Granada - the city where god put all his goodness

At 4.00 in the morning I was dropped off at a hostel in Granada. After a few hours sleep I was eager to discover this vibrant city that pretty much everyone had convinced me I had to see. And I must admit it within the first day became a new favorite - this colorful melt pot of cultures, built on the hills and against the backdrop of a snow covered Sierra Nevada, is at the same time peaceful and full of life.

I rented a room in a top floor apartment in the older part of town, Realejos, staying with a young woman who like me is a freelancer working from home. We immediately got along very well, and her cute and playful cat Manolo instantly became my new best friend, staying in my bed at night. And since my hostess did not speak much English, I finally got to practice and improve my Spanish! This has, since San Sebastian, been harder than I expected, since all young people having the least bit of a clue of English want to practice speaking that. 

As a tourist here, visiting the amazing and impressive Alhambra is mandatory. This time of year, before the high season has truly kicked in, there was no need to reserve tickets in advance, so after a walk in the hot sunshine up the hills I could spend an afternoon wandering about in the gardens and palace courtyards. 

 

The whole area was a lot bigger than I expected, and in every building you could enter it was impossible not to stop and marvel at more or less every detail. No wonder it took more than a century to finish all the exquisite decorations of door openings, walls, corners and pillars. With the view of the valley, overlooking the city, and with the Sierra Nevada in the background, you could easily spend hours just admiring the scenery.

Apart from the fascinatingly worked-out details of portals and decorations, there is also the arabic art of tile decor. This is a palace almost without gold and diamonds - instead its beauty lies in all the perfect little details cut out in the marble and stone, and of course the colorful but classically discrete tile work on some of the walls.

Granada was the first stop I did where I actually let myself completely be a tourist (however sunny, bohemian and lovely Spain does not really promote your work ethics anywhere... ) In the hostel where I spent my first night, I met a very nice Palestinian-Israelian tour guide who had lived in several countries (Israel until the age of 12, then Bulgaria for high school, Malaysia for university and after that 12 years in Sweden!). He normally took groups on walking tours and adventurous excursions, but still being low-season he was not very booked. So I got him all to myself the next day, taking me up in the mountains above the city and spending a sunny day at a mountain lake, glittering like a turquoise jewel amongst the steep hills with small assemblies of houses and tiny pueblos climbing the edges. Here I took my very first ice cold outdoor bath of 2015!

The last day here I visited the arabic quarters, Albaycin, on the hill next to Realejos and where tiny winding streets led me to mini-squares with fruit markets, little restaurants and a wonderful view of the city below.

Above and behind Albaycin is the unpaved roads of Sacromonte, where Spanish gypsies have built up their cave community beside but in full contact with the rest of the city. I was told that Granada, like large parts of Southern Spain, is one of the few places in Europe where Jewish, Muslim and Gypsy cultures still exist peacefully side by side, all taking part in the same whole but respecting each others' different ways of living and organizing life. That of course made me fall even deeper in love with this cozy, yet lively and diversified little city in the mountains. That you got free tapas (deep-fried fish, stewed potatoes, different kinds of seafood, bread with cheese, Russian salad with crisps) with every beer did not really devalue my feelings of being welcome and allowed to enjoy life. I hardly spent a euro on dinner for four days (but was a bit tipsy every evening...)

My last eve was spent in a traditional arabic bath, a dark yet colorful place for relaxation. I got a massage and treated my body to recover from all the exhausting mountain walks by warm and cold baths, and every now and then having a cup of sweet green tee and a caramel in the hamam's tearoom.

I am quite convinced that I will have to return to Granada in the future - if nothing else to do some shopping and pick up all the arabic lamps, moroccan leather goods and other souvenirs and gifts I cannot carry on this trip. Granada is truly a place for peaceful happiness, enjoying the best there is of food, nature and friendly people.

After four nights in this wonderful place, I took the bus back to the Mediterranean coast to see just a little bit of Alicante before flying off to Italy. How I enjoyed that will be in my next update.

Viva Valencia

After a four hour car trip from Barcelona I arrived in Valencia in the afternoon. I had managed to find another couch to stay on for free, this time with a Spanish guy sharing his apartment with three other guys. He and his uncle picked me up in the city centre and after having installed myself and my backpacks in his living room, we went out for a wonderful Valencian dinner. My host also showed me around the old quarters of the inner city, Barrio Carme, where narrow cozy streets full of cafés, bars, restaurants and small shops crossed each other between churches and monuments. 

Apart from beautiful buildings and sunny plazas, I saw a lot of street art, which is very popular and often quite good in Valencia. Otherwise the city was posher than any of the other places I've been to so far - and I unexpectedly ended up in the cultural circles of the city during my short stay.

My very friendly and overly social host knew a group of actors, who just finished the Valencian Theatre College last year, and had formed a theatre group who had received prizes and scholarships for its work. They were now playing The Good Soul of Sezuan by Brecht in a village nearby, and my host arranged a free special invitation for me as well. The play was purely performed in the Valencian version of Catalan, so I did not get every word of the dialogue, but knowing the story of the play and with knowledge of both French and Spanish, it was not hard to follow the main intrigues. Even though the theatre was a small rural one with poor lighting (this bothered the actors more than the audience), I just loved it! The scenography was super clever and very stylish, the acting carried out in a truly Brechtian combination of comedy and melancholy, and accompanied by smart and lively danced choreography.

We were then driven home by one of the actor's grandparents (also his biggest fans, according to my host), a fancy elderly couple playing Italian opera in the car all the way back to the city.

My second day in Valencia I spent on the beach - everyone I had talked to convinced me it was an ugly urban beach, but being Swedish and coming from snow and cold quite recently, I didn't really care... Only coastal Spanish people can afford to be so picky! Far stretched sand, an open blue sea, palm trees and sun is really all I need to feel I am enjoying beach life. Even the Mediterranean is a bit too cold for me this early in the Spring, but being able to walk barefoot on sand, feeling the warm breeze in my face and doing some yoga while listening to the slow waves reset my energy levels.

My last day in the city I spent working, and then after saying goodbye to my funny and culturally well-connected host in the evening, it was time to get into yet another car, heading for Granada.

Which turned out to be an ever as lovely Spanish city... Exactly how lovely you will soon get to see.

Beautiful Barça

I arrived in Barcelona by bus in the afternoon, and even though the bus ride from Bilbao via Zaragoza was long, it wasn't too much effort since the bus left so early in the morning that I spent the first three hours fast asleep. And once awake, the Spanish landscape is quite a marvelous view, so no need to feel bored.

In Barcelona a very dear friend of mine from Sweden came to stay for a few days, so we rented a room in an apartment inhabited by a quiet couple. After the first day's steady and very heavy rain, we enjoyed two wonderfully sunny days as Barcelona - as always - lived up to the expectations of a good vacation. When food is good, easy, everywhere and (at least for a Swedish traveller) cheap, and the same goes for beer and coffee, you can be happy with or without large events or tourist attractions. If feeling inclined to enjoy those, they are everywhere and most of them even accessible by walking in between.
When the rain poured down, we made the best of the day by spending some time at the food market hall next to La Rambla, a feast both for tongue and eyes.

And after walking a few blocks getting soaked, there's always a bar around the corner serving delicious drinks... I made a little bit of a fuss about the choice of name for this bar's sugar-free cocktail alternative. The poor bartender (who had no responsibility for naming the drinks) tried to calm me down by saying that Swedish girls were so sweet already we don't need any sugar...

Next day the sun was gracing us with its presence, so we spent a couple of hours in the always amazingly impressive Parc Güell. Discovering both the highest point of the park and marveling at the views over the city from its different hills, and also strolling along the secret little paths between trees and bushes on the backside of the hill, it was truly a peaceful start of the day.

Apart from Parc Güell, Gaudí is super famous for the crazy church building Sagrada Família. I have seen it before and found it ugly, but being there again I have to admit it is quite impressive. The weirdest thing is probably not the almost disgustingly overworked millions of details, but that it is actually located in a street corner with houses and buzzy streets creeping almost all the way up to the entrance. It is at the same time a praise to and a disgusting display of abundant art and the human creation of a palace not for those who need one, but for a god who already has his heaven.

Another really famous Gaudí building is the more simplistic yet wonderfully playful La Pedrera, a house to live in (though a bit too luxuriously designed for most people).

But most art and architecture in Barcelona is beautiful and interesting, so for those of us who like buildings, monuments and streetlights, the whole inner city is a large treasure-chest.

Evening sun and a walk along the former Olympic site and La Barcelona was a good way to wrap a sunny day up before having a late paella for dinner.

On the Saturday at lunchtime I was picked up by car by a Spanish man who passed Barcelona on his way to Valencia, which was my next stop for the three weeks in Spain. How that was different to Barcelona in many ways, you'll get to know next time.