Granada

9th-11th August

Malaga to Granada

Granada is Khentazaz!! Lena was right (for once, hehe) she has stayed here for a while and from her email, i assumed it was going to be beautiful, thanks Len, see, you do come in handy every now and again as a friend…(!)

So we arrived from Malaga, we were going to stay there for one night but the place didnt really catch our fancy, i guess we didnt really give it a chance, its a pretty beachy place with palm trees and loads of spanish tourists flopping on the beaches (and when i say flopping, i mean flopping, these Spanish have no shame, I have never seen so much skin colour in my life!) i have to admit, the weather was absolutley too hot for me, i think i lost about 67.9kilos in the 4hrs we were there, so at least i saved on weight watchers diet in australia later on…SO, booked the coach to Granada straight away…for 6pm that night…took us 1.5hrs to get here and it was all worth it…

here are some pics from the whole 4 hrs we were in Malaga…

side streets of Malaga

Beachy Malaga, beautiful water in the background..too hot to care

Church in Malaga

waiting for the bus to Granada

Walked to an information booth where we saw another tourist girl from america, found out later her name was Karen…she was booking a hostel from the guy, it was called “Oasis” a new place that had just opened up, we were lucky to find 2 beds in the same room, made friends with the Karen girl, she was from Florida…i think she wears the pink hot pants when she rollerblades down past the beaches (she hates it when i stereotype her like that but it cracks me up, so i keep going) anyway, caught the 3 bus to the Cathedral and walked the rest of the way, it looked a bit dodgy in the beginning cos it was in the back streets, we had to take a few turns every now and again, but we now know that Granada is ALL turns EVERYWHERE…so funny, you walk a few streets, see a few tourists they go the other way, you go the other and about 15mins later you bump into them again from another angle..ole�!! what is this peoples?? sheesh, umm getting lostage happening somewhere here…so we gave up and decided to get lost ON PURPOSE and it actually turned out better and we found our way back to the main road..(umm, lets try NOT to explain this)

view of Granada from Oasis hostel

another view from our Hostel

beds in our hostel, so comfortable! this is the best hostel I have ever been to

relaxing on the terrace at night

Our first night there we went to a Flamenco poetry reading and guitar playing thingy at a bar close by, very umm, interesting….it was a dude playing a guitar (very talented) with a man-looking lady reciting some poetry in a very passionate way…one of the poems she started crying literally and screaming cos apparently someone had taken her love away or something, i sorta couldnt understand it because of the Spanish, you know, cos i speak english and all…(sigh) ive learnt a few words and saying, Parrrdon for excuse me, ola for hello cuanto cuesta for how much is this? habla ingles do you speak english and i still dont know the translation for vorig, but ill let you guys know soon…(lena, man, ok, correct me please i know its wrong, sheesh!)

Gabby, Karen, ME, Anita and Hannah at the spanish recital, dont know what im looking so excited though

Afterwards we were hungry and we went to a Tapas bar, these 3 waiters were making fun of us because we were basically communicating via sign language (which im pretty good at doing now!!! im sure ill come first in a sharades competition) and so knowing me and my photos, i took a pic of them clowning around…I couldnt say “whats your name” in Spanish so i made up names for them…look below…

Miguel, Espanadeso and Rolfvoss, our Tapas waiters

Last night we were walking down the main street and we heard the police sirens going off, we saw a man buried in the bush across the road from us, it was awful! it looked like he had been hit and fell into the bush and must have hit his head on the light pole, he was just limp, lying there…police here are so quick though, ambulance even quicker, they took him away…thats the good thing about polize, they are everywhere, and i mean everywhere, u see them so many times a day, ive taken pics of all the police in every place i have been so far…just for you ed!

Granada Polize

We have taken so many photos its not funny…this is the place where my camera had a hernia…i got a cd printed off from my sim card for 3euros and continued on snapping, my new nickname is japanese jazz, figure that one…

I had to add this little section in it was so funny, Anita, the girl im travelling with, and I were going to go to the bus station to buy our tickets for Barcelona, we saw the number 33 bus and started running for it, and Anita being a big fan of her ripcurl flip-flops (thongs as we know it back home, but means g-string here and ive had too many people look at me funny so ive started saying flip flops as well now) started running really fast and im like she is so gonna slip and yep, she did and she went off the kerb and did a little roll around on the floor legs and arms flying everywhere and came to a standstill, but not for too long! got up straight away and continued running for the bus, i was behind her picking up all her belongings falling off her person! things were flying and Jazz was catching! man, it was a classic, but the good thing was that we caught the bus!

The Alhambra is so difficult to get into to see! u have to book in advance or else u wont be able to get in! its crazy…we tried booking on the net yesterday, all booked out, u can book from the bank as well, nope, all booked out, so Jazz has to get up at 6am to walk 1/2hr to get to a huge old building so we can have a look at a few bricks…and plus pay euro10 for the privilage, ill let you know how that goes, fingers crossed we even get tickets…by the way, its a huge muslim mosque type of thing…

The Cathedral here is amazing as well…very moving, i felt at peace looking around and viewing the absolute beauty…took many photos…the one thing i dont like about the churches in europe is that a lot of people trying to make money use the Church to do so, making you feel guilty to give, for example these 2 woman grabbing peoples hands and giving them rosemary leaves and reading their palms infront of the Church then demanding money, and get very angry and chase you when u dont give them money…I dont like it, but its everywhere…I know they need the money but..you know…oh well…i guess im lucky that im not in their situation, and dont know how it feels…thank God…

Cathedral with a beautiful sunset

Cathedral from closer view

Cathedral from the inside

one of the moving peices of artwork in the Cathedral

That night we had a free tapas tour with Fernando the dude who was at information at the bus station, he was so funny! anyway, so, a group of us, about 25 people decided to go…we went to a little bar in one of the side streets, so cute! walked in and got a 1.50euro beer and you get free tapas, basically a free plate of food or something like that, so we had little burgers with our beer, drank those, everyone loosened up and started chatting (well i was chatting from the hostel to the bar anyway! try shutting me up when there is people i dont know..haha sigh…) SO…got to know 2 aussies mate, one was James and one was another geek i forgot his name, 2 canadian girls, 1 canadian guy who broke his thong while dancing the boogy, a japanese dude who lived in sydney for a while, Claire the english girl with gorgeous eyes, Gabby the 19yr old cutie from mexico, Hannah, another aussie and guess what! a teacher (all aussie travellers end up being teachers!) a drunk american dude who was smoking all night but kept telling people he doesnt smoke, a belgium dude who was a keen chess player…hmm, there were some others but this was our basic little “posse” and of course, Anita and I…

Gabby being a geek and another “aussie” on the right

dont know what Anita is doing, but i dont think its spanish

dont cry for me FERNANDO!! our tapas tour guide Fernando, he was such a character!

Ok so, next tapas bar was really good! walked allll the way up the little hilly streets and came upon a quaint little place, had another beer and a toubouli like tapas which was ewww…but we had the best conversation. Fernando, the geek chess player and James the aussie and I were talking about America and terrorism and the european union, very interesting conversation, you get see hear what other people think about the events that are happening around the world…we stayed there for over an hr talking then got up and went to a club, very small, stinky but the music was ok, then went to another club which was a bit better, danced all night till 3pm… a lot of fun and the new friends were great!

at another tapas bar, english missy Clair in the background, Abdul on her right, Canadian pretty boy bottom left, Mexican Gabby and ME

At the club afterwards

Had to get up this morning at 6am to go line up for this geeky Alhambra which si the biggest Islamic site in Europe…we waited in queue for nearly 3 hrs and paid 10euro for the ticket…we got a 2pm ticket, they are only allowed to sell a specific amount of tickets as it is a government run organisation and about 2 million people come and visit this amazing place..the architecture was beautiful and I admit the wait was worth it, it was hot and i was tired but happy to have seen this place…people queue up for ages and tickets are always sold out, u have to be very quick…and plus a map is 6euros! r u normal? i think not…we hired a little casette thingy which explains what ure looking at, it was a good thing…and at least we got a map with it…

The place was HUGE and it took us 4 hrs to finish, our legs were begging us to sit down and not move but we had to get out of there because of the absolute heat! the number of people there was crazy, do people not have lives? hehe, ok ill shutup now..but anyway, 2 million people visit this place in a year and its even busier in peak season which is when we went, typically my luck, i hate crowds…

one of the many beautiful windows of the Alhambra

view from the Alhambra from one of the balconies

Courtyard of the Palace

columns from the Palace

Walked around and looked at the amazing sights, didnt mind it at all…was a very HUGE GIGANTIC ENORMOUS IMMACULATLEY sized place which = so much to see, there was a palace and its gardens and an olden days war tower and dungeons etc

me and a part of the Alhambra

view of Granada from the Alhambra

We have now showered and packed and checking emails and doing this journal thing before we head off…its 7:40pm and our bus leaves for Barcelona at 9:30, just got James� contact details, mght give him a call on the saturday do some sightseeing with some fellow aussies, who knows…Posted by da Jazz on August 11, 2004