Keepin' it funky in Granada!

This past weekend our whole group made the pilgrimage to Granada! We ended up using pretty much every form of public transportation and the overall travel time was about 10 hours (roundtrip). It poured on the bus ride there so we all were worried it was going to be miserable walking around in the rain, but the weather held out! Jenna, Caitlin and I had back row seats and enough leg room to have had a runway competition....puedes decir "jackpot"? We got into Granada around 10:30 and wandered around for a bit until we found where we were staying, The Funky Backpacker Hostel. They didn't make it very easy for us...no big sign or any markings except for a piece of paper taped to the door that said Welcome to Funky!.

The owner, Yena, was from Russia and was just the sweetest, most helpful person we've met so far! She helped us get settled in super fast and recommended some places to grab a bite and places to tour the next day. She spoke 4 different languages, and loves grammar...which needless to say made us all laugh. It's kind of an odd thing to be crazy about. The rooms were more like apartments with their own kitchen/dining area and then a couch, 2 bunk beds, and our own bathroom. It was definitely a lot swankier than the hostels I'm used to. There was a rooftop bar! The coolest thing about the place was that the roof didn't cover the whole building. The walkways to the rooms and the rooms were covered but all the rooms faced inward and had balconies and there was no roof over the central lobby area! so you could stand on your balcony which was technically "inside" and look up at the stars! ...or in our case get rained on! We got free breakfast every morning and on Saturday I even got to have paella and an Alhambra beer for 5 euro! ganga!

We met two really sweet girls from Finland and Australia who came out with us which was a lot of fun. After we got to the hostel on Friday night, we were all starving and eventually found a bar big enough for our group...even after we'd split up a bit. Most bars here are just little holes in the wall...smoky and crowded, but I guess some might say "intimate." Even though the service was slow, the atmosphere was cool. We ate at a really low table on stools and there was really awesome lighting. They gave us free tapas of "chorizo en fuego" (sausage on fire) which was definitely cool!

On Saturday we got up bright and early to cash in on our free breakfast before heading over to the Alhambra. We bought our tickets ahead of time because it's such a popular place to visit. We all had pretty early entry times so that we could take our time walking around and seeing the sights. The Alhambra is spectacular! A famous Spanish expression claims that there is "nothing so sad as being blind in Granada." After a few hours of walking around this medieval city, it is very easy to see why. The Alhambra is this amazing fortress that served as the final stronghold for the Muslim Empire before Spain's reconquest in 1492.

The Alhambra is situated right along the border of the Sierra Nevada mountains so the panoramic view is literally breathtaking. I must have walked around the top of the tallest tower in the Alcazar 50 times trying to take in all of the city... it seems impossible. The architecture in the palace is awe-inspiring. I think I would be hard-pressed to find a building with the same level of talent, craftsmanship, and effort put into it's creation. Every single wall is etched with intricate carvings in Arabic and the ceilings are so elaborate. I stood for hours just trying to figure out how the artists reached certain places! Even the gardens are amazing! You walk through a labyrinth of trees to reach the fortress and palace, and then within there are even more gardens that you can meander through. I would love to be able to go back in the spring when everything is in bloom!

After walking around the Alhambra, we decided to make the trek down the hill to find something to eat. While making our way through the narrow cobblestone streets we came across the most amazing graffiti! It's not illegal here, which is awesome in some respects because some of these artists are incredible and I'd rather see art than a blank wall (I don't know if any of you have seen the graffiti tag in the U.S. "blank walls are criminal!"), but at the same time I'm torn because it can be really frustrating to see a beautiful old building defaced by really crappy graffiti and cuss words. Anyway, one of the artists had multiple "works" or "tags" ha whatever you want to call them and they were all sooo good. Most of them were about supporting the arts in schools, and they just blew me away. They looked like he/she had to have painted them because it's crazy to imagine that level of control with spray paint. amazing!

We walked into the Albaicin barrio of Granada which is known for being greatly influenced by North African culture, and for it's large gypsy/hippie population! We walked around for a bit just checking everything out before grabbing lunch at an outdoor cafe where we could look up at the Alhambra while we ate! Perfect! The town was a really weird, but awesome mix of people. There were a lot of travellers passing through from all over the world, and then there was the granada crowd... you've got your super euro snobs, your hippies, your hippie gypsie combos, and then just your regular old gypsies. All in all it made for some interesting conversations and run ins. Dogs and cats just kinda ran everywhere around the city behind their gypsy/hippie owners. They were ridiculously well trained. People in the Albaicin district walked around looking in shops, others smoking weed, and some drinking "tea."

After walking around literally all day I came back to the hostel for a little siesta before heading back out on the town with Rosa and Caitlin. We just walked around while we waited for the other sleeping beauties to get ready so we would all go out. We had a nice chat and stopped in a cute little cafe for the best hot chocolate ever...it was like drinking hot chocolate syrup with a scoop of ice cream....delectable!

We had big plans to go out in the city, but wound up playing "gringo" and emily's favorite game in the hostel for hours haha. We finally decided to head over to a salsa club around midnight. We were only there for about 20 minutes before we rolled out, but in that 20 minutes I was asked to dance twice by creepers and then finally agreed to dance with a guy who looked about 17 just so and I quote he "can look like big guy to his friends." He was nice and didn't try anything crazy so I was glad I didn't have to take anyone out in the middle of the dance floor...spanish guys...oy. Cait, Jenna and Laurel had met a guy named Ameer from Scotland earlier in the day and had invited him to meet us at the salsa club...we were all kinda suprised when he showed up, but happy! He's in Granada teaching English and he's a really nice guy. He showed us around the city a bit and he helped us translate directions from an english bloke...apparently the UK have their own branch of english. When we asked him where to find a good place to eat he told us " oh well it's a bit far but not hard to get to...just walk over there and then take the cobbly road cobbly road for a ways and then the next cobble and you're there. Ameer nodded and we stood there dumbfounded...apparently cobbly road cobbly road meant take a left then another left and then it will be on your right. crazy talk. We ended up just going to a kebab place and grabbing gyros before heading back to the hostel.

On Sunday we didn't have much time before we had to catch our bus back, but we walked around a bit more, went to a museum, did some souvenir shopping, and got something to eat before heading back. It was a much nicer ride back in the daytime. Most of the ride was just fields and fields of olive trees, which I'd never seen before. They're beautiful! They have these blue, green, silvery leaves and the limbs move a lot freer than normal trees...more like willows. It was really beautiful to watch the sunset over the rows and rows of rippling leaves and trees.

It was a sad homecoming though because this was our last week with our Australian friends! We went out for a farewell lunch with Mary and said our goodbyes to the rest of the Aussie crew! They are just the funniest nicest people. I learned so much ridiculous lingo...Mary taught us "shithouse" which can basically be used to describe anything you don't like, harry taught us "flouro frother" which is the term used to describe kids that wear all neon/flourescent clothing at raves and dance so much they foam at the mouth (apparently this is commonplace "down under"), and I think we are all now going to refer to our schools as "Uni's." Cheers to Australia! Thanks for putting up with our horrible imitations of your accents...but really...you do sound like you're from London.