Park Walks, Tapas and Andalusian Evenings - Granada

We started our new day in Granada by taking a walk in the Federico García Lorca Park, which was close to our home. The park was located in the western part of the city center. It was quite a large and spacious place. There were pomegranate trees and a palm tree boulevard. This place was cooler compared to Valencia, which provided a wonderful freshness. Here, even the courtyards of the houses had pomegranate trees. There was also a small ornamental pool, but the most striking detail was the thuja trees around.

In fact, our main goal that day was just to wander around the shops, idle and relax. This was exactly why we came here for a long time. To sit on the terrace for a long time. For this, we had rented a very great apartment with two bedrooms, a kitchen and especially a wonderful terrace with a sunset view. During the time we spent there, we were incredibly lucky regarding the sunset. In the evenings, we would sit on the terrace and sip beer, wine or sangria. We had wine the previous night. Spanish wines are so dry that it can be really difficult to drink them under the heat. They say the locals mix mineral water or something into it, I am not sure, but in the heat, a person tries every way. 😄

Later in the day, we sat at a cafe named Los Manueles, which had a good rating. We ordered spaghetti with a giant single meatball and they brought cheesy olives as a compliment. I think the cafes were quite expensive and the flavor we got did not quite match the price. For example, we could have bought a two portion lasagna from the Mercadona market for 5 Euros and closed the day at least three or four times cheaper and moreover with the same quality. I cannot say that our luck with food in cafes in Spain was generally very good. The places where we enjoyed eating were Italy, namely Venice and Florence. Also, on the island of Corsica in France, we ate the best pizza of our lives at a pizzeria we entered completely by coincidence. If we hadn't wanted to enter the souvenir shop and if I hadn't searched online for that well rated pizzeria 100 meters away, we would have never discovered that flavor.

I had planned to tour the city again in the evening, but since Spain had a match that night, the streets were a bit tense and honestly, I didn't feel like wandering in the crowd. The weather was also getting dark very late. it was still bright at 22:00. We are people who accept 20:00 as night by German standards, I guess we are a bit too old to rush around after that hour. Still, the surroundings of the cathedral were not bad in some ways. The structure is embedded in such a tight texture that the moment you step two meters away, it disappears from sight. The surprising thing was that even though our apartment was on the eighth floor and there was no wind there, around the cathedral there was a strong wind constantly hitting our faces like a strong fan. They had designed the architectural wind corridor of this place quite interestingly.

We reached a lively square full of cafes where mist cooling systems were installed. This was Plaza de Bib-Rambla. Granada had captivated us in general. Compared to Valencia or Barcelona, it was extremely clean and there were not many annoying types on the street. Although it was not as small and quiet as Cordoba, walking in its streets made a person happy. The narrow streets, covered with awnings and looking identical to each other, were full of shops. The prices were more or less the same as the shops in Germany, but the product selection here was much more positive and energetic. As the match time approached, the streets had become lively. While jerseys were sold for 80 to 100 Euros in official stores, it was possible to find them for 10 to 20 Euros at street vendors' stalls and the public's interest in these was quite big. Some historical bath ruins that still managed to survive in the city also completed the cultural texture.

The next day, we climbed towards the Albayzin district, which is the old Moorish neighborhood. The number C32 bus went up to here, but we preferred to walk. The weather was hot, but walking in those narrow, stair filled streets of the neighborhood was a separate experience. Tour groups had also gradually started flocking to the hill. When we strayed slightly from the main roads of Albayzin and entered the side streets, we encountered a fascinating silence where human voices ceased and the sounds of water trickled through stone walls. The old guesthouses and church towers in the side streets laid bare the historical texture of the region. Granada is officially a city of stairs. Finding a flat road is almost imposible. Even seeing cyclists lowering their bikes down these steep stairs was an event in itself.

At the end of the day, upon internet recommendation, we took a break at a traditional tapas bar named Bar Avila. The venue had a chaotic crowd and consisted almost entirely of locals. Although I only ordered beer, the tapas that came with it were so filling and delicious that we experienced a slight shock when the total bill was only 3 Euros. Eating saucecovered potato tapas and drinking quality beer at this price in the middle of Europe was definitely a record.

In the continuation of the evening, we watched a Flamenco show at a venue named Casa Anhel, for which we had bought tickets in advance. The stage performance was quite impressive. There was only a single main dancer in the performance. Even though the costumes and some details were a bit plain and minor flaws caught the eye when looked at with a professional eye, the overall atmosphere and especially the singer's voice were amazing.

As the night progressed and the street lamps turned on, Granada had taken on a completely different identity. The crowded squares, street musicians, the sounds of cicadas and the silhouette of historical buildings made the city unforgettable. We felt the warm, living and neversleeping soul of Spain to the fullest in these streets. Granada was engraved in our memory as one of the places that stays in mind with its cleanliness, historical texture and unique atmosphere.