Granada

When we arrived in Granada we got settled in and left to eat. The hotel clerk recommended a local place, Sersera, for dinner. We wandered through small roads which were lined with shops and made our way through a few plazas and finally arrived at our very local destination.

The hostess/ server was the hardest worker we had seen in all of Spain and Italy. She was the only server for the whole restaurant. Her and her husband, the chef, opened the restaurant about 5 years ago, and run it themselves. Everything was incredible. I had the greatest salad, lettuce with fried garlic. (Thank god no one had to kiss me.) I also had some chicken shish kabobs. According to the others, the meatballs, pig’s knee, and chocolate and whiskey cakes were equally exquisite.

We were told that the town of Granada wasn’t much—except for La Alhambra. I think what people meant by that was that there isn’t many tourist attractions, because the town itself makes a great 3-day visit in Spain.

However, La Alhambra is the main attraction and well worth waking up early for. I say “early”, because anything after 6am cannot be termed early for myself. For the first time on my entire tour de Europe, it was chilly. I didn’t complain because I knew the heat would come with time, but it was a brisk 65 degrees in the morning. La Alhambra is the last city that was built by the Moors before they were kicked out of Spain. It sits above the city of Granada and contains beautiful castles with insane Arabic details, gardens and fountains! We spent 4 hours touring the palace and the gardens and learning about the details from our audio guides.

(the palace)

For lunch, I discovered a place near out hotel… FrescCo. Heaven on earth. It was a buffet containing an assortment of veggies, fruits, pastas, pizzas, ice cream/ dessert, oils and spices, and most importantly… Broccoli! I think these were my first pieces of broccoli in Europe because the crazy Italians think that spinach is broccoli.

I walked around some of the shops, but after 25 days, all the stores start to seem to be selling you the same things (and lets face it, my luggage is bursting at the seems). But neither of these two things prevented me from shopping. It’s just sort of a way of life over here. Eat. Shop. Siesta. Eat. (and lots of walking in between) Anyway, this large Spanish woman tried handing me a stalk of a plant, maybe rosemary. When I refused to take it, the woman went nuts and started cursing me in Spanish. Not swearing. Literally cursing me. Maybe she will have taken all my good luck (though that happened in January and is hopefully over by now.) Another woman did the same thing. Except this woman shoved the plant into my hand, took my palm, and started telling me about beauty and intelligence as she “read my palm”. These people are some serious gypsies. Luckily, I wasn’t robbed by either of them.

After only 5 hours of sleep, I attempted to siesta since the town was dead anyway. I have no more ability to siesta in Spain than I do in any other country. So instead I was crabby, antsy, and emotional for a few hours in the hotel room—missing all of my friends and family. . Finally, after a movie (Vicky Christina Barcelona—cute after being in Barcelona, but otherwise probably not worth watching) and some relaxation, I told myself to stop sulking because you are in SPAIN! And enjoy the last few days you have left. I went to a tapas bar near the Plaza del Carmen called Los Diamontes. It was a small place on a street lined with restaurants and bars. Jen and Tony had been there earlier in the day and had a blast with all the owners. So I went there and ordered Tinto de Verano It is Spain’s Summer Sangria. Jen liked it better, but I thought it was alcohol less and tasted like juice, but yummy juice. I talked to a weird policeman (*Policemen being creepy is another universal thing), Antonio. He spoke no English. I mean literally, 3 words. He had such a strong accent that it was difficult for me to understand him and visa versa. He knew the owner who was a young spunky guy, who spoke a little English, but more than Antonio (though parakeets know more English than this guy.) Don’t get me wrong.. its fine that he didn’t know English, because we were in Spain. But seriously dude, why are you trying to have a conversation with me? Anyway, here’s the downside to not speaking Spanish fluently: The owner put down some tapas and made a comment/ joke in Spanish. Everyone around us laughed, but I had no idea what he said. From my perspective, they were all laughing at me, so I left.

Now I’m sitting in the car on our way to Seville. Apparently I will be only 100 miles from Africa. Seems so weird. (Maybe that will be my next year’s adventures, though I’d probably be scared of all the animals.)

Adios Amigos. Hasta Domingo!!

Xo Kel

Random Observation from Granada—

• Europe really loves its Coca Cola, more than Giorgio.
• Taxi cabs are clean and odorless.
• Being a taxi driver is actually a respectable occupation in Europe.
• Europeans do not J-walk. They always cross at the cross walk, and they always wait for the walk signal. Even if there is literally zero cars on the road

PS: The reason I have so much time to blog is because of siesta’s and traveling in planes, trains, cars, and boats! Also, I don’t siesta, though the concept seems glorious, I just can’t nap.