Granada

At the time, I was about to set out on two weeks worth of travelling around Europe, taking advantage of my Italian travel documents which let me leave and return from the country before they expired at the end of September. I'm in the process of renewing them, but since it took them nine months to get the documents to me in the first place,  who knows when I will be able to escape from Italy again. The plan went a little something like this: the 10th to the 13th of September in Granada, the heart of Moorish Spain; then back to Bologna overnight, just long enough to do some laundry and catch a few winks before waking up early on the 14th and heading to Edinburgh, Scotland - the land of a different kind of moor. After returning to Bologna on the 18th of September, I'd have a few days to recuperate from the haggis and red ale before heading to Munich, Germany to take part in the big 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest. I was super pumped for the journey, and the weeks leading up to my departure were full of nervous anticipation and excitement. I'd never really gone off on my own for serious, hardcore travel before (well, unless you count the whole moving-to-Italy thing). I'd be staying in hostels, which I figured would either be an awesome idea or a terrible one. Luckily for me, as it turns out, everything would turn out to be a great experience. At the time I originally wrote this blog entry, I was two-thirds of the way through the journey - taking a brief pause in Bologna before heading to Munich the next day. I tried to chronicle the events of the previous weeks while the experiences and sensations were still fresh in my mind; it was hard, as I saw so much, met so many awesome people, and had tons of adventures. And at the time, I still had a few days of travel left! But without further ado, let's talk about España.

Friday, September 10th. My adventures were about to begin.

My flight from Bologna left in the afternoon on the 10th, but since you have to arrive at the airport two hours early, and it takes a half hour on the airport bus from the train station, and another twenty minutes to get from home to the station, well, I still had to get up pretty early. I was hoping to catch some sleep on the flight, which was on Ryanair - the European bargain basement airline. What I didn't know about flying with them is that, although they have cheap fares, they try everything else to squeeze some cash out of passengers - like trying to sell them anything and everything during the flight. Watches, smokeless cigarettes, souvenirs, hot meals and drinks... every five to ten minutes the attendants were coming over the speaker system to hawk something else. It was really annoying, but I guess that's what you get when you fly on the cheapest airline in Europe. The flight itself was actually okay, which was something else I was really worried about. I like flying about as much as I like having forks jammed into my eyeballs, so a nice calm flight did wonders to allay my fear of flying.

Upon arrival in Spain, we got out onto the tarmac and I thought we had travelled all the way to Southern California. I couldn't believe how much it looked like the deserts from back home.

Apparently that's what attracted the Moors to the peninsula as well. It was like their North African desert home, but with lots more water running off the Sierra Nevada mountains. They saw it as a paradise, and came here in droves around 700AD. 

After a thirty minute bus ride, I arrived in the city center and was immediately greeted by some impressive Spanish architecture.

As I walked towards my hostel, located in one of the oldest parts of the city, the architecture became noticeably different. The area, known as the Albayzin, was part of the original Moorish settlement in Granada and too this day is a center of Arabic culture and influence. The narrow streets are full of traditional tea rooms, gift shops selling spices and teas from Africa as well as Arabic goods, and lots of restaurants specializing in Arabic foods. As I wandered through the vibrantly colorful alleyways, the scent of incense was powerful and the voices speaking in Arabic all around me made it feels as if I'd entered another world. It was quite the experience, and I'd barely been in the city more than a few minutes.

A beautiful mosque entrance, right next door to my hostel

The womens entrance to the mosque...

Arriving at my hostel, I wasn't so sure what to expect. I'd only stayed in a hostel once before, and I wasn't alone that time, so I was a bit apprehensive. But this hostel had really good customer reviews, and after checking in I could see why. The staff was friendly, it was clean, not too big a place, and the building itself was just amazing.

It looked like it should be a pretty nice hotel, not a budget backpacker's place - except for the fact that I would be sleeping with five strangers in my room. Speaking of which, here was the view out our window. If the big ugly gray building wasn't there, you could see the cathedral

After checking in, I was feeling a bit hungry and tired, so I headed to one of the traditional Arabic places down the street for afternoon tea. The place was very cool; set in a bunch of cramped little rooms with old wood tables, tapestries and Persian rugs on the wall, and sweet old Spanish lady running the place. I had some really great tea, Tunisian style apparently, with mint, sugar, and pine nuts. I wanted some sweets as well, but didn't know what to get, so I managed to speak broken Spanish and some Italian to the lady to get an assortment of little Arabic pastries, which were really good (and super sweet).

I met a kind of kooky guy there; an older bloke from Nottingham, and we had a long, really random conversation there while sipping on our teas. It was interesting, one of those experiences you'd only have when travelling - conversing with an Englishman while sipping on Tunisian tea in an Arabic teahouse in the south of Spain. What the hell had I got myself into? Well after that, I wandered off to find a little supermarket where I could pick up some essentials like toothpaste which I couldn't take through security at the airport, then headed back to my hostel. It was around dinnertime already, and people were starting to gather in the hostel's little patio for a big communal dinner put on by the staff. We had a pretty good (even better because it was cheap) meal of grilled meats and salad, and I got to meet a lot of the people I'd be hanging out with for the next few nights. I sat around with a couple of crazy Australians, some British guys, and a bunch of Canadians, swapping stories over some after dinner drinks from the cheap hostel bar. As the night wore on, we decided to go out looking for adventure. First we went to a tapas bar. Tapas is probably the greatest thing about Spain. Very similar to the Italian aperitivo which I am so found of, tapas is basically a small dish of food that you get every time you order a beer. While common all over the country, Granada is really the heart and soul of tapas - in fact their is a law in the city that says the bar owners must hand it out with each beer! We ended up at a place that was run by an English guy and his wife, which had some really excellent dishes that were way above your run-of-the-mill tapas you get elsewhere in the city. While knocking back a few beers and dining on dishes of pork skewers with pineapple and curried rice with ham, one of our crew proclaimed that he knew a place we could go to see some flamenco dancing. So, newly fortified, we all set out behind our new leader for a long walk up to the outskirts of town. 

Flamenco in Granada was an art developed by gypsies, influenced by both the Spanish and Arabic cultures that meshed in the city. The best part of town to see a performance is in the gypsy quarter, up the hill of Sacromonte on the edge of town. Out there, people live in cave homes - a few small rooms on the streetfront which look normal, but peek behind some of the inner doors and you're suddenly walking into the heart of the mountain through a cave, albeit a cave that is warmly decorated and has electricity and running water. This was the traditional way to live for centuries, and the art of flamenco developed and flourished inside these caves on the gypsy side of town. Unfortunately I don't have any of my own pictures from the night, but this picture I found on the web is more or less the same as what we encountered that evening:

We'd originally tried to go into one of the most well known places for dancing up on the hill, but it was unfortunately closing just as we arrived. Never to be dismayed, our merry little band set out to find something else, and we ended up inside the cave-house of a tiny little Spanish woman and her three sons, who were playing instruments at the back of the cave. Although it was neat, they weren't dancers themselves, so we only stayed for a few beers and wandered back down the hill. We ended up back near our hostel at a hookah bar, another traditional element of Arabic culture, and spent the rest of the evening there. Many of us had reservation times to see the Alhambra the next day, so after a while we all turned in at the hostel.

My reservation time wasn't until 3pm, so I got to sleep in a bit and lazily get ready for the day. My hostel was pretty close to the Alhambra, but even so it would be a long hike up the hill to get there, so I started towards the complex around 1pm. Along the way I stopped to get a bocadillo - a traditional sandwich of a sliced baguette filled with meats and cheeses. I'm glad I stopped to get something hearty, because it would turn out to be a long day of walking up on top of the hill.

About a quarter-mile from my hostel was the entrance to the Alhambra hill, the Puerta de las Granadas - 'gate of the pomegranates'. Although obviously similar to the name of the city, which is full of pomegranate trees by the way, it is not certain whether the fruit is the origin of the town's moniker. Other older Arabic and even Jewish words were linked with the name Granada, so it is a mystery that may never be solved. Either way, the Puerta was an exciting first step up towards the Alhambra (which means red fortress, by the way).

Through the gate, it was a sturdy hike up a steep hill for a good 25 minutes before I hit the entry point of the monument. The way there was quite beautiful. It was a path winding through a steep ravine surrounded by woods and greenery, the kind which you wouldn't expect in this climate.That's partly due to the fact that the Moors did a lot to irrigate the land, and evidence of water and irrigation is everywhere. In fact the whole path up the hill was lined with running water:

Artificial waterfalls and fountains also lined the sides of the walk

Nearing the midway point, I came across the Gate of Justice. I'd get a closer look a bit later on

Whoever is in charge of signs in Italy must also be in charge of signs in Spain, because this one is pointing in exactly the wrong direction

A part of the fortress sticking out among the greenery, and you can even see a pomegranate tree near the middle there

Once up on the top of the hill, I had to wait in a short line to pick up my ticket to enter. Thankfully my hostel was able to make reservations for me, or else I would have had to wait in the long line for all the other joe-schmoes that didn't get their tickets ahead of time. The entrance is near the gardens of the Generalife (that's pronounced 'hen-are-all-EE-fay', not general life, gringos), which was the summer palace-away-from-palace for the sultan. Since my appointment at the palace wasn't for another hour, I wandered around a bit, taking pictures of the amazing scenery.

Hmm... seems to me that if signs like this worked, they wouldn't have had to build an entire fortress up here

Military defensive structures mixing with meditational gardens. And yes, these gardens were originally contemporaneous with the fortress.

Water was a holy thing to the Moors, coming from the deserts of Northern Africa where water equalled life.

Granada was their paradise; a lot like their homeland, but with abundant flows of agua. The sultans celebrated this by absolutely covering the Alhambra hill in waterfalls, fountains, pools, and the like.

Looking across the Generalife gardens towards the fortress, palace, and the city of Granada down below

Time was getting on, and I had to start heading towards the Nazrid palace for my 3pm reservation to enter. With a ticket, you can wander the general area of the Alhambra for as long as you like; but you have a set time to see the most spectacular monument, the Nazrid palace, and if you miss the time then you are out of luck.

In the middle of it all was a four-star hotel. Can't beat that for location

Looking down the road, past the bath house, 16th century church, and palace of Carlos V

My first encounter with one of the many ornate Arabesque doorways. When I am rich, my house will have doors like this

The palace of Carlos V, grandson of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who completed the reconquest of Spain to make it a Christian kingdom once more

The Puerta del Vino - some dispute as to whether the name comes from the taxed goods coming through here, or if it is corruption of the Arabic words 'Bib-al-hamra', which would be 'Gate to the Alhambra', to 'Bib-al-jamra', which would then be 'Wine Gate'

The imposing Alcazaba, the fortress part of the Alhambra and one of its original structures

Beer on tap at a national monument. Why can't I buy beer at the Grand Canyon??

The other side of the Puerta del Vino

Waiting to get into the Nazrid palace, I was treated to some spectacular views over the city

This is part of the palace, with Granada's hills rising up in the background

On those very hills lie more gyspy caves - but these ones are much more primitive. No running water or electricity, they are still active gyspy and hippy communites. People go to live there free of rent, in communal living, and no one really 'owns' the caves - access changes hands among clans of friends and neighbors.

Finally entering the palace. The structures here were built less than 200 years before the fall of the Moorish kingdom to the Spaniards in 1492.

My first taste of real Moorish living

The very ornate prayer room in the first palace building. I highly recommend clicking on the picture below to zoom in and get a better look

The simple beauty of the geometric, arabesque decorations was breathtaking. Muslim law forbade depicting living creatures, so there are no plants, animals, people, holy men - just repeating patterns and scriptures from the Koran carved into the walls. It was astoundingly beautiful, in a way that is hard to imagine when you're not surrounded by it. I remember learning in one of my history classes that during the spread of Islam, some people converted just from seeing the beauty of the art and calligraphy in the Koran. Here in the Alhambra it is easy to see how such a thing is possible.

I took this photo only because of a conversation I'd had the previous night with a Canadian guy. He said how he felt bad for Americans because Canadians went everywhere around the world with their maple leaf flag on practically every piece of clothing or gear they wear, while us Yankees can't really get away with such brazen nationalism abroad without people spitting in our food and such. So as a sign of solidarity with his North American brothers, he only carried a little maple leaf keychain. Obviously. the guy below hadn't gotten that same memo.

A juxtoposition still causing issues 700 years on

Simply stunning

Many side rooms (chapels? I don't know what you would call them) were decorated with intricate vaulted ceilings like this

Here is the famous Court of the Lions, a place I remember learning about in my freshman year art history class. Unfortunately it was undergoing heavy restoration, temporarily marring its beauty, and the famous lion fountain which is its centerpiece was placed in a nearby room for viewing (but not for photographing, unfortunately)

The beauty in the palace was like nothing I've ever seen before with my own eyes

Another ornate vaulted ceiling

One of the truly astounding things about the palace is that this is all carved, whether into stucco or stone I am not sure, but either way it is impressive. Of course paintings and frescoes are amazing, but think of the sheer amount of man hours a single room like this must have taken

Inside the palace, we could walk through some of the royal chambers. In it was a room where Washington Irving (of Sleepy Hollow fame) stayed for a time to write part of his book 'Tales of the Alhambra'. The book would later prove essential to restoring Spanish national pride and interest in the Alhambra, which had become neglected over the centuries.

A view from the palacial rooms over the city. It's good to be the sultan

The bath complex inside the palace. As I would later find out on a different tour, bathing and hygiene was of utmost importance to the Muslim Moors - cleanliness is next to godliness, as it were. In fact, after the reconquest of Granada by the Christians and the ensuing forced conversions, it is said that many were persecuted on the basis of being too well kept and well bathed - a sure sign that they hadn't really given up their Islamic ways. It was said that Queen Isabella, a devout Catholic, even took this to the extreme and went seven years without washing her clothes - giving her the nickname 'Queen of the Flies'.

A typical Moorish horsehoe arch, looking onto a beautiful little courtyard garden in the palace

A nice view of some palace buildings, with the Generalife on the next hill over in the background

More gardens! And with the bell tower of a post-conquest church rising up behind

A stunning palacial building set on the edge of the cliff, and its reflecting pond

After I was done seeing the palace complex, I moved on to the fortress of Alcazaba. It was the original site of fortifications on the hill, and the strongpoint of a system of walls surrounding the city. From its high towers it is easy to see why this spot was chosen for its commanding view over the entire valley surrounding Granada.

Another stunning view of the city and the adjacent lands

And from up here, a great view of the city's grand cathedral

A video I took from atop the highest tower of the Alcazaba:

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

The Puerta di Justicia, which I had passed by earlier in the day. I bet it's not too often that you see Christian and Muslim symbols mixed like this

Moving on as the day came to a close and I started getting exhausted from all the walking, I stopped in at the Palace of Carlos V. Crowned the Holy Roman Emperor in the 1500s, he wanted to make this the grand palace of his imperial domain. There was a museum inside, but unfortunately it was already closed by the time I came by.

A little further up the way was the bath complex

The star-shaped  holes in the roof let light in and steam out

As my last stop up on the hill, I headed towards the Generalife palace. It was the Sultan's summer getaway, where he could relax in a slightly cooler atmosphere amongst the colorful plants and sound of bubbling water

The Court of the Cyprus of the Sultaness

The Water Stairs - with fountains running down the middle of the staircase, and aqueducts running along its banisters

The day was drawing to a close, and so was my battery. I had enough juice to take a few more shots of the lush green gardens

And just like that, I was on my way out again, and back down to my hostel in the Albayzin

By now it was almost 7pm, and I was starving, thirsty, tired, and a bit sunbaked. I stopped for some tapas, of course, to get my spirits back up. I had a really great sandwich of pork and ham along with a half pint of beer for just 2 euros (less than $3). What a city!

After that, I headed back to my hostel and met up again in the patio with my new friends from last night. The hostel crew was putting on another cheap dinner of cous cous, veggies and chicken, so we stuffed our faces and helped ourselves to some refreshment at the bar. The others were going out to find some tapas, but I was already exhausted so I stuck around to speak to some other colorful characters at the hostel and then called it an early night. I planned on doing a walking tour of the city the next day, so I was definitely going to need my rest that night.

Waking up relatively early the next day, I met in Plaza Nueva with a handful of other backpackers and students for the walking tour.

From the plaza, we could see the Alcazaba fortress peering down upon us from up on the Alhambra hill.

Our guide, who happened to be Italian, was a very friendly and knowledgeable young gal that did a great job of showing us around and giving us some historical background and perspective on the events that shaped Granada over the last 1000 years.

This was the church on Plaza Nueva. Like most of the churches in Granada, it was either formally a mosque or built on the foundations of a mosque torn down after the Christianization of the city. Even the bell towers in the city and their distinctive shape are remnants of the mosque minarets.

The little spherical balls underneath the cross is another symbolic remnant. The spheres were representative of the Muslim world view of the universe, which stood on top of every mosque in Granada; Queen Isabella purposefully ordered that they not be removed, but rather have the Christian cross placed on top of them.

The city has a nice little river running through it, and our guided walk ran right along the banks of it. 

During the Muslim era, it flowed through the entire city; but after the reconquering by the Christian rulers, part of the new city was built on top of its course. It actually flows right underneath Plaza Nueva and below one of the city's major streets.

Our guide took us along a lot of scenic vistas, including this one which looks out over where our tour would eventually end - at the church on top of the hill

Many of the Muslim era buildings survive and were recommisioned for different purposes after the re-Christianization. This building, one of the oldest in the city, was formerly a major bath house

This building, a former mosque, was turned into a church and convent

The tour took us further up along the banks of the river, with the city at our back and the formidable hill of the fortress rising up sharply beyond the other side of the water

We went farther up the hill, and stopped in at a restaurant that used to be a rich Muslim residence. Many of the nicer homes during that period had very elaborate interior gardens, called carmens. Since water was a precious and sacred thing, showing off your wealth involved building very fancy and verdant gardens.

From the same residence, we could see straight across to a better view of the Alhambra

Our tour wound through lots of quaint little streets and backalleys, in areas that weren't terribly touristy.

As we ascended the hill, the natural scenery once again began to remind me of the dry vegetation of SoCal and Arizona.

Another church, this one built on the site of the large main mosque

A reminder of the Spanish civil war: bullet holes in the church wall, where people would turn for refuge

It was an old tradition to decorate houses in colorful maiolica plates and pots

This plaza, just inside the fortified walls of the old Albayzin district, was the site of a market in the old days. If you click on the image to make it bigger, you can see some bits of metal hanging above the gate, in the area that looks like an arch: the metal bits were weights used by dishonest merchants to cheat customers. When discovered, they were punished, and the weights hung above the gate to serve as a warning to others thinking of doing the same.

Continuing up and up, with lots of beautiful cobblestone streets

Eventually, we reached the top of the hill and the church of San Nicolas

From up here, we could enjoy an unparalleled view of the Alhambra...

And the city...

And even the Generalife

A strong statement

One last amazing view of the Alhambra from across the hill

After the tour, our guide tooks us to one of her favorite places for tapas. They specialized in seafood, which was really fresh since Granada is only about twenty miles from the coast of southern Spain. I, however, don't eat anything that swims in the sea, so I enjoyed some really good vegetarian tapas of fried eggplant drizzled with honey. I was also introduced to the clara, a light and refreshing concoction of lemonade and beer. It was really warm that day, and we were sitting in the sun, so I ended up going through about four pints of the stuff because it was so delicious and revitalizing without being intoxicating.

After a few hours of enjoying tapas with a gaggle of Kiwis from the same walking tour, I returned to my hostel and met up with a bunch of my new friends from said lodging who were about to go to, surprise, find some tapas. I joined forces with them and we headed towards the establishment run by the English bloke who had treated us so well a few nights before, but when we got there it had not yet opened for the evening. However, we did pass by the cathedral on the way, and I took some snapshots of the beautiful building:

We ended up at another place near our hostel for a few more cervezas and some good grub. Like I said before, for less than $3 a pop, you just can't beat it! We went back to the hostel to see what was going on for the night. There was yet another tapas tour going on later that evening, this time an organized one put on by the hostel. Before that though, I wanted to go get some shots of the Alhambra at night:

I ran back to the hostel after getting my shots, just in time for the tapas tour. But nobody seemed to really want to go, so we all ended up sitting around the hostel patio for yet another night of sangria and cheap cerveza. Eventually we headed out again to the English guy's tapas bar, were we had some delicious food and crazy house specialty shots. After that point in the evening, there wasn't much left to do except stumble back to the hostel and call it a night.

The next morning was a bit rough waking up. I managed to get checked out in time, and hung around the hostel lounge for a bit trying to plan what I wanted to see in the last few hours I had to spend in the beautiful city of Granada. While sitting and looking at my map, I started chatting a bit with a couple of American girls who had just arrived. I gave them a few tips on the city (since I was now an expert after spending three days there) and they ended up joining me for yet another tapas expedition; unfortunately, my last for a while. I'll be damned if it wasn't good though!

After that, I headed off to see some of the city's sights. On the way, I passed this intriguing little shop. From the broken and faded signs pointing down to a shady alley, I think you'd be hard press to find a less legitimate looking business in the whole world.

Heading up the Albayzin hill once more, I passed a lot more quaint, twisty, cramped backstreets. But it seemed that every corner I turned led me to a new and beautiful view, either of the traditional houses there on the hill or of the city sprawling out down below.

Here is another example of a carmen:

Man, the pomegranate trees grow like weeds here

An entrance to the place I was trying to getting to, the Dar Al Horra palace

Soooooooooo can I go in or what? Thanks for nothing, sign

It seemed to be closed, so I wandered further up the hill to see what was around. I came upon a nice, tranquil little plaza with some fountains and another great view of the Alhambra across the way.

Looking down the Albayzin hill, towards one of the ancient gates of the quarter

Another pretty little plaza

I just kept wandering around, coming across something beautiful with every turn. I think it's one of the best and most rewarding ways to do some travelling.

Eventually, I made it back down to the bottom of the hill and headed towards the cathedral area. I wanted to see the interior, and also the Capilla Real, where Granada's protagonistic King and Queen are interred. Unfortunately, I hadn't counted on the midday siesta time, so everything was closed for the next three hours and I would have to make do with snapping some photos from outside before I had to catch a bus back to the airport.

The Capilla Real, or Royal Chapel

An entrance to the cathedral. Very useful, as long as you don't show up between 1pm and 4pm

Granada also has a very old university, originally founded during the Muslim dynasty in the 14th century, which was right across the way from the Cathedral complex

Still with a few minutes to kill before having to pick up the airport bus, I wandered the streets around the area, and came across some more beautiful sights.

A spice seller, one of the traditions in this old market area that used to be a center of gold, silk, and spice trade

One of the old Muslim buildings in the center, called the Corral de Carbon after it's use in the 18th century as a location for the distribution of coal. It served a variety of different functions under both the Muslim and Christian dynasties. Unfortunately, it too was closed during the siesta time.

It was getting close to my departure time, so I headed back to the main street to find my bus stop. 

I grabbed a quick kebab as a last meal in Granada - usually I don't like to get fast food like that when experiencing another culture, but since the area has so much Arabic influence I figured it was okay this time. I finished up just before the bus arrived, and after a short ride and check-in at the airport, I was on a plane back home to Bologna.

But not for long! I would arrive late at night, and have just enough time to do some laundry and catch a few hours of sleep before my next big adventure started. Less than 24 hours after lifting off from Granada, I would be on another plane to the green hills of Edinburgh, Scotland!