Vacation 2: Granada, Day 1

Granada, day 1, was really day 2. Day one was a 10 hour bus ride to get there. Inaki wanted to head into town on the night we arrived, but I fell asleep in the hotel bed before he had the chance to say anything. But, we got up early the next morning, as you can see above, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for adventure. We stayed a little south of the University area and had maybe a 10 minute walk into the old town. This was nice because we got to see some different neighborhoods.

One of the first things I noticed about Granada was the sidewalk. It's made of big, flat black and white stones that have been laid on their sides in simple designs. Inaki made a comment early on in our trip that I think was true throughout, the Moors really designed Granada as a city to enjoy life in and paid attention to small, delightful details. Here is a shot of your typical sidewalk in Granada.

We knew it would be a nice day when we saw this little friend caught in a tree in the first square we came to.

Although we had a map, we cruised over to the tourist info office to be sure we weren't missing anything fabulous. There, we learned that Granada has 2 old towns, rather than one. The Realejo, which is the newer, Christian old town and the Albaicin, which is the older, Muslim old town. We decided to walk around the Realejo a little and just get lost a bit. We ran into the cathedral and also some stadium seating for the processions that would happen that day for Easter week. Inaki told me what was written on the side of the cathedral was in blood, so I thought I should probably take a picture.

Next, we got lost up a hill and into a neighborhood that lead us to Carmen de los Martires (house of the Martyrs). For some reason, all the big houses in Granada are called carmens. Hmm. This particular Carmen had a huge garden attached to it and we walked all through it snapping pics and getting a taste of what the Ahlambra would be like on our visit Thursday.

Here's a view from the top of the park.

After the park, we strolled down into the Realejo and stopped in the Plaza del Principe. It was full of people dressed in their Sunday best and just waiting around. We weren't sure what was up, so we asked a policeman and he said that the procession of the 3 favors would end there at around 3 that afternoon. They carry the virgin in on a big float and the people in the square can go kiss her cloak and ask for 3 wishes, more or less. We thought, "hey, we could use some wishes, let's stay!" So we started to bar hop, just like everyone else in their suits and dresses, boozin' it up before the religious ceremony, what!?

These were our first tapas in Granada, which is famous for giving you a bit of food with every drink you buy. The first place had a yummy tuna and tomato sandwich on a little roll with some chips. The brand name of the chips down there was "Kiki", which made me think of Kins! Anyhow, it was delicious. At the next place, we got something similar, but it was good too. You don't really get a choice.

What impressed me most about the bars in this plaza was all the Virgin stuff on the walls. Apparently there are lots of virgins, not just Mary, and I'm not sure which one this was, but she sure was sad. She was crying her eyes out in every photo we saw of the float. There were a few display cases of the 3 favors throughout time stuff in each bar. One of them even had this shot of the virgin float holding a baby! Yes, a big, 100-year-old, lifesize virgin holding a baby on her right arm, sobbing of course, and no one else to be seen in the picture! Mom and dad just rested little Juan right there and stepped away. Our camera started to die at this point and now I wish I would have snapped a pic!

Anyhow, I guess religious gear goes about as well in a bar as sports pictures or whatever else. I was pretty mesmerized by the flat screen in the corner broadcasting all the processions from all over Spain as well. It can take, what looked like, up to 100 people to carry these floats through town. There was one clip of a Jesus going under an archway and all the men carrying him crouched down, rested their section of the float on their backs and crawled through, so not to knock his block off. Pretty amazing. I could see the soles of their feet from under the tapestry below moving inch by inch to get through.

At 2:30 or so, we walked out into the square and settled in for the procession. We thought they'd bring her in and people would start asking favors and that would be it. Oh no. They did a stations of the cross mass first. Did I mention we were standing? The stations of the cross mass is one I actually remember from Catholic school. It was so long and so sad and no thanks. At the very least, my memorization of the Our Father in Spanish came in handy. That was our first big project in Spanish class freshman year, memorize the Padre Nuestro and the Santa Maria. Thanks to Senora Nassib, I looked like I knew what I was doing.

Once we got to the 12th station, I was like, "finally, haul that virgin in so we can get to wishin!" But no, they have 2 extra stations in Spain, what!? I asked Inma why when we got back to Pamplona and she said, "I dunno, maybe he fell 2 more times?" Anyhow, those 2 extra stations proved to be 2 too many for Inaki. On station 11, just as the virgin and the purple hooded folks were passing us, Inaki had to squat down. He looked like he was praying, but really all the incense was getting to him. The whole country smells like it for about 3 weeks and those kids waving it around like Gogo Yubari are effective. We had to duck out of the crowd before we got to finish the ceremony so Inaki wouldn't pass out, but it was still cool to see. Here are the 2 procession shots we got before the camera died.

After we got ourselves together, we strolled over to the Albaicin and stopped in a tea shop for some hierba buena. I think I'll leave that description for another time as it's a long one and I want to get some good photos in. I'll post more soon I hope!