Domingo: Día de descanso! (Sunday: Lazy Day)

Nothing is open today, at least that´s what I`ve been told. I woke up a little after 11am and went up to the terrace, which overlooks the other old buildings around us. I think it´s so cool to have a terrace; like that children´s book Tar Beach, if anyone knows it. I know my mom does! I´ll take a picture before I leave.

When we arrived, Felicity from Australia was in her PJs listening to Van Halen (and MJ before that we later found out). Very sweet and very knowledgeable about Granada. She got us a map and circled everything we should see. The hostel has about 5 rooms, three stories, the top story being the terrace, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a laundry room and a funky eating/hangout room. Ty and I took much needed showers and headed out to explore for what turned out to be a 4 hour walk around Granada. We saw areas of the Albazìn, San Antòn and parts of the Alhambra from the river below. Narrow alleyway after alleyway just begged to be photographed, so I did. The buildings are ancient, beautiful and overlap eachother descending up or down to some other hidden walkway or tiny shopping area. Tons of little corner shops, many of them selling Islamic and Jewish tourist items, were covered in tilework and designs from floor to ceiling. The first bar we went to had outdoor seating, which most do, and after waiting a short while I went inside to see if we needed to order first or wait outside to be served. After saying, Uhhhhhh, for a long time, I said, ¨Lo siento, uh, do we, uh, afuera o inside??¨ The girl at the register just smiled and helped me figure out what I wanted to say. Little did I know, right after I entered the bar a waiter passed by me with a tall cervesa that he gave to Tyler before he even asked for one. Ty was pleased to say the least. I ordered a beer along with un agua sin gas (non-carbonated) and he brought out a paella looking tapa with chicken, FOR FREE! All tapas are free with each drink you order and they get better the more drinks you buy. We only had to order one beer each and the total came out to around €5. We walked along the awesome cobblestone streets, all of which are accessible to cars and motorbikes, you just have to keep your ears open to the sounds of an engine behind you and get out of the way. Ty waited patiently as I took so many pictures that my camera ran out of batteries before the 3rd hour was up. I wanted to buy so much, but since we will be here for 3 weeks, I decided to hold off on most of them just in case better ones presented themselves. 

Our one night in the hostel has certainly shown me how quickly friends are made. Scotland, Canada, Australia, Italy and one good ol´ Americana from Santa Cruz! (Jillian, who was just spying over my shoulder, ¨You forgot California!¨) We had a blast out in Granada last night with everyone. The first bar we went to had live music (American music from the 90`s, Ty was stoked, ¨More 90`s!! Whooooooo!!!¨) Nirvana, Radiohead, etc. The walls were covered with torn album posters (there was one old Hendrix poster too) and the lights were dim leaving a red cast over the room making the dancing foreigners look like they were at a rave. The bar was filled with internationals, most if not all from Europe, Australia or America. It was great talking and drinking with the folks from the hostel. Gabriel and Felicity work at the hostel and are very accomodating. They even said we could come back any time we want to hang out or use the free WiFi. Our host house is only a few blocks away, calle de Zaida, and our school is on the same street as the hostel, calle de Azuma. Go figure! There will be a few people around for my birthday, Wednesday, so hopefully we will all be able to get together for drinks and tapas.

This should be enough for now, or maybe too much. It is my first detailed post and I promise they will get better!

xo

Ce