Memories of Granada

“Granada is like the crystal bride of our dreams, whoever beholds it has the illusion of visiting again.”
– Chateaubriand

Granada View from Alhambra

One of my few semi-regular readers noticed that I added a tag cloud to the blog and found it amusing that whilst I’ve been moaning about being overloaded with work in the last two years, two of my most commonly used tags are travel and holiday. I suppose it’s because I took a conscious decision that, whilst it may be unavoidable for me to refer to work from time to time, I’d keep the blog posts more personal in nature.

Speaking of travels, I found it peculiar that whilst I enthusiastically talk about uneventful country visits and rushed weekend detours, I have, prior to this post, not even mentioned Granada, notwithstanding that I went there twice in 2010, with my longer stay lasting two months. Never mind also that the main feature image used by this blog is a photo of me looking over at the Alhambra from Mirador de San Nicolas; and I received the hysterical call from my mum that triggered the birth of this blog in Granada, whilst I was happily losing myself in one of its many tapas bars.

A couple of explanations for this is I actually started the blog after my return from Granada; and most of my time in Granada, including weekends, were spent in front of the laptop working, or on my bed (or on the couch during the not so few times when I felt taking the few steps to bed was too laborious) snoozing.

I also don’t have a good memory of my arduous daily walks (climbs is probably a more accurate term) to and from work. I was billeted up the Albayzín, which would have probably been dreamy for a three-day tourist; but close to torture if you’re unfit and there for two months walking up and down on a daily basis carrying your 7 kilogram office luggage.

The scene was well and truly set on my first day when I think I lost two kilos lugging my suitcase from the office up to the walking distance apartment. I was not told that this walk was going to involve climbing so many numbers of steps, at 2 p.m., and in the middle of summer (working hours in our office in Granada is adjusted during the summer months because it can get too hot!). In short, my memory of the Albayzín is unfortunately not in the vein of mystical cultural immersion, but more like a two-month challenge as a pretend Biggest Loser contestant.

Ironically, this daily exercise probably served me well during my time there, as you can quite easily lose yourself in food and booze in Granada. Granada’s free-tapas culture offers you a great incentive to booze up, as most establishments offer a free platito of food for every order of alcohol you make.

One of my Spanish colleagues told me that the food gets better as you order more drinks. He said it’s because of the notion that the more drinks you order, the closer you are to being considered “family”, and thus you getting served the better tasting food. I’m not sure if the volume of alcohol drank may have also influenced his view of what could be considered good food.

Food was my one big indulgence in Granada, where I practically tried most of the tapas bars and restaurants within walking distance of our office. You could eat all the cured ham that you wanted (jamón Serrano might be the most popularly known variety for the non-Spanish) in Granada, often as free tapas; and virtually every restaurant served paella, and these are usually some of the cheapest dishes on their menus (paellas are served as pricey special dishes in Spanish themed restaurants here in Melbourne).

I accidentally learned to like olives and Japanese food in Granada. The Spanish seem to have a love affair with olives, and it’s impossible not to try them when you’re regularly dining out in Granada (you are going to waste a whole heap of tapas!). Liking Japanese food happened by accident: one of my friends in Granada knew of this affordable Japanese restaurant close to work and, in the absence of a good Chinese restaurant in the area, this became my regular Asian food fix.

Most importantly, there is an overabundance of fresh and cheap (versus what we have here in Melbourne) seafood in Granada. One of my favourite food haunts was a seafood restaurant near Plaza Nueva. I quickly became “family” there that the manager on a couple of occasions offered to cook me some special dish not even on the menu.

Alhambra View from Mirador de San Nicolas

Aside from the food tripping and after work bar hops, I did have a couple of weekends where I was thankfully able to do a bit more soaking up of the local scene, have a look-see of what else may be out of town, and (in my very last weekend) visit the world famous Alhambra and Generalife.

Puerta Elvira

Soaking up of the local scene meant a lot of walking around Granada, going up and getting lost in the streets of the Albayzín, more tapas bar hopping, and a bit of salsa dancing. The salsa dancing was interesting, as I don’t really know how to dance. No matter, in the interest of cultural immersion, I did try it (it caused my back and legs to hurt more than any of my Albayzín climbs).

Lanjarón Ruined Castle & Mountain Views

I spent one weekend visiting Lanjarón, a spa town south of Granada that’s famous for its eponymous bottled water, mountain views, and chalybeate mineral spring spas. I spent most of the day at Balneario de Lanjarón, where I tried their supposedly ancient Roman inspired thermal spas.

Palacio de Generalife

Finally, on my very last weekend, I went to visit the Alhambra and Generalife which, together with the Albayzín, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Alhambra is the absolute must see place in Granada, is the most visited monument in all of Spain, and one of Europe’s top attractions.

El Partal, La Alhambra de Granada

Looking back, now that I’ve written this, it feels like my experience in Granada was not all work after all. I’m disappointed that I did not even get to enter the Granada Cathedral when it was right at our office’s doorstep; and I would have wanted some time to go to the Sacromonte and watch some gypsy flamenco dancing.

But I guess those and many more are things to do for another time. For, to quote Chateaubriand, I do have “the illusion of visiting again.”