dear granada i love you

Hello from Granada! I am sitting at my insanely beautiful hostel that is right now bustling with activity. It´s nearly 8 pm, and the night shall soon begin.

I arrived late yesterday afternoon after a 5 hour hungover-stricken bus ride--just in time to get a glimpse of the city before the sun went down. I think it goes without saying, but I´ll say it nonetheless: absolutely charming.

I met up with Lucy and Nicole in a hookah bar, where I had a "tè pakistani"--sort of like a chai tea--to celebrate the moorish reunion of old friends. It was not just my arrival that my two pals were so buzzed about--they had arrived a day earlier than I and were gushing with raving reviews of how amazing this place was. So I had about 20 minutes to relax, and then we hiked up the hill of the Albaicin district to get a night-time view of the Alhambra on the adjacent hill. And it´s quite a hike. The Albaicin is the very old Moorish district--a historical jem, a labyrinth of winding narrow streets that one can easily get lost among. The plaza was packed--tourists snapping photos, gypsies juggling torches to the beats of hand drums. And the view. Oh my god, the view. The Alhambra was completely lit up, its reddish gold walls breathtakingly regal.

We then decided to have dinner--for free. Tapas are free in Granada when you order a beer--and with each round of beers they get better and better. So for 5 or 6 Euros, you are ready for the night. And what a night it was...

We started at a funk club someone had suggested to us--called Afrodisia--which played 80s R&B jams all night. It was so awesome! It was slightly reminiscent of a bar we used to go to in San Francisco--people were freely smoking joints while swaying around the dance floor to the beats. Before we knew it, it was 3 a.m., and time to head to the club in the Albaicin, which was apparently built into a cave. Long story short--Nicole and I lost everyone (including Lucy), and as neither of us had our cell phones, we ended up heading there by ourselves.

One of many reasons I love traveling with Nicole--she has an AMAZING sense of direction, and I never have to do anything to ensure we don´t get lost. I just simply follow her. And so to save money we decided to walk, even though we definitely should have taken a cab. For the first time in my experience traveling with Nicole though, we got lost. The maze of streets completely baffled us, both a little past tipsy, not to mention there wasn´t a soul in sight. I was starting to doubt if this cave club even existed, when all of the sudden, after over an hour of walking, inone turn we stumbled upon the street we had been looking for, and people! Finally! People! Walking over to the club, we passed a different cave that, though more or less empty, looked warm and inviting with good music and a relaxed atmostphere. After our trek, we decided it would only make sense to stop for one more drink before throwing ourselves into a sweaty crowd of people. That is where we met Sara and Pablo--two dirty hippie squatters that we subsequently spent the rest of the night with.

You see--we all went to the club, but realized upon arrival that neither of us had enough money to pay the cover, having stupidly spent our last Euros on our spontaneous pub crawl. The two of us can be really, really dumb sometimes. Sara and Pablo didn´t have any money either, so we decided to split. And that´s when things got interesting.

In the hills of Granada, there are caves. And people live, or squat, in these caves. Pablo is one of these people. He invited us to his and his "hermano´s" cave--where his hermano answered the door stark naked (he had been sleeping). We still aren´t sure if he was actually his brother, or if "hermano" was just his nick name, or even name, as that is what he was called. Anyway, hermano was probably 30 years old, and one of the nicest guys I have met in Spain. He even offered to put pants on if we preferred it!

And how can I possibly describe the amazingness that was this cave? I felt as though I was in the house of Mr. Tumnus, expecting a little faun to appear at any moment, hopping around nostalgically playing the flute for us. The off-white walls were decorated with hats and kitchen utensils, and the cave´s 4 rooms surrounded a small blackened chimney. Of course, no electricity, thus we saw by the light of three long tapered candles pegged into large empty beer bottles. It was freezing outside, but the cave was warm. This was probably the most wonderful part of it all--the natural heat of the earth.

So we spent the rest of the evening tucked away in this wonderful cave, sitting in the round living room sharing warm apple cider and freshly rolled cigarrettes. At 6 a.m., despite suggestions for us to stay over (I think hermano was thinking both Nicole and I might sleep in his bed with him...) we decided to trek down the small mountain, through the Albaicin, and back to our hostel beds. On the way, we stopped for a falafel pita, probably one of the best of my life, and were out like rocks by 7 a.m.