The Fetmans Take Granada Day 2: it IS a small world

Tuesday, June 20

Woke up groggy and sore at around 9:30 in time for hotel breakfast. Oh man, all of the week’s walking was taking its toll. Went down and met up with my parents down in the dining area, which was completely deserted. Well, breakfast sucked and was quite reminiscent of the hotel breakfast I ate in Málaga back in May. We just had toast, juice, and coffee. No buffet. That’s it. My two-star borderline hostel hotel back in Sevilla beat this out. What a disappointment. I got ready for the day, watched some “7th Heaven” in Spanish (ohhh yeah) then we all called for a cab and headed down the mountain. I never realized that the Albaicín neighborhood, a mountain barrio adjacent to the center of Granada, is really cute and nice. The streets are so tiny and curvy, yet fun and endearing. It was a pleasurable cab ride, I must say. We were dropped off in Plaza Nueva and went to lunch. I decided to take them to the Lebanese place where I ate the last time that I was in Granada. Our meal was amaaaazing. I forgot how good that place is. Shana and Mom got some appetizers and Daddy and I split a sampler menu of the day which included soooo much food: hummus, baba ghannoush, pita, fattush, pepper spread, pea soup, some delicious lamb dish, and falafel. Oh man, I was more than stuffed. But oh so satisfied.
After lunch I decided to take the family on a walk through the park up the hill adjacent to the Alhambra. It’s the park that my friends and I stumbled upon when we hiked up the mountain in Granada back in February. It’s weird, it was so easy to find the first time we went, but somehow I got us lost. Well, I’m not surprised with my sense of direction. It was hot and we were sweaty, but it was good to get a walk in. So we walked back to the Arab District and started over. Well, second time’s a charm and I found the way. We walked up the sloped streets and stopped at some of the Arab stores along the way. We soon entered the park and it was just as beautiful as I had remembered. However, the walk up the sloped park’s hill was much harder than I had remembered, as it was about twenty degrees hotter than the last time. It was pretty grueling and we had to make frequent stops along the way. But it was nice, nonetheless. We eventually approached the old entrance to the Alhambra which happened to be open. So we walked in. The old entrance is this small, windy old structure, and it was so weird to be inside. There are all of these old, faded paintings on the wall…words painted in Latin obviously from when it was used years and years ago as a Christian kingdom. So we walked through there and ended up in the heart of the Alhambra in the area overlooking the hills of Granada. It was gorgeous. We were hot, sweaty, and tired, so after a brief souvenir shop stop and water purchases, we sat on a long bench overlooking the hills. It was so peaceful and gorgeous. We got a good rest in, drank a lot of water, snapped some pictures, then headed out the way we came (since going anywhere else in the Alhambra required a ticket). We walked out and up the hill of the park again towards the ticket office. We decided to pick up our tickets for our 7pm Alhambra visit (it was then around 4pm), grab a coke at a café up there, then go on our visit. When I picked up the tickets the dude told me that our tickets were just for the Nazarí palace, and that our tickets therefore could get us into the other parts of the Alhambra (Generalife, Alcazaba) anytime before our 7pm appointment. He also warned me that the Alhambra closes at 8pm, so it’d be a good idea to go sooner rather than later.
So the new plan was to grab a quick drink, make some calls, then enter the Alhambra at around 5:30. We couldn’t find a café that was open, so we bought cokes from the bar next to the Alhambra and sat on park benches for about a half an hour before entering. The sun had now completely disappeared and thunder was rumbling. It looked like rain. This didn’t trouble us, though, since it was welcomed after such intense, hot sunlight. We entered a bit before 5:30 and first went to the Generalife, the huge palace gardens. They were even more gorgeous than I remembered, particularly due to the roses and magnolias all being in bloom. We spent a lot of time there taking pictures and admiring the views. After about 45 minutes there we went to the Alcazaba, the old Arab fortress and one of the oldest parts of the Alhambra. It’s the best view of Granada. That was really cool because when I went to the Alhambra last time we didn’t get to see the Alcazaba. Then we headed over to the entrance to the Nazarí palaces and got in line. Then it started to rain. Hard. And it didn’t let up like Spanish rain usually does. This was no good. Well, at least the palaces are mostly indoors. We ended up having to wait in a building next to the entrance because the line was so long we got held up and it was raining so we had to wait indoors. Finally they let us in. Omigod, the palaces were a madhouse. Soooo many tourists all clumped together, many of which were large tour groups. It was hell. Not to mention the rain causing everyone to cram into the indoor areas while attempting to snap pictures of the outdoor area. It was too bad it was raining because my family couldn’t see the cool reflection pools in the courtyards. Oh well, the inside areas are impressive enough to make up for that. My family, particularly my mom, were all pretty blown away by it all. Yeah, it’s pretty magnificent. It was really cool to be back at the Alhambra having learned so much about it in Art History. I had a whole new understanding of the old Arab kingdom and was able to fill the family in on some interesting facts and stuff. Walking room to room was challenging for me because although the rain finally let up, the marble floors were soaking wet, and I was in sandals that had no grip whatsoever on the bottoms. I had to walk hanging onto my mom for support…it literally felt like I was ice skating, that’s how slippery it was for me. We went to all of the rooms, each so very impressive and gorgeous. In one of the last rooms we were standing and taking pictures when suddenly I heard somebody calling my name. I turned…it was Theresa! My housemate from last summer who spent this semester in Granada. I ran into her randomly when I was in Granada back in February, so this was a super coincidence. She was there with her family, too, doing the same thing as I. How funny! It really is a small world! I mean, of all places to run into one of the few people I know in Spain…wow, craziness. We were both pretty shocked by the whole thing. We chatted awhile about how the rest of study abroad went, where we were traveling with our families, how we were nervous about going back to the States, etc. She also recommended a vegetarian restaurant for us which was cool. The Alhambra started to close up, so we had to cut off our conversation. We lost each other, ultimately, which is not surprising in the Alhambra. That’s so funny…I ran into yet another RC kid in Spain in one week. I tell ya, small world.
We, of course, struggled to find our way out of the Alhambra (just like last time I was there), but eventually we got out. On the way back down the sloped street we saw Theresa and her family in one of the Arab shops so I was able to say farewell really quickly. Then we struggled to find the vegetarian restaurant, Hicuri. It was a huge challenge because Theresa’s directions were not very clear. So it involved a lot of asking around. We went to an internet café where we were able to recharge minutes on my cell, and asked the guy working there about the restaurant. Like many people that I asked, he had never heard of it, but he was so kind to Google it and give me a general direction and a phone number in case. What a nice guy! It’s always a relief to encounter really genuinely nice people in Spain. Well, turns out his directions were so good that we found it pretty easily. Turns out it was in the area where we were lost earlier that day. The restaurant was really cute and reminiscent of a vegetarian café/restaurant back in the States. The menu was small, but good. We all ordered different vegetarian dishes (although, as we found out, the restaurant wasn’t all vegetarian). I got a rice, tofu, and veggies dish. It wasn’t spectacular, but it felt fucking awesome to eat some really vegetarian food again. After dinner we all split an order of arroz con leche (Spanish rice pudding) which was pretty good.
After dinner we walked back to the Arab district to hit up a tetería. We browsed the many teterías and ultimately settled on the one we went to the previous day, although they messed up our orders that time. We decided to give it a second chance because there was a small group of young belly dancers who looked like they were going to perform. So we headed downstairs and grabbed seats in the corner. It wasn’t too nice downstairs and kind of stuffy, but it was worth it to see some belly dancing. Well, the show actually wasn’t very good. In fact, it was really short and amateur. It was a small group of teenage girls who looked like they were beginner-level belly dancing students. They danced while what looked like their teacher looked on. The audience was all of their family and friends. They did 3 dances. They were not very good. Oh well, we got some culture, I guess. I ordered Moroccan tea (hoping they’d get it right this time), baklava for the parents (which was pretty good), a chocolate pastry for Shana (which was not very good), and apple hookah. The hookah he brought didn’t work. I think that there may have been a hole in the hose. So I sent it back. He brought a new one which worked better, but not great. Ugh, I shouldn’t have chosen to go back to that place. Oh well, once we got the hookah really going it didn’t really matter too much. Doing hookah with the family was fun. My parents have never smoked a hookah before and they really liked it. It’s really relaxing and a good way to wind down after a long day. My mom and I had a smoke ring competition which was funny. But yeah, it was a good time to partake in the Arab traditions like that.
After the tetería we grabbed a cab and headed back to the hotel for our last night in Granada. It was a really awesome day and the perfect demonstration of my reasons for loving Granada so much.