With jealousy and because our program at ICADE doesn't pay for us all to travel around Spain and Europe in general (I am not bitter), we decided to venture down to the south of Spain this weekend. To keep costs low we came up with the brilliant plan of leaving Madrid at 1 am Saturday morning (technically?) and arriving in Granada at 6 am. The trip was reminiscent of those times when my mom dragged us all by bus from Mexico City to Sacatecas, only there was no one star hotel to welcome us in Granada for a few blessed hours of sleep. Only 3 degree Celsius weather and the realization that the sun wouldn't rise for another two hours...like the rest of the city.
I don't remember much about the bus ride there, only that since Di and I had spent 5 euros extra, we got a bigger and pretty much empty bus to stretch out on, plenty of leg room and a complimentary water bottle. Also a coupon for a free copa (alcoholic drink) but we may have slept through that rest stop. We climbed through the Spanish Sierra Nevadas with what Di tells me was at a frightening pace, although I had fallen asleep using the seatbelt lock at my pillow with Michael Jackson blaring into my ears, so I would have been oblivious if we had crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Getting into Granada was interesting, to say the least. We arrived in a seedy little bus stop, with no sun or moon to light our way. Di and I arrived about 20 minutes earlier than R and Tita and quickly located the bathrooms. Bathrooms didn't have toilet paper, much less a clean seat and I'm sure that's all the imagery you need, but I thank my over-planning mother who made me pack "Charmin Emergency Toilet Seat Covers" and Aurelia, who insisted I take 3 packs of tissues. Thank you, both of you.
For once, Tita and I had our giant "Spain" tour books and we sat in the middle of the bus stop looking super touristy as we read aloud a "walking tour" as suggested by Lonely Planet. At 6:45 am, the barista at the bus stop cafe was super helpful and told us which city bus to grab to get into the center of the town.
And thats when we gave up any hope of pretending to be Spanish and started with our "Gringo Spanish". Gringo spanish, for all of you that don't know, is when you speak spanish in the worst american accent possible. Personally, I can fake a hybrid spanish/english accent so that I'm not speaking like a complete gringa, but all the native speakers know I'm not truly one of them.
Now, the Alhambra is probably the most famous Islamic architecture buildings in Europe, and what we DID NOT realize is that you need to buy tickets to enter the fortress prior to actually hiking up the giant mountain that it sits on top of. I don't even think Disney World sells out like this place does. Luckily we bought garden tickets that were cheaper and let us see almost everything except the inside of the Palace (and the cool lion statues...) There are just tons of flowers and fountains and really neat architecture all around the place.
From the Alhambra, we took a short bus back down into the city, me sitting on R's lap, Tita on Di's and surrounded by an odd and smelly assortment of tourists and natives. *Please note: That in Granada, no matter how old the guy / how young the woman, the man always leaps up and demands the woman sits. I'm not a feminist at all but I think this is really sweet. Especially when they're really old and you'd rather they just sit anyway.
We also made our pilgrimage to the tombs of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand (and their assorted children). Like most really old places in Europe, we were unable to take a picture of anything past the front doors of the cathedral, but the cathedral itself was quite epic and knowing that the catholic kings were dead and 10 feet in front of us was only a little unsettling.
Finally it was time to go, after a meal of pizza and some browsing at the local stores (Pull and Bear? And some random gift shops) We all headed on another very filled bus towards the bus station and although I still stand by the fact the bus would have gone closer to the station, we got off and ambled for about five minutes over a construction zone where I was forced to walk across a makeshift bridge. Scaryyy.
At 6 pm we departed Granada, tired but full of culture, pizza, and possibly covered in pollen, since there were so many flowers at La Alhambra.
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