Okay, so I am on the 7th day pf the trip. Sorry, no much time for writing. I am mostly walking endless miles to find another amazing thing or walking to find my way back to the hostel. I thought I was getting better with the whole map situation, but obviously I am not! In fact, I give up sometimes and burst out the iPhone for internet.
My last days in Barcelona were great. Went to Park Gundel and realized that there is not a better tour guide, than a local. I saw a sweet old man at the super packed place and he offered to walk with me the last part of the park telling me lots of information about the area and my new favorite arquitect, Gandi. I also made it to beautiful views from Barcelona at the Museum of Musica Catalana before making it to the beach.
Barcelona's beach quickly became one of my favorites because despite the drunk americans embarrasing our country around the beach, and the italian who interrupted my experience to stalk me and offer to take me home to cook for me, it was an amazing experience! With a beer in hand, sitting on my improvised towel (a.k.a my jacket) and listening to great music, I was zoning into the view of the water.
Later that night, I took advantage of the local help again and basically had dinner at a hole in the wall sharing my oversize and under-priced tapas. I arrived alone and hated it, but thankfully I quickly made friends with a couple. Just in time, or else the Cava (sparkly spanish wine) glasses were still gonna be coming to me to keep me company since the food was so amazing and I was not willing to give that up just because I was alone. Ooohh no!
Traveling alone has been a great experience. For the last days I have done everything for and by myself. It's rewarding when you realize you have the power over every decision based on what you are up for. The downside are the weird guys that see you alone and what you have to do to stay safe. One time I even had to tell a dude that my husband was on his way. Another time I tried to avoid a dude by entering the first store up ahead, and it happened to be a sex shop with stripper shows on the back. Welcome to Europe! That's my luck!
On Tuesday morning, I left Barcelona's beautiful airport... With new Spaniard boots and 4 new blisters due to a jog I had to do around the city at 6AM trying to figure out how Spain's "Detour" system works. Apparently they paint a yellow line guiding you to the new route... Great, but how do you know on which side did the long line started? Did anyone think of that?
Anyways, an hour later I arrived to another world, Granada. The airport was probably the size of the Best Buy by my house in Charlotte. At the door, there was JUST ONE big bus that departs every 30 minutes only to take people to the main Granada area. I honestly felt like I was in Mexico through out the drive.
In Granda I met up with a friend of a friend from back in Charlotte. He was amazing showing me around and giving me tips. I had the best time with him and his friend... or maybe it was the weird drinks we were having. At some point, the guy put 10 different things in our drink. Either way, it was fun! Great thing about Granada is that you order a drink, and they automatically give you a tapa (small plate of food) with it.
Sweetness! Also, Spanish breakfast is super cheap and good!
My main goal in Granada was to take a tour inside the Alhambra, which is a national monument now, but Queen Elizabeth lived there and that's where Colon came to ask for money to go discovery America. So much history behind it.
I got the amazing tour the last day, but the night before I got a VIP tour and it wasn't exactly throught the palace, but through a mountain in the middle of the forest behind La Alhambra!!! It was soooo dark and all we had were a few lights. We were going uphill, and the warnings were: "Once we start going up, you cannot come back down! It will be hard and really dark. You will have to use your hands and be on your knees climbing rocks uphill, but it's worth it at the end!"... well, that was a great selling point, so I did it! ha,ha,ha. Scared off my butt, but it was one of the best experiences of my trip so far! The view in the dark from the top of that mountain was incredible. We even got to go through a tunnel underground from one side to another. I was just praying that this locals guiding us were not killers and that some kind of animal wouldn't show up to join us.
Now... riding on a train for 3 hours to get to Sevilla, land of the Flamenco and Bullfighting! :)
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