which they have to enter the palaces, or they will loose their chance. They were also doing a lot of restoration work, making the most famous courtyard hard to see in its full glory.

The alcazabah is the fort part of the alhambra. It has the walls that are seen from the outside, and the towers. Inside the walls there are what look to be foundations of old buildings, but not much standing. They didn't give us a map, and we didn't have a guide book, so we may have missed some things. But overall, I think we got the idea. It's such a huge place that it's hard to take in everything in a day.

That night Liesje and I went out for tapas again. I think I could get used to the schedule in spain, and I'm trying to use my spanish. I can at least order food and get a bus ticket and ask for directions. The words are slowly coming back. But being in southern spain in August is crazy! So I'm skipping Sevilla, Cordoba and Porugal, all things I wanted to see, and hopefully someday in the future I will return in the spring or fall.

1 comment:

Rev. Judith's Journal said...

I really enjoy your descriptions of the food, views and churches. A truly amazing adventure! Keep it coming.