Word Association: Granada Edition

After the fun time in Sevilla, Carolyn and I headed to Granada for a couple of days to meet up with Carolyn's gracious friend RJ. I honestly didn't know anything about Granada before I went (except for the answering machine song in The Simpsons), but quickly learned a very important lesson in word association: Granada = free tapas!

More Flamenco dancing we saw due to the Corpus Cristi festival.

RJ told us that Granada was unique in that whenever you ordered a drink, a free tapas would always come free with it. Now, I'm not really a big drinker, but with this kind of motivation, I had to step up my game. Before we met up for tapas, RJ took Carolyn and I to an area of Granada influenced by the Moors known for tea and hookah. It was a really nice area to walk around and also get a beautiful view of the Alhambra (more on this in a bit).

Tea and hookah with RJ.

Awesome view of the Alhambra.

After our tea and hookah, RJ and his girlfriend Anna (a very lovely girl) took us out one to try a few of his favorite tapas places. The first place we went was Poe, which was a very unique tapas place in that the owner and his wife were British and African, respectively, so the tapas they served were a fusion of a lot of different cuisines and were so good. Again, I'm not a big drinker, but one drink I did enjoy was called clara, which is a mix of lemonade and beer. Along with my drink, I got a couple of delicious, small rice dishes: one with spicy pork, thai style, and the other a saucy chicken dish. The second place we went to was known for their seafood. Along with our drinks, we got some cucumber with vinagrette, deep fried cod, and a really good octopus salad.

Tapas from Poe.

Octopus salad.

The night continued when we met up with a RJ's friends Flora and Esmeralda and went to a giant fair to celebrate the Corpus Cristi festival. The fair was outrageous. If the Puyallup Fair was Nate Robinson, the Corpus Cristi festival was Shaq...on steroids. Pretty much everything was on steroids. We had to call it quits at 4am, but there were still tons of families with young kids out when we left. They even had clubs at this fair! We rode a few rides, but the best part of the night was at the end when we got some churros dipped in chocolate. One order of churros came in a giant swirl of deep fried doughy goodness, but because the guy liked us, he gave us one free. We shouldn't have eaten the second one, but of course we did.

At the fair!

Churro madness.

Like I've mentioned before, it's always nice to balance fun/eating with some culture, so Carolyn and I went to Granada's most famous sight, the Alhambra, a Moorish palace built in the 14th century. It was beautiful and probably the most well-kempt and scenic palace we'd seen on our whole trip. There were a lot of pristine gardens as well as gorgeous views of the city from the towers. Along with getting a dose of culture, I also thought it would be a great experience to attend a Catholic mass in Granada's largest cathedral. Never having attended a Catholic mass before, I was pretty sure I'd be a little confused, but then I remembered it would also be in Spanish, so being confused twice would cancel out. Right? Right. Because of the Corpus Cristi festival, the mass was special and ended with a giant float-type thing being carried out of the cathedral by 20 or so boys into the streets while music played. Definitely a very interesting and unique experience that I was happy to be able to see.

The open air hall.

The lookout for the army.

Where's Waldo?

My first experience at mass.

One last note about my time in Granada. I'm sure most of you who have seen some pictures of me on the trip think I look slightly to extremely homeless. Well, in Granada I finally got to play the part. The owner of our hostel was kind of a grumpy old lady and not very accommodating, so when I asked to rest in the hostel lounge after we checked out (I was a little sick), she of course said I couldn't, so I had to find an alternative place to rest for the day. To the park! I found a nice shaded park not too far from our hostel and made camp for about five hours. Finally my facial hair and sleeping situation was in concert. Thanks, Granada!

Bullfights, Flamenco Dances, and Naps in Sevilla

After plenty of beach time in Greece, we made it to our next destination: Sevilla, Spain. When we first got to our hostel, we were a little disappointed because it was so big (four stories!) and there were so many people, we thought it might be a little chaotic and hard to meet people. Luckily we were proven wrong and met a lot of amazing new friends while doing a lot of "Spanish" things in the mean time. What types of "Spanish" things you ask? One includes mandatory naps. If that doesn't get you excited to read the rest of this post, I can't help you.

One great thing about Spain is that they offer free tours in a most of the major cities, and are connected with many of the hostels. This means you get to explore the city and learn about its history for a few hours while also meeting people from your hostel. One thing I noticed immediately about Sevilla was how beautiful the small streets and plazas were, and how scenic it was just to walk around. Our free tour was really interesting and helped us get acclimated to the city since the streets were so windy and narrow (and sooo hot - Sevilla was 40 degrees Celsius!). On our tour, we got to meet about 10 other people from our hostel, which we spent a good amount of time with over the next three days.

Some cool/weird architecture.

On the walking tour.

We wanted to get right into the Spain experience, so our first day we set out for tapas. Most people in Sevilla don't speak English, so most of our time in Sevilla tapas bars was spent trying to translate menus. We did pretty well for the most part getting a lot of bread and ham (they love their jamon in Spain), although I didn't love the salted cod (bacalao). We also got some paella, but we went to a random place and it didn't turn out to be too good (luckily we tried much better as we went through Spain, stay tuned for a future post). The restaurant we frequented the most was 100 Mantaditos, a restaurant that sold 100 different types of mini sandwiches. Our South African friend Daniel recommended the place to us one Wednesday night because there was a special that day for 1 euro sandwiches ("It'll change your life, bru!"). Too bad for us, everyone else in Sevilla was fiending 1 euro montaditos as well, so the wait was about an hour (at 11pm! But when we ate at midnight, it was more than satisfying (although I don't think my life was changed, bru:)).

Mmmm, 1 euro montaditos.

Late night hanging out with tinto verano.

One day on the hostel's rooftop deck (where we spent many evenings drinking sangria trying to beat the heat), a few of us heard that there was going to be a bull fight because of the Corpus Christi festival (generally bull fights are only on Sundays, so we thought we'd miss it). We decided it'd be a really cool experience to check it out, even though we all heard it was a bit gruesome. It turned out to be more than a bit gruesome (which is probably why it's already been banned in other Spanish cities), but was still a very interesting experience. Apart from how gruesome it was, it was really impressive to see how the bullfighters control the bulls, at times turning their backs on them only being a few feet away.

The roof deck where we spent many a hot evening.

Rooting for the bull the whole way.

To lighten the mood a bit after the bull fight, we met up with a more people from our hostel to watch some Flamenco dancing. We were in a hot, crowded room, but it was a really enjoyable experience beause the dancers and singers were so passionate about it you couldn't help but get into it too. We ended the night of Spanish culture with a fantastic night of dancing at one of the bars near Sevilla's river front. Definitely one of the more fun and eventful days of my trip so far.

Beautiful flamenco dancing in a hot room.

Dance party!!!

One Spanish institution I was wholeheartedly behind was their afternoon siestas. I've been known to enjoy a nap or two, so Spain was my kind of place. Everyday, from 2-5 or so, the whole city shut down and napped because of the intense heat. Not wanting to be disrespectful of their culture, I joined in.

The last two days of our trip were spent (when I wasn't napping) exploring some of Sevilla's historic sites such as the cathedral, royal palace, and a few of the beautiful plazas and parks. The cathedral was massive (3^rd largest in the world!) and just kind of took my breath away when I walked in. Even with palace/cathedral/ruins fatigue from my two months of traveling, I was still blown away.

Huuuuuuuuuuge cathedral.

View from the cathedral tower.

Plaza de Espana.

Inside the palace.

Originally we only planned to spend a couple of days in Sevilla, but because of the great friends we made, we extended our stay to four days (a few other friends extended their trips as well). It was definitely amazing how close knit our group got in the short time we spent together, and something that made our stay in Sevilla very special...and life changing, bru.

Hello to Zarina, Leif, Daniel, Anan, Lara, Chris, Angel, Jackie, Lin, Ip, Alex and the rest of the Oasis crew! Per Zarina, reunion in Glasgow or southeast Asia ASAP :).

Greece: Summer Lovin'

After getting our learn on in Metoera and Athens, we decided to rest our brains and head to a few greek islands to lay down and do little else. Our first stop was Mykanos, known more for a party island, but I was soley intererested in it's crystal clear beaches.

We took a fast boat from Athens to Mykanos and immediately met a couple guys from Bermuda that were staying at our hostel, Jesse and Ambrose. The hostel we stayed at was so odd. It was one part swank resort with a swimming pool, beach view, bar, and lounge music. The other part was the actual rooms, if you can even call it that. That part consisted of an endless row of, what seemed to be, emptied out tool sheds stuffed with beds. What's worse is that somehow on small island with no lakes, there were millions of mesquitos. What's worst, is that our tool shed room's front wall consisted of metal netting, which easily let mequitos into our room. My first night of "sleep" there, I literally got  bit 50 times one each arm, as well as some on my knees and legs. Definitely give me a wooden wall over lounge music any day.

The beautiful view from the fancy pants lounge just around the corner from our barracks.

Our first day in Mykanos, Carolyn decided to take a ferry to a small island called Delos to check out some of the ruins. Because of lackluster sleep the night before, I decided to take the day to enjoy the resort part of the hostel, as well as lay out on nearby Paraga Beach. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon of a lot of nothing, but sun.

When Carolyn got back from her day trip, we decided to head up to Mykanos' famous Paradise Beach. Mind you, this was my first experience on a popular European beach, so I wasn't necessarily prepared to intake as much nude bathing as I saw. Mostly old dudes that wore hats. Nothing but hats. We didn't stay long.

That night, we headed into town with Jesse and Ambrose to grab a bite to eat before grabbing a few drinks. We found a spot down by the port because we were all fiending some fresh seafood. That night, I had delicious grilled octopus, one of my favorite meals in Greece (overall, the food in Greece was so-so). It was lightly grilled, drizzled with olive oil and lemon. Really simple and tasty. The next day we ended our time in Mykanos by walking around Mykanos town, which is an intricate weave of narrow and beautifully colored streets. We also met a couple of really cool Argentinians that were studying in France, Pato and Camilla. We discovered that'd we'd be overlapping a lot of our time in Greece, so we traded info and decided to get in contact as our trips continued.

Not a huge octopus fan, but I liked this one...because it was small.

Dinner with Jesse and Ambrose.

Walking the ever white and blue streets of Mykanos.

Our next stop in the Greek Islands was Santorini, the island I was most excited to see. As we shuttled to our hostel, we met a very funny and charming girl named Rachel, whom we were lucky enough to hang out with over the following week. Our first night in Santorini was close to a perfect night. We started off with dinner at a restaurant right next to our hostel, where I finally got to taste moussaka, kind of like a greek lasagna. It was really tasty and filling. We also ordered some fried cheese, as well as a Santorini specialty, deep fried tomato balls. Really good. After dinner, the hostel owner told us that there was going to be a lunar eclipse that night, so we rushed to the market, grabbed a few beers and snacks and headed down to Parissa Beach to lounge for a few hours. A great welcome to Santorini.

 Cheese + deep fried = crazy delicious.

Deep fried tomato balls, a Santorini specialty.

Moussaka, or if you watch SNL, moussaKA.

Watching the lunar eclipse on Perissa beach with Rachel.

The next day we went on a day tour around Santorini where we got to sail around on a boat to check out a volcano, swim in a hot spring, and check out a couple of towns' beautiful views. We ended the tour in the town of Oia (which we got up to by riding donkeys), where we watched the sunset while snacking on chips and wine (when you think of postcards of Greece, a large majority of them will be of Oia and its famous blue-domed buildings). Absolutely stunning sunset and a great way to end our tour.

Quite and relaxing morning alone on Perissa Beach.

The famous blue-domed churches.

On our way up to Oia to watch the sunset.

More...

...blue.

Sunset time with some wine.

Rice-stuffed peppers.

At our favorite 24-hour bakery.

Our last day in Santorini, we went on a relaxing and scenic hike on the coast before we rented ATVs and headed down to the red sand beach, where we bumped into a few more friends we met in Mykanos, all from California. After the beach, we decided to meet up for some wine tasting in one of Santorini's many wineries. I'm not a huge wine fan, but it was definitely a fun experience, especially at the smaller winery where the host gave us a lot of information about each wine, as well as some history of Santorini. We left Santorini the following morning, but not before I got in a little mast minute beach time with Darko (a serbian who will most definitely be a rock star someday) as well as our Argentinian friends Pato and Camilla.

Views from our hike.

Our guide, Zeus.

The end of the hike!

The guy recommended a pink helmet for me...

Our last stop in the Greek Islands was Crete. Rachel, Pato, Camilla, Carolyn and I took a ferry to Crete, where we rented a car, got to our hostel, and grabbed a quick bite to eat (gryos, of course), before heading to bed. (On a sidenote: the hostel owner George was awesome. He gave us a detailed run down of the Crete, places to eat, foods and drinks we must try, beaches to go to. His brother even plays professional basketball so we spent a good amount of time chatting about European vs. American basketball - great for me since I've been having basketball withdrawal for about two months).Our first full day in Crete was spent at Carolyn's favorite beach of all time, Elefonisi. It was really a beaufitul beach, with a cool sandbar, white sand, and crystal clear water with not too shabby snorkeling. After about six hours on the beach, we headed back to town, where we met Jon from Kansas. That night we took one of George's recommendations and tried a vegetarian restaurant in town. Pretty tasty, but the best part of the dinner was that we were a part of (hopefully) a rekindled romance. The waitress at the restaurant voluntarily shared that she and George used to date, and broke up the week before. We were like, uhhhh, before she ran into the back, grabbed a folded note, and asked us to give it to George when we got back to our hostel. If those two crazy kids make it, I'd like to think we had a hand in it. After dinner, we walked around the port and got some delicious gelato to end the eventful night.

All the weirdos we met in Crete.

In the gorgeous, clear waters of Elefonisi.

With our buddy Jon from Kansas.

Our last day in Crete was spent on another gorgeous beach called Balos, that was really secluded and was only accessible after driving two hours on a dirt road. After the drive, we had to walk 30 minutes down to the beach, with goats all around us. But it was definitely worth it. Definitely a surreal sight when we finally got to overlook the beach. That night we ended with more seafood down by the port, followed by a rushed trip to the gelato shop (it was really good), before heading to the aiport.

Making the trek down to Balos.

Doesn't get much better than this.

The Greek Islands were a really fun time, made moreso by all of the friends we met along the way...and romances we helped re-ignite.