Granada Means Pomegranate

It also means hand grenade.  But we'll get to those later.  Granada with a capital 'G' means a city in southern Spain (isn't grammar fun?). And that's where Megan, Clarisse and I went November 19th-21st.  It was my fourth trip to Granada and my third trip inside the Alhambra (always buy your ticket ahead of time if you actually want to get inside, right Rachel?).  

Granada

After our two-hour English department meeting on Friday, Clarisse and I stopped by the piso to pick up our bags and went through the three-step process to get to the bus to Granada (bus to Sevilla, 40 minute walk across Sevilla with suitcase to bus stop #2, bus to Granada).  Megan was at the station waiting for us.  To our surprise, the 'deluxe' bus ticket didn't just cost extra because it left at a much desired time.  It cost more because each rider received a bag of goodies: a bottle of water, a cookie, peanuts and earphones (so that you could listen to the movie they were showing during the ride).  I don't know what it is about free stuff, but no matter what it is that you get for 'free' or unexpectedly it always makes you feel more satisfied about spending money.  'I'll pay 7 extra Euros ($9.80) for your bus ticket if you give me a bottle of water and some snacks.  Whaddaya say?'.  If you think about it logically, you'll figure out that a bottle of water, cookies and peanuts will cost you only 1.5€ (at most) and you already have your own headphones. But we put that minor detail out of our minds and tore into our bag of treats almost immediately.


The bus ride was two hours and I have no idea what movie they showed.  At first I thought it was a Twilight movie, but then I realized that none of the characters were vampires, so I had to eliminate that from the possibilities.  The three main characters just reminded me of the three main characters I thought were in the Twilight movies (I'm the one person in the US that hasn't seen them.).


Anyway, upon arrival in Granada we took the city bus to the closest stop to our hostel and followed our trusty directions there.  We had reserved a 4-bedroom room for two nights. Actually, I should say that we reserved three beds in a four bedroom room.  That is to say that the 4th bed was available for 'a friend we hadn't met yet'.  The room had three rooms:  a bathroom, a room with a bunk bed and a heater and a room with a kitchen and two beds.  Megan and Clarisse took the bunk bed room and I decided to stay in the kitchen room since I would be getting up to run and I would disturb them less in that room.  I'm not going to say I regret that decision, but I will say that I moved my bed into the doorway of the bunk bed room (it didn't fit through the doorway) so I could feel some heat.  Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.  


We left our bags in the room and went downstairs to see if we could join the Tapas Tour that was being led by the hostel.  For one Euro a guide would take us around to four different tapas bars.  Granada is known for giving out a free tapa with each drink ordered.  So, if you want to be technical, we went on a Four Drink Tour that happened to include FREE tapas.  (Free tapas make you feel better about spending so much money on drinks, don't they?)  At the first two bars the tour guide came around and collected money from everyone to pay for the drinks.  For some reason he missed us at the third bar.  We watched him collect money from the rest of the group, pay the bill and head outside.  What could we do?  It's almost impossible to track down a waiter/waitress in Spain and we didn't want to get left behind, so we started to head out too.  But, being the responsible young ladies that we are, we flagged down the bartender to ask if the bill for the group had been taken care of.  He assure us that the guide had paid for everyone. That's all we needed to hear.  We headed out the door.

Bar #3

One of the tapas.  Essentially it was a grilled
ham & cheese sandwich.

The 4th bed was empty the first night, so we rested comfortably, somewhat.  I was a little chilly (as I mentioned previously) and Clarisse, who was sleeping directly under the heater, had some sort of allergic reaction and her eye got really puffy.  But it just gave us tales to tell.  After a lovely run along the river (for me), we went to breakfast at a nearby cafe.  We had bread with a tomato jam and ham.  It's good.  Try it (with or without ham- bread with fresh tomatoes and olive oil is also a delicious option). 

Next we walked up the hill to the Alhambra (a palace built with Islamic architecture- there's a lot more to know, but I'll leave the research up to you).  We had tickets to enter the palace at 2 PM, but we got there a little early just in case there was a line.  When your tickets say 2 PM, it means you have to be at the entrance to the palace at 2.  But to get to that line, you have wait at the main gate until 1:45 when they let you in the palace grounds.  Then you walk maybe half a mile to the palace entrance.  They will only let you into the palace and the grounds at your assigned time.  This is because the Alhambra is such a popular tourist destination (even Bill Clinton has been to the Alhambra).

By the time we got back to the hostel from the Alhambra it was about 5.  It was too late for lunch and too early for dinner.  We tried to find a restaurant that was open for dinner (other than just a cafe), but only the Chinese restaurant opened at 8:30.  So we walked around and waited.  And at 8:30 we went to the Chinese restaurant and ate a 4 course meal for something like 12 €.  When it came time for dessert, we had four options:  coffee, flan, ice cream or cheesecake (I think).  The waiter/owner asked what we wanted for dessert and I answered 'helado' (ice cream).  He looked at me and said, 'café, flan o tarta de queso' (as in those are your three choices).  I didn't want any of them.  I wanted ice cream.  I told him that I didn't understand. So he moved onto Megan, but gave her all four choices. She chose ice cream.  I said 'I don't understand.  I told you I wanted ice cream, but that wasn't an option for me.'  I thought he was going to punch me.  Apparently it came off quite rude in my Spanish and his understanding of Spanish.  Woops.  In the end, we all enjoyed chocolate ice cream.  I still wonder if mine was laced with something or if maybe he just spit in it.  

We did have a 4th roommate the second night.  She was Spanish and explained that she was in another room the previous night, but there had been a robbery so she moved rooms.  She said she had a class at 8 in the morning, so she would be leaving early and would not disturb us.  She seemed really nice, but we didn't really get to talk to her after that.  She left at maybe 9 PM and she got back at about 7 AM and went to bed.  When I got back from running at around 9 AM she was gone. You might be expecting some sort of punch line here like - 'and so was all of our stuff!', but luckily there is no story to tell.

Not our hostel

The next day (Sunday - aka the Day When Nothing is Open), we ate breakfast at the same cafe, and walked around the outside of the city's Cathedral.  

We also walked up to the mirador, which provides a scenic view of the Alhambara.  Bill Clinton said something about it being the most beautiful place in the world to watch the sunset.  We weren't there at sunset and it was a cloudy, rainy day, but the view was still pretty nice.

On the way up, we saw some people protesting about the states in the US that impose the death penalty.  They had a huge sign with a map of the US that listed all of the states with the death penalty and how many people have been killed in that state.  We walked by carefully, quickly and without speaking with a Texan accent.  I think my actual words were, 'Oh Canada!  Our home and native land...'.  

When we arrived at the mirador, there were quite a few people there- tourists enjoying the view and/or chatting and people selling craft items.  Clarisse, Megan and I were taking photos and looking around ourselves.  All of a sudden, the craft people stopped, grabbed their stuff and ran away (I mean RAN).  It was as if they had a sixth sense of an impending danger and speed was so essential that they couldn't take the time to warn the tourists.  I felt like I was in a movie or on Candid Camera.  Then we saw the police.  Apparently the craft sale at the mirador is not a legal operation.  I really wish I would have been videotaping instead of taking pictures at that moment because my description could never do justice to the eeriness of the situation.

When we got back down to the main part of the city, we drank extremely delicious hot chocolate (which I think was actually just a melted chocolate bar) at another cafe to waste time before our (non-deluxe) bus came.  And this bus did play a movie as well (Inventing the Abbotts)- but you had to have your own headphones.