Melissa and I took a day trip to Granada. Let me start by saying that a day trip is not the way to see the city. Well I suppose it is a way, but not the best way. None the less, it is what we did. We had heard great things about Granada while we were in Italy. We looked at a map and thought it didn't look too far from Sevilla so we decided to go. "Not too far" ended up being 3 hours by train, one way. We got up early one morning in Sevilla and walked quickly to the train station to be there by 7:00. By the time we rolled in Granada, I realized that we really hadn't done any prep work. In fact, we had done none. We remembered that we wanted to check out the city and that it had sounded cool from people's descriptions and in the Lonely Planet, but we didn't remember why. We had hoped to get some direction at a tourist information booth in the train station, only to find none. We decided to start walking in the direction of tall buildings and if we saw a sign, we would just follow the sign. We found a sign pointing to the Alhambra and suddenly we remembered why we had come to the city. Now that we had a destination, we set out with conviction. I think the construction obscured further signs because we were soon a bit lost. Melissa and I stopped at a gas station for a map. We decided that €5.20 was too much to pay so we simply opened the map, did our best to memorize it and bought chocolate and gummies instead. A wise purchase. We ended up making a massive detour before we finally reached the fortress. We walked up the hill but apparently took the back way and were able to enter without tickets. Unfortunately, you need tickets to see the actual palaces. Every path we took in an attempt to find the ticket stand was blocked because we didn't have a ticket. Feeling incredibly defeated and a bit chilled and hungry, we stopped for lunch. With food in our tummies, we were able to find the ticket stand (terrible design by the way) and were able to tour the Alhambra.
Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was also one of the Moors last stands in Spain. The massive Alhambra is an Islamic legacy. The buildings are intricate and incredibly detailed. Every room is a masterpiece. The walls are covered in tiles. The archways have a lattice work of detailed wood and stone carvings. It really is quite impressive. The views are gorgeous as well. Despite the cloud cover, light played off the clay colored roofs. It was definitely worth the trip and I wish we could have stayed a bit longer. Granada is a university town and has a fun energy associated with college towns. Apparently it is also the drug capital of Spain and used as an access point from Africa. There is also the bonus of a young, experimental population. But that it not why I wanted to spend more time there. I felt that there was much more to explore. We even saw signs for ski resorts and snow on the mountains in the distance. However, we loaded back up on the train and headed back to Sevilla for a night out on the town. Perhaps another time...
Things I Did Not Expect When I Woke Up
Granada Edition
-Visit the Alhambra
-Be serenaded by a waiter
-Eat a delicious yogurt sundae
-Be confused on how to purchase a ticket at one of the top tourist destinations in Spain
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