Aventuras en Espana, Parte Dos

Free tapas in Granada when you buy a drink! Awesome!

Granada: It had a different vibe from Madrid. Whereas Madrid felt young and down-to-earth, Granada felt sophisticated and cultured. People looked like they were dressed up and more worldly perhaps? It was just Mom and me in Granada because Stacy and Kamal had left for Barcelona. We had dinner out in the city and went to bed fairly early because we had to be in line for Alhambra at 730am. If you don’t have tickets, you have to line up before they open (8am) and hope you get one of the few remaining day-of tickets. We got in! (For future reference, everyone stands in the cash-only line but ticket machines accepting credit cards are there for use as well. Be smarter than us and go for those!) 

Palacio de Generalife - Alhambra

As for Alhambra, kingdom complete with a royal palace and fortress, it is something else… beautiful buildings, gardens, and views with a photo opportunity at the turn of every corner. I took several hundred pictures while Mom and I explored the complex. The Palacios Nazaries are the best part, well worth paying for. I’m glad we went to see it though it left us both hot and exhausted – it was more than 100 degrees that day!

Palacios Nazaries - Alhambra

Seville: From Granada, Mom and I took a bus to Seville, stored our stuff at the bus station, and set off wandering. We saw the highlights of Seville fairly quickly: Cathedral of Seville, La Giralda, Real Alcazar, Plaza de Espana, etc. We were pretty sick of food in Spain at this point and so took a moment to rest and recuperate with-(un)fortunately-McDonald’s. Mom wanted it too after having had nothing but Spanish food the last few days. I don’t have much of an opinion on Seville itself – I guess it’s a nice city that is easily seen in a day and skip-able when short on time. I remember there being very strong wind and lots of my loud sneezing :)

Scenes from Seville

Painted at many of Barcelona's crosswalks.... Message received: Don't jaywalk!

Barcelona: I think Barcelona might be my favorite of the Spanish cities we visited on our trip. It’s probably mostly due to eating very well there and really enjoying the beach after not having been in quite a while. The weather wasn’t great though and the beach vendors were really rather annoying. I really didn’t feel like a massage, henna, or a slice of coconut, but I kept getting asked. Really, I just wanted to be left alone and so when one of the guys sat down to talk to me, I was in no mood for it. I felt bad for being a jerk, but the second there was a lull in the conversation, I started reading my book with avid interest until he left. Mostly I  spent the last days in Spain getting used to being alone again… sleeping in, walking every which way for hours and hours, and budget eating – ham and cheese sandwiches :)

Las Ramblas y La Boqueria

Mom was with me for the first two days in Barcelona as we explored the entirety of Las Ramblas, Barri Gotic (Ciutat Vella), Gaudi’s legacy (Park Guell, Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo, and La Pedrera/Casa Milo), and Montjuic. Just off Las Ramblas is La Boqueria, a great public market where Mom and I had fresh fruit juice and then bought cherries, blood oranges, and clementines. If we had had our own kitchen, we might have been tempted by all the fresh seafood for sale too! 

Gaudi: Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera, & Park Guell

Gaudi I have to say was not a high priority for us and certainly not worth the 18.15 Euro price tag to enter, for example, Casa Batllo. Ridiculous! Mom and I enjoyed his works from the outside or at Park Guell, like good budget tourists. 

Montjuic

We splurged on the cable car for Montjuic for the nice views of course, but mostly to save Mom’s feet. I made her walk a lot with me the last two weeks so her feet were starting to swell and her little toe was turning blue (or so she thought…). Poor Mom :) One of my favorite things we saw was the musical fountain in the Placa de Espanya:

The water doesn’t quite dance like it does at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, but the fountain lights up with really pretty colors! The two of us had our last meal together in the Placa Reial – a fancy marisqueria where when you ask for agua del grifo (tap water) they just say “No.” The food was just average – better to eat on Passeig de Joan de Borbo near the beach in Barceloneta for good, cheap seafood.

Being tourists in Barcelona :)

I put Mom on the Aerobus so she could catch her flight back to LAX. I stood waving at the bus even though I couldn’t see her, hoping she could see me. I got back a little while later to our empty room and felt super sad all of a sudden; I even started to cry a little. I always feel this deep sadness when people leave and it was no different with Mom. (When Stacy and Kamal left I still had Mom with me… We were also rushing when we said our goodbyes so there was no time for tears.) So even though she snores like an angry bear and is a lot more of a princess traveler than I am, I miss Mom a lot. 

Up Next: Portugal! (Backtracking a bit to cover the quick trip Mom and I took to Lisbon from Seville!) 

Aventuras en Espana, Parte Uno

Best Meal in Spain - Siempreviva Restaurant in Barcelona: Sangria, Gambas a la plancha, Paella de Mariscos, and Crema Catalana

Cuisine: Madrid is known for its Tapas and apart from paying for our four-bed dorm at the Hostal Marlasco, the first Euros we spent in Spain were on Sangria and tapas. Perfect! I have to say I can do tapas maybe once a year and that that is more than enough. So much of it is unhealthy (and for me, unsavory) that it would probably never be something I crave. We started with a pitcher of sangria (fantastic!), manchego cheese, batatas bravas (potato wedges), croquettas, and paella. Apart from the sangria, none of it was bad, but none of it was very nice either. We later tried the Iberian ham that is great if you like prosciutto but is otherwise a salty, fatty meat. I don’t think much of gazpacho either – it tastes like blended pico de gallo served with ice. No thanks! In my opinion, the best part about Spanish cuisine was the daily menus. For between 8-15 euros, you got a starter, an entrée, a drink, bread, and dessert. All of the daily menus were incredibly filling and some were just amazing!

Clockwise starting top left: Lacon a la Gallega, BEST FLAN EVER, Lentejas, and nuestros segundos platos! So much food!

Bullfighting: Someone asked me if it was a choreographed slaughter of a bull…. It is. My sister summed up the experience perfectly when she said, “I thought the whole thing was awful.” There is a lot of ritual and precision that go into what the matadors do in the ring, but in the end, it’s a lot of men taking turns stabbing a bull until it lays down to die. I don’t pretend to understand and I’m not sure I want to. I had no idea that this is what bullfighting is. I thought it was some big, entertaining show where the matador waves his bright cloth, dances about, and makes the crowd laugh…. It was actually incredibly sad and gory especially when one of the bulls was stabbed in such a way that he started stumbling around vomiting purple blood. You are not allowed to leave until horses drag the bull out of the arena – leaving a trail of blood in its wake. Some people left in tears. We didn’t stay until the end because watching six bulls slaughtered in one night would have been too much. Bullfighting is apparently wildly popular though – the stadium was packed and we almost didn’t get tickets. Lucky us…

Flamenco: On a brighter note, the Spanish tradition of Flamenco is awesome! We went to the famous Michelin-rated Corral de la Moreria for a fantastic dinner and show. I’ve never been to a Michelin restaurant before and honestly, I’m not sure I can tell the difference. The food was good and all, but the shrimp, sangria, and paella I had for roughly 55 Euros was no better than that exact same meal I had for 11.5 Euros in Barcelona. The show was very exciting though with footwork so intricate it reminded me of Riverdance. You can see the performers working so hard that by the end of a dance, they are dripping sweat!

Corral de la Moreria

Madrid: We were staying in the center of the city close to the Plaza Puerta del Sol. At the time, major austerity protests were going on there but Mom was afraid of being tear-gassed so we avoided the crowds at night. During the day, we saw the famous bear-climbing-the-madroño-tree statue, but not the famous Tio Pepe sign thanks to Apple; the plaza will soon be getting a new Apple store in place of poor Tio Pepe. Elsewhere in Madrid, we spent our time wandering from plaza to plaza and seeing the highlights of the city (Palacio de Cibeles, Palacio Real, Catedral de la Almudena, Parque del Retiro, etc…). I think my favorite place was the Mercado de San Miguel, basically a giant food hall with pretty much everything you could want. What’s not to love?! Stacy, Kamal, and I started with very strong sangrias and then I got 100g of the biggest corn nuts I’d ever seen! (I let them get stale and finished them off recently – so good!!!) We ended up with five miniature open-sandwiches, a plate of gambas al ajillo (garlic shrimp), a combo plate of fried fish, calamari, and shrimp, and enough beer and wine to make merry. :)

We managed to get to three of Madrid’s famous art museums: Museo del Prado, Reina Sofia, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Art. You can get in free to the Museo del Prado and the Reina Sofia with a student ID and if you’re under 26. I got the discount even though I’m old now because in Europe, they read my birthday as June 5^th instead of May 6^th! Win! I didn’t particularly like the Prado or Reina Sofia, but the Thyssen-Bornemisza had a nice collection of impressionist art, my favorite. Speaking of art, in Madrid, we also noticed a plethora or street performers who would paint themselves head-to-toe and either stand motionless or move suddenly to startle you. Stacy and I still don’t know if this one guy was just that good or, in fact, a statue. He sat motionless and unblinking for the half hour we stood watching him. How is that possible?! He could also have been a statue while a guy painted similarly (as if he were a replacement) stood nearby, effectively tricking us in a truly elaborate rouse. Hmm…. The painted street performers were less novel in other Spanish cities, but just as prevalent. In Granada they were fun!: There were three guys painted as clowns with just their heads sticking up above a table… they would suddenly come alive and say “hello” or shout. I think they managed to startle each and every passerby. :)

Up Next: Aventuras en Espana, Parte Dos

*Note: I'll add pictures of the statue man, bullfighting, and Madrid soon - Mom's got all the good ones on her camera! (I had left my camera battery and charger on the cruise ship and couldn't take any pictures until I found a new one!)