Granada: Its Wonderful Self

Although Granada initially got off to a shaky start, I think it ended up being one of my favorite places. Above and below is the Duomo, or whatever you call in Spanish, on the square of our hotel.
Tea is a huge thing in Granada; in the afternoons, stalls lined the side of the Duomo.


Those are the streetlights. Pretty cool, huh?
Bruno's comment upon seeing this bench: "Oh, great. A 40 and some toilet paper." I laughed and laughed. It turned out the "toilet paper" was actually just a plastic bag, but still, it was funny. I'll always think of it as toilet paper.





In the mornings, farmers' stalls lined the square, and a big public market was open, full of meat, cheese, seafood, and baked goods. Those figs reappeared (or disappeared, depending on how you look at it) in our lunch that day.




Those are pig's ears. They were huge!


Okay, the next two photos require a little explanation: Bruno didn't bring very many clothes with him, and as a result, needed to wash them. Once clean, how was he to dry them? There was no clothes line. So he strung the built in hair dryer across the bathroom and hung it from the shower rod. Instant clothes line! His underpants could now dry without worry. But as we were out walking around that day, we suddenly wondered what the maid would think when she came in to clean and saw this apparatus. She must have thought we were so weird. We laughed and laughed. I had to take pictures. When his clothes were dry, and Bruno had put the hair dryer back in its socket, I noticed that the cord had gotten a bit stretched out. Oops.

That was our lunch that day, courtesy of the public market and the farmer stalls. It tasted as delicious as it looked.
As I mentioned before, tea is HUGE in Granada, due to the heavy Moorish influence. Below are photos from a teteria in the Albaicín area. I loved that neighborhood. That iced tea below was quite possibly the best I've ever had. It was, appropriately enough, the "Albaicín" blend.
There was a bird in the teteria.Bruno and I smoked appled-flavored tobacco there in a nargillah. It was fun.




More views of the Albaicín.

We had dinner at what was apparently a very exclusive restaurant. Oddly enough, it was a fondue restaurant. It was good, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

After dinner, we went to a really indie (very Portland, if such a thing could exist) flamenco show. It was awesome! It was sort of hybrid flamenco and jazz put on by a bunch of hippies, complete with an actual flamenco dancer. We met them the night before; they were sitting outside their shop smoking pot, and they gave us a flyer for the show. It was definitely not aimed at tourists, so naturally, we loved it. I wasn't able to get any photos, but I think Bruno did, covertly.

So that was Granada. I cannot begin to describe how much I enjoyed it!