Day 51, Granada a la árabe

Speaking of nice, happy Spaniards, we had yet another pleasant encounter this morning after a grueling night on the train and a long bus ride.  We had some doubts and questions in following the directions to our hostel, and once we’d made it to the end of our bus ride, we looked around, searching for a street name to follow.  We’d walked a block and had paused to hunt down one of those signs when a nice, little lady called out, “¿Qué buscáis?” (What are you two looking for?)  When she didn’t know where our desired street was either, she muttered that maybe a nearby old man could be of assistance, at which point she promptly turned to him and asked for us.  He unhesitatingly pointed it out, directly across the street at a diagonal, right behind some construction.  The two of them led the way across the street, and then the little sweet lady walked us to our pensión (hostel).

The people running our hostel have been just as kind, even such that the old man who seems to own the place insisted on lugging my 18.8 kilo bag up the flight of stairs to our room. Of course, that was after a two hour gap of wandering before we could check in at the hostel, but at least they held our luggage for us. And they gave us a map with some famous places marked on it!

Saving the Alhambra for day 2 in Granada, we busied ourselves by exploring other parts of town, including the Parque Federico García Lorca, the city cathedral/royal chapel, the Arabic market, San Jerónimo, and the Basilica San Juan de Dios.  The park was simultaneously beautiful and hilarious—beautiful because of all the well-tended walkways and plants and fountains, hilarious because of the old man cleaning his dentures in a drinking fountain and because of the health-minded exercise signs found along the main walkway.  (Note: Granada wins the prize so far for being most accommodating in the sense of conveniently providing benches, drinking fountains, and bathrooms!)  As for most of the other “major” historical sites, well, we admired the outside of them, but didn’t pay to enter some and couldn’t enter others, the latter having been converted into medical centers.  However, we did thoroughly enjoy the Arabic market and its neighboring tea vendors, offering a vast array of colors to please the sight and aromas to content the nose.  It was so delightful, in fact, we stopped by on our way back to the hostel so I could indulge and buy some Arabic wares.  From Granada.  Because that’s where I am!

 

We ended the day much more comfortably than we began: instead of hungry and tired of the train, we were cozied up in our room with junk food and Spanish TV.  And guess what?  The Madagascar Penguins are funny in Spanish almost as much as they are in English!