I really wanted to include a third "g" in that title but just couldn't come up with anything. In fairness, I may have heat stroke, so my higher functions are at least a little compromised.
Reminds me of the Interior. Or I guess the Interior reminds me of it?
An overhead view of the cathedral. It's the giant thing in the middle of the photo.
Please excuse the photos - I'm not a particularly good photographer to start with, and most of these were captured in a 5-second window while the view was mostly touristless. Hopefully some of the Alhambra's beauty shows through!
This cave is a cave. We were mostly happy for the chance to be inside, where it was cool and damp, for ten minutes or so. Which now that I think about it might be the point of the cave?
We arrived in Granada Thursday afternoon, ready to tackle the town supposed to contain "Spain's most beautiful monument". Unfortunately, we were less ready for a town in the middle of a week-long festival including road closures, reduced hours, and thousands of extra people in the streets. What was supposed to be an eight minute bus ride to our hostel turned into a thirty minute detour, followed by a 20 minute walk without any real knowledge of where we were or where we were going. And of course, nothing was open to ask directions. Ah, travel. Still, with a combination of skill, determination, and dumb luck (mostly the last one), we found our hostel, set down our bags, and went out to explore Granada.
First, we went to Alhambra, to see if it could hold up to the claims. We couldn't actually enter - you have to book times to get in, and our tickets were for the morning - but lots of the grounds are free, and there are some nice views to be had from there. Not to mention cats. Lots of cats.
It was a nice spot, and we hung out there until it started to get dark, whereupon we headed back down the mountain for some tapas. Granada is one of the only places that serves free tapas with a drink order, and we took full advantage of that. We also wandered around the Arabic markets some, and I bought a scarf for Morocco's sun and mosques. That was about all we could handle for one day, so we returned to the hostel and called it a night.
In the morning, we rose "early" (according to the American students in our room), and by early, I mean at about 10.00... Though the room was fine, and five of the six of us went to bed at the same time, I had my worst night's sleep so far (hopefully ever) that night. It was sort of a never-ending debacle; every time I would get close to falling asleep, some new noise would wake me up, including but not limited to:
- waking up to the sound of my glasses hitting the tile floor some time after 2.00 am, and being secure in the knowledge I had no hope of finding them until the morning, when I could turn the light on - and put my contacts in
- people sitting out front and having a loud, 30+ minute conservation at 4.30 AM
- our German roommate sleeping through one alarm (a babbling brook), then the next (a Billy Talent song, no joke) for close to ten minutes. I finally woke him to tell him to shut it off. He did, and then went back to sleep - why set an alarm?
- the American students' alarm going off three times, at which point I finally got out of bed.
We've made a few private bookings now...
Anyway, once we were up and out, we had a really good hostel breakfast to start things off, and with the caffeine we so desperately needed we were a little more functional. Our first stop was the cathedral where the kings and queens of Castile are buried, which seemed small and unobtrusive, but when later viewed from above proved to be an enormous site.
After the cathedral, we took the tourist bus back to Alhambra, which I am pleased to say deserves at least some of its reputation. I'll let the pictures do the talking.
It was breath-taking, and we spent most of the day there. Once we were finally done, it was nearly 6.00, and thanks to the holiday, most spots were closing. We ran some errands, where we accidentally found the tea market - it smelled amazing, and I really wish I could have bought some teas there, but I don't want to haul them around for two more months! - made some dinner (sausages, cheese and tomatoes on a baguette, and it was delicious!) and ended off the night with a cup of coffee and some tasty fresh churros. Then we went to bed early, to rise at 5.30 for a day of travelling and day-tripping.
Our train left Granada for Algeciras at 6.50, and four hours later we were disembarking for a quick 30 minute bus to Gibraltar. After some confusion, we crossed the border (welcome to the UK!), ditched our luggage at the airport (£8, cash only, euros not accepted - thanks for the pounds Mom!), crossed the runway and then promptly managed to get lost in the 5 km long colony. This time we had a map, though, so we were soon sorted out and headed towards the cable car up "the Rock".
We had a quick lunch on the terrace, or tried to until a monkey raided Jesse's bag and stole all of our fruit, and then wandered down the hill, taking in the views and trying to avoid the monkeys that were all over the place. Jesse was nearly bowled over when one monkey attacked another, which made it flee in his direction, cementing our shared opinion that monkeys are devious, evil little shits that we never want to be near. Seriously guys, monkeys suck.
I was going to caption this something along the lines of "sure, they look cute..." but they don't really, do they? They look like schemey little bags of shit. The look the bottom one is giving me is definitely saying, "You're lucky I'm so lazy. If you were closer, I'd probably try to eat your face. But you're far enough away that that seems like work, so thank your gods I'm lazy as sin."
The views, on the other hand? Decidedly less sucky.
We wandered down the hill slowly, finding St. Michael's Cave (which is just kind of... There? As a tourist trap, I guess?) and a zoo, which was great, and then eating a quick ice cream before leaving Gibraltar and resuming our onward voyage.
This is a turtle eating an apple. You could hear the apple crunching as he took bites. Just look at him and tell me it isn't the happiest turtle you've ever seen. He's so happy! I'm so happy because he's so happy!
We're in Tarifa tonight (at an actual hotel! with a bathroom and everything! I'm SO EXCITED!) and we're leaving for Morocco tomorrow, so it's goodbye to Spain for now. I'll miss you, endless cheap yet excellent wine, delicious ham, and ludicrously good looking people!
No comments:
Post a Comment