Goodbye with a Sigh

Day 59

After lying awake for several hours I got my clothes on and headed to the Alhambra. It was dark and the walk was a bit unnerving. Luckily, I met a Norwegian mother and daughter as I was about to head up the darkest area. It was completely unlit and I was happy to have them there. I waited in line for about two hours before I was able to buy my ticket. I had gotten the time that I wanted though, so it was worth it.

I headed back to the hostel at this point for a few hours of sleep and some food. Around noon I met up with the American girls from the night before and we headed to the Alhambra. They had bought their tickets in advance and didn't need to wake up at stupid o'clock with me.

The Alhambra sits over the city and was built in the 14^th century. It is said that if you die without seeing the Alhambra you have not lived. I don't know about that, but it is a one of a kind site and the reason for coming to Granada.

When I was in line for the palace, or Alcazar section, for some reason I was moved to the front of the line. They made me wait there for a while, I was getting dirty looks from the people who were waiting in line. Eventually I had to fill out some paper and sign it, I think it said incident report, but I couldn't be sure. I don't know if I got the time wrong, or if something else I hadn't realized was happening. I wasn't happy to be split up with the girls, I had wanted to use them to take pictures of me! At least I got in.

The Alcatar is really amazing, truly unlike the other Moorish palaces I have seen. My problem with it is that it cost $18 to get in and there were no descriptions about anything. For that you needed to pay another $10 for an audio guide. It's a bit of a rip if you ask me.

I took my time taking pictures and taking in the Islamic decoration. I tried my best to get shots with out other tourists in them, but it was basically impossible. There were courtyards with reflecting pools, and rooms with intricate carvings. According to my guide I saw the harem, but I wouldn't know which room it actually was.

After the Alcazar I headed to the ruins of the Alcazaba, or fort. This part was built after the Moors had been thrown out of Spain. I climbed the Torre de la Vela for an amazing view of Granada. I could even see the mountain side caves that people still lived in. Still, most of it was in ruins and without an explanation it was a bit like staring at a pile of rocks.

The last bit I visited were the gardens. There were ruins from the Moors scattered around here as well. After a quick look at the Alcazar from a distance I headed back to the hostel and got my things together.

I had really wanted to just chill at the hostel until it was time to leave, but James constant smoking made me very uncomfortable. I couldn't listen to him say 'I don't know man, I don't know' one more time. Because of this I left hours early and passed my time by reading at the bus station.

In 1492 when the Moorish ruler Boabdil fled the city he took one last look at the Alhambra with longing. His mother berated him, telling him that he did well to weep like a woman for what he could not protect as a man. I too took one last look at the Alhambra as I walked back down the hill. My time in Spain was at the beginning of the end and I knew that I would indeed miss it.

This was to my my (hopefully) last night bus for a long time. When I got on I just felt that I was meant to have the window seat that someone else was in. Having a window seat meant that my chances of getting any sleep would be drastically increased. I asked a girl sitting nearby if I was right and she said that I was. I asked the woman in my seat to move, she refused. The girl who had helped me before stepped in and said a few words to her. This time she got up. A few minutes later she asked to see my ticket. I let her look keeping it firmly in my hand. She sighed at this, but stopped bugging me, she knew that I was right.

Even with the draw of my new book, Middlesex, I was able to get a decent amount of sleep.

Wandering the Maze

Day 58
I was up early, but the sound of the rain and the warmth of my bed made me lazy. Eventually I got up to see the Alhambra. Instead I decided to spend the day wandering the labyrinth of streets and eventually ending up at the cathedral.

The Albaicin was almost as confusing as Fez. The Moors had left their trace everywhere. At one point I even found a Moroccan souk. When I entered the cathedral it took just a minute to realize that there was a wedding going on. What was appalling was that despite that there were still tourists milling around and taking pictures. I decided to come back later. When I did return about 5 hours later there was another wedding going on and I just decided to give up on it.

While wandering I stumbled on an old hospital. Paintings ringed the Moorish courtyard. I met some Americans here who told me that they waited in live for over 2 hours at the Alhambra and were lucky to have gotten tickets. They suggested getting mine online.

With that piece of advice in mind I headed to an internet cafe. I wasn´t able to get a ticket online, but I did manage to get some blog work done. I took care of the rest of my work for the day by getting a bus ticket to Valencia for the following evening.

That night I went out with a group of people from the hostel for tapas. I didn´t stay long though, I had to be up very early. When I went to sleep I thought that would be the end of the story. I was very very wrong.

Around 3 am the rest of the people came back. One of the Spanish guys was very drunk and yelling loudly. For some reason he was also moving furniture around. He then went to the bathroom leaving both the door to the bathroom and dorm room open. I could see him almost fall out the window before I heard him throwing up for about 40 minutes. I never managed to fall back to sleep after this.

Groaning in Granada

Day 57
I was sad to leave Malaga. The town wasn't that interesting, but the hostel was great and I had made some really good friends while I was there.

The bus to Granada didn't take long and in no time I was in the middle of Granada. I hadn't remembered to write down the name and address of my hostel, so I ducked into an Internet cafe to find it. Once that I was done I attempted to get a cab, but none of them would let me in. I couldn't figure out why.

I headed back to the internet cafe to print out a map. It looked to me like it was quite a walk, also, many of the streets didn´t have names on them. I had spoken to the guy who worked at the cafe before and I thought he had a good handle on English. I asked him how long of a walk it would be as none of the cab drivers would take me. He misunderstood and took my map. On the back he wrote ¨quiero ir¨and the name and address of my hostel in big block letters. He told me to give that to a cab driver.

Feeling a bit like Paddington Bear I tried the cabbies again. Still no luck. The only thing to do was take my crappy map and head up the hill. About 20 minutes into my treck it began to rain. I hated Granada at that minute. My back hurt, and I was getting wet. All I wanted was to get to the hostel and put everything down. Eventually I ended up in a square. I kept asking everyone but they all just shook their heads and walked by. Eventually a group of Dutch travelers walked by with a map. I asked if I could barrow it for a minute. They asked how long I had been walking with my pack and when I replied almost 2 hours they all seemed to really want to help me.

My little street wasn´t on the map, and one of the Dutch women pulled out her TomTom. She then walked me to the hostel. The street was so tiny that we could not have walked next to one another. Thankfully, this was the correct street. I was incredibly greatfull for their help, and thanked then.

Terripin Station is a very small place run by an American guy named James. He gave me a tour of the area to help get rid of my confusion. James also told me that he is at the hostel about 23 hours a day and that if he wasn´t there to let people in he was always back very quickly. I wanted to ask him how he could stand sitting around all the time, but didn´t.

It was quite late in the day by the time I had found the hostel and I had only had two pieces of bread. While I was making myself dinner an Aussie and an American came in . The Aussie, Hannah, was really nice, but Audry the American was a sponge. At one point of the night she asked if I would be cooking the rest of my food and if so, she wanted to help me eat it.

Eventually the three of us went out for tapas. The nice thing about tapas in Granada is that they come free with a beer. The bad thing was that both of the girls were veggie and we had to share whatever we had.

Audry had a friend coming later and went off with him when he arrived. Hannah and I simply headed back to hang out at the hostel before calling it a night.

While we were there James was smoking hash almost non-stop. I guess thats how he spends hours a day in a cold room with no tv. I was sort of wishing that moving to another place was an option, everything else in the city was either full or very expensive.