Bad start
I had to meet my mum at Madrid airport at midnight. From there we had to travel to the bus station, catch a coach at 1.30am to Granada and stop off for two hours in Granada bus station – where I made the rather unfortunate purchase of an empanada (a baked stuffed pastry) for breakfast, naively under the ruse that it would be filled with chocolate. In fact, to my disgust, I realised it was crammed full of tuna. I dislike tuna in any normal situation, but even more so at eight o'clock in the morning when it is plaguing my nostrils with its fishy repulsiveness. We then had to get another coach to Córdoba, where we FINALLY arrived, a little worse for wear and extremely tired, at 11am. All in all, not a brilliant start... However, our exploration of such a vibrant, colourful city cheered us up in no time:
I had to meet my mum at Madrid airport at midnight. From there we had to travel to the bus station, catch a coach at 1.30am to Granada and stop off for two hours in Granada bus station – where I made the rather unfortunate purchase of an empanada (a baked stuffed pastry) for breakfast, naively under the ruse that it would be filled with chocolate. In fact, to my disgust, I realised it was crammed full of tuna. I dislike tuna in any normal situation, but even more so at eight o'clock in the morning when it is plaguing my nostrils with its fishy repulsiveness. We then had to get another coach to Córdoba, where we FINALLY arrived, a little worse for wear and extremely tired, at 11am. All in all, not a brilliant start... However, our exploration of such a vibrant, colourful city cheered us up in no time:
The unfortunate side effects of being very, very tired
We discovered a statue of a man that looked like he had been attacked by a particularly hungry caterpillar. While other tourists chose to quietly admire this piece of artwork, my mum and I found it more entertaining to poke our fingers in places where they probably shouldn’t have been:
We discovered a statue of a man that looked like he had been attacked by a particularly hungry caterpillar. While other tourists chose to quietly admire this piece of artwork, my mum and I found it more entertaining to poke our fingers in places where they probably shouldn’t have been:
I have been known to wake up at midday and then go back to bed at four. Therefore, wandering around the cobbled streets under the boiling hot sun not having slept in 28 hours led to an inevitable nap. Although my love of sleep resulted in me being allocated the sloth in the ‘which animal would you be’ game we resorted to on a particularly long bus journey, this time I had a genuine reason for some well-deserved shut-eye. What I didn’t count on, however, was falling asleep on a bench on the side of a street.
When I woke up an hour later, my mother was nowhere to be seen. Fair play – I would also consider disowning my daughter if she adopted the habits of a hobo. As it turned out, she was just across the way taking a photo for a couple on another bench – sitting upright on it with eyes open, not sprawled all over it with their mouths hanging half open. Despite the initial sense of shame, I did feel slightly better. Still not fully awake, I managed to stand up and began to drag my feet along the cobbled streets (not a genius thing to do when there are gaps in-between each stone – I tripped over a lot) until we arrived at the Mezquita-Catedral, or the Cathedral-Mosque. It is easy to see why it is a World Heritage Site – the giant arches with their distinctive alternating red and white voussoirs and the 850+ columns made from onyx, marble and granite are hugely impressive on their own, not to mention the famous mihrab, carved ceiling and the beautifully embellished prayer niches.
Granada (which means ‘pomegranate’ in Spanish) was a huge success, although we spent a lot more time:
·
-playing with the camera;
-laughing at humorous signs adorning the walls of the site of a recent protest;
"Main message in black: Animals are not resources. Response in red: They're food! Nom nom" |
· -and eating – although we got a bit worried when we read the menu and saw it was offering us egg soap –
than actually absorbing the culture of a city we were only going to be in for three days. Even the stunning decor of the churches couldn’t hold our attention for very long and we ended up taking ‘Myspace’ photos of ourselves in the mirrors, grossing out over the arm bones in a glass case and taking photos of the ‘No photos’ sign.
Culture and nice views etc.
We did, however, manage to squeeze a trip to the Alhambra into our busy schedule. We first caught a glimpse of this stunning piece of architecture from the San Nicolas viewpoint. Enveloped in lush green woodland and with the Sierra Nevada as the backdrop, the view was absolutely breathtaking.
Visiting the Alhambra itself proved a really lovely day out. Although most of the viewpoints and stop-off points were fairly similar in nature (there were fountains in some places, exotic flowers or large pools in others, large pools with fountains, exotic flowers blooming around large pools...), we still couldn’t get enough of it. My personal favourite were the gardens (the Generalife) which boasted an impressive array of beautifully arranged trees and flowers, and the fact that many of the pools had been built in front of the buildings, producing a watery reflection underneath the original.
As well as the San Nicolas mirador, we also climbed to the top of a hill in order to get a decent look at Granada’s old town. The mass of bright white houses bathed in sunlight combined with the dark green trees dotted in-between and the rolling hills in the background left me unable to direct my eyes elsewhere for quite some time.
The other memorable viewpoint was that from the terrace of a hotel close to the Alhambra. It boasts a magnificent view across the entire city, and is in fact famous for it (according to our guidebook). However, having been up since six o’clock that morning, I was thoroughly frazzled, so much so that I was only able to appreciate it for about five minutes, before my head drooped, I face planted the table and fell soundly asleep. I woke up about 45 minutes later with an arm that was both numb and considerably damp. Granada – where I gave up the opportunity to survey acclaimed viewpoints and the chance to broaden my cultural knowledge for an exceptional amount of dribble and amusingly ironic, yet ultimately, utterly pointless photographs.