Hostal Penelope Granada

... though we searched, we were unable to find any places serving anything remotely close to a Thanksgiving dinner, and thus the 4 of us headed to a local restaurant reccommended to us by our hotel for some typical Spanish food. Though it was not the traditional Thanksgiving dinner that I so greatly miss in the states, it was at least a wonderful thing to have Mom, Torrey and Scott there to share the holiday with. The night ended after a brief shopping trip to Zara ...

... 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 ...

... did that. With the group I usually get a little frustrated and wish that I was off on my own, especially if it is the first time that I´ve been somewhere. Anyhow, I walked down the road to a plaza and the first thing that I really noticed about Granada was all of the trees. They were so big and they weren´t palm trees. From that point on I knew that Granada was going to have a different feel than Malaga. It was also neat seeing a kiosk in the ...

... spice stand with baskets of fresh loose teas and colorful herbs and spices.

-Mirador San Nicholas which we went to at night on Friday and during the day on Saturday when there were wandering musicians playing guitar.

-Meeting a Spanish Portuguese couple in a tapas bar who after 5 minutes of meeting them invited me to call them if I ever came to Lisbon for a visit and they would show me around!

I understand why people go to Granada ...

... below. then to Sevilla, Spain. Nice city-honestly we were recovering a bit from Lagos so took it easy. saw all the sights, but not much nightlife. Now in Granada, spent the day today wandering the Alhambra and getting lost in back allys covered in cobblestone and graffiti. passed by a cathedral just as a local wedding cermnoy ended. saw the bride and groom exit the church doors under sword drawn military ...

... the grounds, and the feelings and imagination inspired were definitey a trip and life highlight. But our day was not yet done. Afterwards, we took a bustrip through the the unbelievably narrow streets and neighborhoods of Granada, including Socremonte, where gypsies live today, in comfortable caves built into the hillsides. It was in such a cave that we came to end our very long day. We had heard of a cave where each night at 10 there is a performance of the ...

... like to achieve and head in the general direction :-) in my own chain of thought i believe that the more planing and the greater expectations people have, the more disappointed and upset they become when something goes wrong or isn't what they thought they bargained for.. somehow through not planing anything i feel i achieve and gain more from every experience.. the rest of this story is a pretty good example !! My options were completely open upon arriving in ...

Im currently in Granada and Ive decided that Youth Hostels today are just too clean and nice.  The place im staying in has free internet.....the bunk beds are modern and clean.....it has a bar.....the doors have hotel style key cards. I mean back in the day a youth hostel would have a library with books and magazines and 2 month old newspapers......beds that had clean linen but were a bit lumpy and you would take your own ...

... back towards my hostel, a guy tries to get me to let him shine my shoes. and im wearing my cheepo pay-less leather shoes, but after three weeks on the road they were pretty scuffed up, so i thought what the hell, why not, and asked him how much it costs. he was being very dodgy on the question and after my repeated inquiries he said 1, 2, 3 euro whatever. so I thought ok cool. when he was done he held his hand out, and i gave him two euro, it ...

... I talked Kristin into a side detour into and olive grove that had a stone staircase winding up through it. This turned out to be a great find. It was a bright moon lit night, as we crested the hill top and found a break in a ancient stone wall, we were able to look over the city below. We turned around and realized that the Alhambra was lit up by spotlights. No pictures, but we will not forget the image anytime soon ...