Day 53, Wandering in Granada

Thanks to having explored the first day and having spent the better part of yesterday at the Alhambra, today was wide open for whatever we wanted to do. It’s kind of odd to me to be able to go about the day without any obligations and just make up plans as to where to go and what to do on the spot.  That’s exactly what we did today.  Yep, we had some ideas of things to do, such as go to the Archeological Museum, post some mail, contact the bishop of the LDS Granada ward, find some LDS YSA here to take Ashlee’s thesis survey, and take a picture of Ashlee eating a kebab at the wonderfully delicious and affordable Kabab King.  Nevertheless, the plans were extremely flexible, and they would’ve been almost completely derailed if they had been more fixed anyway.  Why?  Well, for one, the phone number listed for the bishop in Granada on the lds.org website was wrong, so we had no real, feasible and simple way to locate him or the YSA.  And then, we walked all the way to the Albaicín only to find that construction, yet again, foiled our plans, this time preventing us from visiting the Archeological Musuem. 

Even if you don’t understand Spanish, the English in the middle is clear enough.  (I would like to note that, although I dislike the message, I highly appreciate the order of languages!)

At this point, it was a matter of saying, “Let’s go this direction,” and “I wonder what’s up there.”  Ashlee and I can both be quite indecisive, but I seemed to have taken the lead yesterday, suggesting we continue up the road a bit, which led us to find a path down to the Darro and also to find an old “palace” that has been converted into a city archive.  We stopped in to sneak a peek at the city archive and then, deciding I didn’t want to go uphill anymore and that it didn’t look interesting enough, I suggested we go down to the Darro.  Ashlee agreed, but on the way we found a surprise that diverted us (both in the sense of distracting and in having fun).  You see, apparently Granada is very health-minded, going so far as to offer exercise suggestions in the park, signs to show how many calories you can burn on a certain paseo route, and an outdoor gym for mayors (older people).  I like to call it a gym playground.  Imagine, a free gym combined with a playground feel just for adults!  We, of course, took pictures, and I especially like the ones I took of Ashlee, because she’s cute and the Alhambra is above her in the background par hazard, but she forbad me from posting the ones of her, so here’s one of me.

Somewhat stronger from taking advantage of the gym playground, we finally went down to the water.  We sat there for a while, taking in the hot sun and cool water as I took time to write to my family.  It probably doesn’t seem like a big deal, but believe me when I say it is.  The Darro is connected to the Alhambra, providing much of the water that gives life to it, and I was soaking my feet in it!  Also, I just love water and nature, especially amidst so much desert dryness. 

Once we decided to move on to something else, we ended up heading back into town and buying some gelato.  Then, we hunted down the “Tea Street” indicated on our map, but what we found were more stores like we saw in the Arabic market, in addition to some restaurants and a perfume shop.  By the end of that mini detour, we came back to the square with the gelato and bought linner at the Kabab King, thus accomplishing at least one of our day’s plans!  Next, we wandered toward the Cathedral so we could take in once more the fresh, sweet aromas of the teas located there.  On our way, I ended up paying a euro to get my name written in Arabic, and later Ashlee gave in after a long inner struggle to buy a tea egg and some Esplandor Al-Andalus herbal tea.  Ah, I wish I had that stuff just as potpourri or perfume!  Alas, I’d already indulged myself in buying some earring and my Arabic name, and then I bought a cordobesa apple-filled pastry.  Meh, at least we’d saved some money on laundry, too, because a worker at our hostel was sweet enough to le4t us do it for free.

Have I mentioned how much I love this place and how awesome the people are?!  If only it weren’t for construction…  Then again, the museum closure gave us time to wander even more and enjoy our last bit of time here.