Costa Azul Hostal Granada

... Scott's larger bag. My homestay is in the opposite direction of the bus station so it ended up taking longer than expected. Luckily we built some cushion time into our schedule and thus we made it onto our bus safely but with only minutes to spare. The bus ride itself was faily uneventful, there is not much to see as far as landscape goes between Madrid and Granada so Scott and I passed the 5 hour trip talking and staring out at the vast, empty plains of Spain. We ...

... of vino and a few hands of WHOT, it´s off to bed.

20 Nov
We awake to a chilly yet sunny Granada morning and decide to bus it into town. We are accompanied for the day by Amanda and Gavin a Scottish couple currently living in Barcelona. Alighting from the bus in town, we head up the hill to the Alhambra, which turns out to be a wonderful visual experience comprising of extensive gardens and a number of interconnected palaces. The ...

... when it's raining. Another observation that I made was that the roads were so narrow to have cars and pedestrians. Pretty bad idea. Later on while we were walking back towards the hotel we saw this Spaniard on the day of his bachelors party...he was wearing a white fairy looking dress. Pretty funny. After our group walk myself and a girl in the group walked around and up a hill in a residential neighborhood. The graffiti was so cool and the views ...

... stopping to check out El Chorro we made our way to Granada where we stayed from Friday to Sunday evening. It was a lot colder in Granada than in Málaga. It has not gotten chillier than 60s in Málaga but in Granada it felt like 40s or low 50s. Still, it is no Minnesota winter…

In Granada with every drink you buy they serve tapas for free. So you can easily eat without actually paying for any food. And that is basically what we did all weekend ...

... the stereotype of Andalusians as lazy people who walk around playing guitar and drinking beer all day was not true, and that we should not expect to see anyone strolling around playing guitar. The man saw us laughing and taking pictures and came over to play a few songs for us and ask for a few euros. We loved Granada already. We went into a nearby touristy shop, where I bought a copy of Washington Irving's "Tales of the Alhambra" in Spanish, and a postcard ...

... looking around for that long, but the sights are so unbelievable that we could have spent another 5 hours there, no problem. The stunning detail in the carving is something that can't be described - you just have to see it to appreciate it. And then the beautiful gardens (remember, this is coming from someone who refuses to mow a lawn) are breathtaking. All set in a stunning location, with spectacular views. Do I sound like Jay?

have been busy trying to keep up with the new flamenco guitar teacher's class and review arabic for my trip to cairo.  i leave monday.   went to 2 flamenco shows since last entry but neither allowed photographs.  one was at a place called the upsetter which had probably the best flamenco guitar and flamenco ...

... you need to hold on to in order to see the three different spaces.  At some point going through the portion we all see in the books and on tv specials i lost the ticket.  It was in my sketch book and at some point took its own tour.  Ah well....  now I have another reason to return.  Its like with Firenze...  never saw the REAL David and saw Mikey's Library stairs instead, just a real good reason to return. Enjoy the pics. 

... limited time there I took the bus into the city center both the evening we arrived and the following morning. So while the others were eating a camp meal of mushy pasta with white sauce, I was at a tapas bar having cheap canas (small glasses) of beer and the accompanying free tapas, not ones of my choice but whatever the kitchen happens to be serving at that hour/minute - take it or leave it. Named for the local mountain ...

... was very good, and I later looked in my travel book and saw that it was mentioned in there. I continued wandering for a bit, then went back to the hostel to take advantage of the free welcome drink. I first went to my room, where there were two British guys who had just arrived from the Granada airport. The three of us went down to the bar together and I ordered a sangria, because I was in Spain and had to have it at least ...