Hotel Alixares Granada

Granada is a pretty crazy city, a mix of part Morocco, part Andalucia, part Jewish, toss in some tourists, tapas, and trendy shops and you´ve got a good city. When we arrived, we were fourtunate that our awesome hostel served dinner. Spanish meat (so yes, it was pig), cooked in a huge Paella-type pan with rice and some homemade sangria, and we thought we would never have to leave the hostel! (They had free breakfast and internet too). But, the ...

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... before us. So there we were, an American with a 17 kilo pack pulling groceries in a cart, an Australian with a 20 kilo pack and a day pack, and an elderly Spanish woman muttering something. I'm sure we were a sight.

We finally made it to our hostel, which was lovely. It was like a Spanish villa with hanging flowers and Spanish tiles. We set our stuff down and started our tour of the city. We went to plaza Isabel ...

... to the free stuff, btu they were still really cheap. We had this spicy chorizo picante sandwich, more gazpacho, some crazy baked egg dish with spicy salsa type sauce, and these AMAZING muscles in some tangy spicy red delicious sauce. WOW, seriously. But it was then time to go home to catch the bus in the morning to Gibraltar.

Gibraltar. What can i say? Sean loves it, I was bored of it after the half day we spent here. Although I did find an adorable skirt in one shop for ...

... Alhambra told us about 2 spots so off we go….

First was Cartuja Church (17th Century) on the outskirts of town beside the University of Granada. The bus gets you to these places inside of 15 min. Later in the day, we bused to the old part of town, the Albayzin, with especially narrow streets twisting like spaghetti over the cap of a hill.

We were told to go to St. Nicholas, a church ...

... especially to his mother who apparently told him "You're behaving like a woman, go out and defend your city and your culture!", saved the remains of this civilization.   Here's to Boabdil!!!!!! After spending hours at La Alhambra in our guided tour, which I'm really starting to realize is the way to go in order to fully appreciate historical and culture jewels, we headed to La Capilla Real as well.  This is where the tombs of Isabel y ...

Encountered my first logistical bump in the road.  Iberia Airlines cancelled my flight from Madrid to Granada.  Spent 2+ hours in a line to get a hotel room for the night, got to the hotel and realized that they had mistakenly booked me for a flight to Almeria (not Granada).  Called 1800# and waited on hold at $.33/minute to get someone to fix this mistake.  Slept for less than an hour before I had to return to the airport ...

... without seeing the lion foundtain is like visiting the National Palace Museum without seeing the jade cabbage or visiting the Louvre without seeing la Jaconde or visiting the Egyptian Museum in Cario without seeing Tutankhamun's gold mask which to say the very least is a terrible disappointment ...... sigh ..... well one of the lions is on display at the museum in one of the palaces but it's just different to see one ...

... relaxed, got a tan, swam, and had some lunch at a café. I got proschiutto con melone (as my family knows it's one of my favorites). We got some ice cream (also a favorite) on the way back to the bus and most of us slept on the way home. There is a volunteer organization that we are going to have a chance to meet with in the near future, and I think I am going to get involved with that. I have a lot of free time here, and any excuse to practice my Spanish ...

... notice. To think that this whole experience costs in the region of ten euros is a joke. Go and see it. For me this weekend was one of those well spent weekends, where you come away feeling like you've spent days and days in a place. We covered a lot of ground in a very short space of time and that for me is what it's all about - making the most. We saw a lot, experienced a lot and ...