Granada

Well, I've fallen in love. And it happens to be with a small Spanish city in Andalucía. After a 5 hour bus ride, hostel madness and a ridiculous, rum-filled night with Italians we were ready to conquer Granada. The first day was more relaxed, strolling (with all kinds of impulsive shopping) through the Albayzín. That night we returned to the hostel Makuto for some incredible Flamenco music (guitarra y cajón) and somehow managed to stumble our way home (all of 2 blocks away...). The next day (a couple of hours later) I miraculously woke up to make the early trek for Alhambra tickets around 7AM. After about 3 of waiting in the rain I emerged victoriously with 4 tickets and breakfast for my lovely friends back at the hostel. Unfoooooortunately, I somehow managed to get myself lost on the bus ride back and ended up wandering around Granada for a good hour and a half (which actually wasn't too bad). After breakfast and stirring up the victims of the previous night, we made our way to the Alhambra.

Amazing. Ridiculous. Marvelous. Words really don't describe. Half way through it started to rain and all of the elements incorporating water (pools, fountains, etc.) were highlighted even more. The landscaping and gardens of Generalife were beautiful and I would love to go back.

As night fell, we satisfied our craving for Italian food at the SHADIEST "restaurant" in Granada run by the same eccentric, Spanish lady (Tía Maria!) we bought our 10 euro bottle of rum from the night before. Taking a break from the normal 'festivities', we made hot chocolate, snuggled and watched Breakfast at Tiffany's. (Nothing like a nice dose of Audre Hepburn) Our final day in Granada was spent roaming around their Gran Vía and seeing the Cathedral. The 5 hour bus ride back to Madrid became 7 hours of trudging through a flooded highway with a demonic child throwing a 4 hour temper tantrum DIRECTLY behind us. Buuuuut we survived an incredible weekend and even managed to catch the last metro.

I wouldn't hesitate to go back as we weren't able to fit in Sacramonte, a trip into the Sierra Nevada and seeing the works of El Niño de las Pinturas.



Current Musik: Arziyan (Maula Maula) - A.R. Rahman
I guess all the Islamic architecture got me in the mood for some good good Suffi music.

Córdoba

So, what to say? Two days/one night (20-21/11/10). Congested and dying for most of it. But being the sucker for gorgeous Muslim art that I am I enjoyed every minute of it. Not gonna lie, the tour guide was horrible, but the Mezquita was breathtaking.


Current Musik: Dirty Laundry - Bitter:Sweet

Lisboa

So, unfortunately we only had 3 meager days in Lisboa (of which 2 of them were rainy), but it definitely qualified itself as worthy of a return trip. I FINALLY convinced MinoriTeam to take a tour on one of those horribly, cheesy, double-decker buses (and of course it started raining half-way through...), and we were able to see most of the highlights of Lisboa. During our day trip to Belém we were able to visit the Jerónimos Monastery, the Art Museum and get some of their famous nata pastries.

We stayed at the lovely Poet's Hostel (definitely recommended) and spent a day at the Flea Market (where I bought a couple of rings and an Amália Rodrigues album).

Strangest part of the trip: Flying back to Madrid and feeling like I was coming back home.



Current Musik: "Beggin" - Madcon

Oporto

Ok. So somewhere in the 20 young years of my life, I came under the impression that I'd seen a pretty diverse range of countries/beauty. New Zealand, Greece, Sri Lanka... you get it. Well, turns out I was wrong. And Portugal (specifically Oporto) was the slap in the face that let me know just that.

Instead of going on and on with a detailed itinerary, I'll leave it at this: We walked around, drank some great port wine, and really fell in love with the city. We found a great vegetarian restaurant, I probably ate my weight's worth in roasted chestnuts and made the unfortunate discovery that Spanish men have NOTHING on their Portuguese counterparts (just puttin that out there...)

Next stop... Lisboa!

Current Musik: Who else, but the fabulous Amália Rodrigues? "Canção Do Mar"
(the genre is Fado)

Toledo

So awhile ago, I took a quick day trip to Toledo with a couple of my favorite ladies. Only about an hour train ride out of Madrid, it reminded me a lot of Segovia. Although mostly known for its famous cathedral (I didn't bother putting up any pictures as mine were awful) we were also lucky enough to see the AMAZING Ana Alcaide performing in the street. She plays a viola de teclas and many traditional sephardic songs.

We ended up enjoying a relaxing day and mostly walked around the city (most of the sites/museums we wanted to see were closed as it was a Sunday) and I visited my first Synagogue. Overall, a pretty, quaint Spanish city that was great to spend a day in, but definitely not somewhere I would want to live for an entire year.


Current Musik: Ana Alcaide "Como La Luna y El Sol"