Granada - They will find your ass

So we drive for about 2 hours and show up in Granada.  We drove into the heart of the city looking for the hotel we booked the night before.  Apparently we are right in the heart of the city.  So we drive down the street and try to find it.  We eventually pull up to a place that looks like it's a walking only street. Back out cause that doesn't look right.  Pull around and try to find another way to the hotel.  We go up a hill, and just keep going up and it's getting smaller and smaller.  So finally decide to head back down and the GPS is telling us that it's going to take a half an hour to get back and I can see that the hotel is about 200 yards down the road... So we go back down the road, and decide to park in a parking garage and walk to find the place. 

We get it figured out, and in discussions with the front desk man, he says, "See those yellow signs all around, they say, that you can't drive anywhere in the city."  Then he says... "Ummm how do you say... "They will find your ass"'.  Pretty funny for a guy who can hardly speak English to come up with that. 

So then we have to go and park about a 20 minute walk from the hotel at a sister hotel.  get to our place.  It's definitely a different place than where we left.  It's got large buildings everywhere.  And it's got all the stores along a main drag, and people everywhere.  It's definitely a lot bigger than where we left.  As it turns out, a good group of friends from the wedding went to Granada as well.  One of the girls from Madrid we met had gone to school in Granada, so she gave us a list of places to check out.  So we met up with our friends at a suggested restaurant and had an amazing meal, thanks Celia!!  We went looking for some Churros to no avail and then went and had a drink at a bar called Wall Street.  Every 5 minutes the prices on the drinks changed, we had an indepth discussion of whether or not the prices changed with demand, but I doubt it.  Sarah and I took off a little earlier than everyone else as we had a walking tour scheduled in the morning and then our tour to the main attraction in town, the Alhambra.

In the morning, we met our guide in the lobby of our hotel and off we went.  First we walked into the plaza we were looking for churros last night.  Apparently during the inquisition they burned a lot of books in the middle of the square.  It's similar to Fahrenheit 451. 

Then we go right around the corner and we're looking at one of the largest churches in Europe.  It's crazy because we were here the night before and had no idea there was an enormous cathedral right around the corner. 

Notice the graffiti on the wall.  This is from the 1600's.  Way back when, the PHD graduates painted their name on the wall to celebrate graduating.  The pain is a mixture of bull's blood and some other stuff.  Funny that the city is trying to save this graffiti while keep others from doing the same. 

Next we walked by a convent.  What's crazy about this convent is that you can walk in and there is always at least one nun praying 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  We walked in to see about 6 nuns praying and singing.  Here's Sarah out front of the place. 

Then we came out on top of the hill and to a view of the Alhambra.  Our tickets were for later in the day and this just wet our appetite for venturing up there later. 

Before we went up to the Alhambra, we decided to get lunch at the local Kabob place.  It was one of our favorite street foods from our last trip and we had missed it.  While we were eating we starting chatting with the girl sitting next to us.  Turns out she is from New Zealand, and traveling for about 6 months.  We started talking to her about she is traveling and where she is going.  But we had to run, so we got her contact info and decided we would meet up with her later on for tapas. 

The Alhambra is at the top of the mountain overlooking the entire city.  You walk into the place and it's HUGE.  It encompasses a very large area of gardens and palaces and we walked through almost everything despite being super exhausted.  You can see some of the intricate carvings here:

and a fountain in the middle of the palace here:

Then we went up to the top of the fortress and over looked the city.

and we even took a break to contemplate life. 

After about 3.5 hours, we made it back down to the city and met up with Salli for tapas and wine.  We started flipping a coin to help each of us decide where we should go.  We had a grand ol' time talking with Salli and we were trying to convince her to stop through LA on her way back home to New Zealand.  She was telling us that we need to come to New Zealand.... Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true. 

After dinner we found some Kinder Egg ice cream.  Well worth it. 

So that's Granada, It was fun two days.  It was great to meet up with our friends from the wedding and meet a new friend to keep up with.  From here on out, we don't have much planned, but we're kind of getting excited to spend some time out of the city and see something else.  It's gonna be great to kind of wing it for a while.