GRANADA

We had a 3 hour bus ride from Seville to Granada, which was actually quite comfortable, mainly due to the air conditioning.  As it was a travel day, we were allowed Maccas upon our arrival in Granada and then we got a cab to our hostel.

Like in Seville, we stayed at Oasis Backpackers Hostel, and again it was a great choice.  It was situated in a perfect location in the old town, had plenty of activities, a great bar and common room area and importantly a lift to lug our 25kg+ suitcases up to the 2nd level.  Unfortunately our room did not have air conditioning and with the temperatures hovering around 45 degrees, we were basically sleeping in a sauna, it was disgusting!

As we only had 2 nights in Granada, we wanted to make the most of the time we had, so we headed straight out to explore the city.  We headed uphill alongside the River Darro and stumbled upon these awesome old Muslim baths called El Banuelo that were built in the 11th century to serve the Mosque that once stood adjacent to it - If only they were still in working condition, we would have jumped in for sure (assuming the water was cold!).

Although the small streets of granada were a contrast to the large ones of Seville, the major contrast was the fact that we felt like we were in Morocco.  There were little shops selling middle eastern food such as baklava as well as plenty of herbs and spices, most restaurants and bars had people smoking shisha's and 2/3 people walking in the street seemed to be of middle eastern background, Jack Bauer would have had a field day!

Previously we had discussed trying to limit the amount of churches we visit, especially if you are required to pay to get in.  For some reason this discussion evaded our memory as we walked past the Granada Cathedral and we decided to pay the 5 euro entry fee (this is actually quite expensive for a church!) and give it a look.
We are both so pleased that we went in, because it was a truly remarkable building.

Construction began in 1521, but it took almost 190 years to complete, making it one of the more modern cathedrals we have seen!  The huge white columns were amazing and looked like they had just been painted.

Apart from the far that we absolutely loved this church, we stayed in there for an extra long period of time because it was so beautifully cold compared with the terrible conditions outside.  Eventually we had to leave though, so we headed home through some more really cool streets that made you feel like you were in a giant Ishka store!

That evening we had some of the best and cheapest mojito's from the hostel bar and also met some really nice people from all parts of the globe.  

We all went out for dinner and treated ourselves to numerous plates of damn good tapas, all for the cost of our drinks.  In the end we had at least 3-4-5 drinks each, plus that many tapas and paid 6 euro each, amazing value for money!

It was probably the drinks talking, but after seeing that many people smoking shisha's throughout the day, we had to give it a try ourselves.  We popped in to a bar near our hostel and for the following hour or so, proceeded to inhale waaaaaaaaaaay too much apple flavoured smoke, but god it was a lot of fun!

After taking advice from numerous people throughout our hostel, we worked out that we needed to get up super early to ensure successful entry into the famous Alhambra, so the next morning our alarms woke us up at 7am and we slowly got up a little worse for wear from all the apple smoke that had entered our lungs the night before.

Stretched along the top of the hill known as La Sabika, the Alhambra is literally the stuff of fairy tales.  From the outside, its red fortress towers and walls rising from the cypress woods appear quite plain, however inside it is hard to put into words how awesomely cool it is.

Each day 7,000 visitors enter the Alhambra - 6,600 of these have bought their tickets in advance and 400 are lucky enough to snare the remaining tickets available on the day.  When we worried at 7:45am there were definitely over 400 people in the "cash only" line, however we had been given a great tip to go around the corner to the "cards only" line.  Within 20 minutes of lining up, we had our tickets and were walking through the hedged entrance.  All we could do was laugh at the suckers who were lining up and had no chance of getting in at all that day!

Intricate islamic artwork fused with incredible architecture and landscaping has helped this World Heritage Listed site to become one of the must see attractions in Europe.  Dating back to the 11th century, the site is dominated by the mighty Alcazaba (fortress) and the mesmerising Palacio Nazaries (palace), whilst the tranquil Generalife (palace gardens) provide a heavenly hideaway from the searing Granada heat.

entrance to the Alcazaba

Walking around the ramparts of the Alcazaba, we had great views of the city below as well as the mountains in the background.  By the time it got to 10:00am, it was already stifling hot and we were drinking water out of every tap we could find and sticking to anything resembling a shadow.

We had a specified time of 10:30am that we had to enter the Palacio Nazaries, so we made sure we were at the entrance at 10:15am to make sure there were no hiccups.

Full of mesmerising, symbolic, geometrical patterns, the Palacio Nazaries is Alhambra's true gem.  With its perfectly proportioned rooms and courtyards, intricately moulded 'stucco' walls, beautiful tiling, fine carved wooden ceilings and elaborate stalactite-like decorated ceilings, it is the most brilliant Islamic building in Europe.

Patio de Arrayanes

Patio de los Leones

One of our favourite areas was the Patio de los Leones - The 12 lions sculpted from marble hold up a gurgling fountain and the courtyard itself is divided into 4 parts by rivers that flow through little channels that meet at the fountain.  It was an awesome water feature!

The whole courtyard is surrounded by delicate columns and arches built to signify an Islamic vision of paradise.

The patio was surrounded by 4 halls that were built as the royal harem.  On the northern side of the patio, the richly decorated 'Sala de Dos Hermanas' featured a fantastic dome with a central star and 5,000+ tiny cells.

trying to get a photo with no one else in it was near impossible!

After spending almost 2 hours wandering around the Palcio Nazaries, we exited and headed for the Palacio de Carlos V.  This imposing building is perfectly square, but internally it contains a circular, two-tiered courtyard with 32 columns.  It was commanded by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who wished to establish his residence close to the Alhambra palaces.

Generalife (the Architect's Garden) is the name given to the monumental area of the Alhambra's gardens.

I have never seen such an amazing area, full of brilliantly manicured gardens and hedges that were more perfectly trimmed than my chest hairs.  The amount of money spent on maintenance must be huge!!

Looking back at the Alcazaba and Palacio Nazaries from Generalife - gives you a rough idea of how big Alhambra is!

The Patio de la Acequia (court of the water channel) has a long pool framed by flower beds and fountains, whose shapes have been designed to echo the arched porticos at each end, such thought!

Off this Pation, the Jardin de la Sultana includes the tree trunk of a 700 year-old cypress tree which looks like it could topple over any day.

The whole water system of the Alhambra was just ridiculous, we couldn't even begin to imagine how it all worked.  Even when we were leaving, the railing of the stairs had water running down into a fountain at the bottom, it was so cool!

It took us almost 5 hours to navigate ourselves around the Alhambra, and then another 20 odd minutes to walk back into town and by this time, we were absolutely stuffed and seriously hungry.

Lonely Planet tipped us off for Bodegas Castaneda, reportedly the oldest bar in Granada.  The kitchen was whipping up delicious traditional food and the free tapa of paella with our sangria was almost enough for lunch!

Not surprisingly, we were both stuffed that afternoon.  Anna chilled at the hostel, but I was really keen to get out and explore Granada's street art.

The temperature was beyond hot, like so bloody hot that 5 minutes in the street and your undies were squelching.  That night someone told me that they saw the temperature reading in the main street read 48 OMG!!!!!!!!

The guys from the hostel marked out on the map the best spots for me to checkout the street art and even gave me a brief run down on the artist - His name is El Nino de los Pinturas and is basically like Spain's answer to Banksy.

Most of the street art was on the east side of town, at the foot of the Alhambra, but I was told about this staircase that was on the opposite side of town in an area called Albayzin.  It was a solid 25 minute walk there, so I decided to run there and back to our hostel to make the trip a little shorter in time.  It was well worth it as the staircase was awash with amazing art and also had great views out over the city as well.

my favourite - so clever!

looking up at Alhambra from the district of Albayzin

That evening we were back at the hostel bar for some more cheap cocktails and even a free plate of pasta for a pre-dinner snack.

We ended up going out for a very late dinner (about 10pm) with a few of the girls from the hostel and settled on a Lebanese joint called Samarkanda.  The cinnamon and icing sugar dusted chicken pie had me contemplating our next trip to Beirut, but it still doesn't compare to grandmother's!!

Another horrible, sweaty, sleepless night in our non-air-conditioned hostel room and the next morning we were packed and ready for another long bus ride to our next pit-stop, Alicante.