This weekend a few of us organized
a trip to go to the city of the Granada. I know that I’ve said this for every
place that we’ve gone so far, but I honestly think it may be my favorite city
in Spain. The feeling of the city is just so laid back and it has its own air
about it unlike Salamanca, Sevilla, or Lisbon.
Granada is located in the
Autonomous Community (basically their version of states) of Andalusia about
three hours due east of Sevilla. Since it is in Andalusia there is just an
overflowing amount of Arabic culture still present in the city and is even more
amplified here being that it was the capital of the Arabic nation back in the
day. The layout of the city is very different because it is extremely
disorganized which is common with Muslim cities of the time we’ve learned. That
being said I never once felt lost. Also there’s no Plaza Mayor which I didn’t
realize until the end of the trip.
What makes up for it’s lack of
organization and main squares is the massive Alhambra castle. It is an old Arabic
castle that held the Sultan of Al-Andaluz and all of his best buds back in the
fifteenth century. We toured through all of the gardens, palaces and squares
that were contained in this absolutely massive castle. The palaces were very
restored due to the fact that it was uninhabited for about 200 years but there
are still amazing ornate rooms in every corner. The craftsmen created plaster
molds and were able to fill every palace inside the walls with complex
geometric patterns, while expert carpenters crafted wood ceilings that were so
perfect that they never needed nails or anything to stay together. All this
being said, I still think that it’s tough to choose the amazing palaces over
the amazing royal gardens they had. The gardens were more than a pretty sight;
every shrub and flower had a fragrance that together made your nose just as
interested as your eyes. What more is that Granada is filled with pomegranates
(granada is actually the Spanish word for pomegranate) and almonds, which add
that other dimension of taste to the garden as well. There was definitely a
reason that the Queen Isabel wanted to be buried in La Alhambra after her
death.
Later that day we went on a free
tour through our hostel to Las Cuevas de Sacromonte***. Our guide was an
absolutely hilarious English writer that lived in Granada and taught us a ton
about these caves. Essentially there are caves all over Granada because it’s a
legend that all of the Jews buried their gold in the mountains before they left
during the Inquisition. Hundreds of years ago people would dig all over the
mountains to no avail and leave these caves that squatters would then inhabit.
So all of these caves are just free housing that homeless people or just poor
travelers will live in for extended periods of time. We were able to walk
through some of the caves and they are very impressive to be honest. It’s
definitely a cool and sustainable subculture that grow most of their own food,
cook and live without any modern amenities. This would be a good point to say that
there are TON of hippies in Granada that live in or around these caves. Note I
said hippies, not hipsters. As you get farther into the valley most of
these dwellings have been gentrified by the homeowners so they can get
electricity, gas, etc. but also to prevent their houses from caving in…which
happens. Although the last one happened over twenty years ago. Super cool stuff
going in Granada people I tell ya.
Then on Friday Mauro and I went on
another tour to walk through the city and get some more history from this
awesome guide about the Albaycín, which is a huge Arabic section of the city.
There were a ton of cool things about this neighborhood, from defense
mechanisms of narrow streets and uneven steps to secret gardens and tapas bars.
Throughout the entire city there are these waters taps that bring fresh water
from the mountains via aqueducts that were made in the 9th century
by the Muslims. It reminded me a lot of Rome in that I just needed to buy a
small fifty cent bottle of water and then could fill it up with crystal clear
water as many times as I wanted for free.
Last, but certainly not least was
the food in this city. Wow. Tapas are the absolute bomb here with an awesome
fusion of the typical Mediterranean diet of Spain and the Shawarma taste of
Arabia. We got some delish kebabs the first day we were there with hummus and
tzaziki sauce with rice. But the best is our last night when we just went to
two different tapa bars. You get a €2 (~$2.75) beer, wine or tinto de verano
and get free delicious food with it. The first place we went made amazing
sandwiches with fresh bread, goat cheese, onion and jamón then Argentinian
empanadas and Mexican flautas…all for five bucks a person. After that we went a
to an Arabic place and got some delicious falafel, shawarma beef, cauliflower,
and potatoes for another 2.50. Let me say this much: a two beers with two great
small portioned meals for $2.50 kicks the ass of any dollar menu or five dollar
footlong any day of the week. If I ever have a restaurant/brewpub/make food for
myself this is what I’ll be doing.
So basically Granada was amazing
and I never felt the need to go out to any clubs because of the awesome tapa
bars and friends to accompany them. I don’t know if it was the amount of
hippies present or if it was because I was getting over the flu, but Granada
just was such a calming and relaxing city that I hope to go to again. My phone is acting up once again so I don't have any photos of this wonderful city, but that's all the reason to come back. If you want to actually see what we did you should check out some people's Facebook pages that I came with. Hope all's well on the homefront!
