Trip to Spain - Granada

I am back after a hiatus. This post has been collecting dust in my drafts folder for quite sometime now.... So here we go, the last two posts from Spain. After that I can get on with my life :-)

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When we booked our accommodations we had left an “open night”, meaning we’ll stay at some random place we find that night. Our plan was to drive down from Seville along the coast and stay in some of the smaller towns like Motril or Malaga,…

We were super excited as we started getting glimpses of the Mediterranean Sea. At the first possible opportunity, we pulled off the road and enjoyed the beautiful breeze. I had always pictured the Mediterranean Sea to have soft white sand and turquoise water… so it was sort of a disappointment when we stepped out at Motril to find a pebbly dark sand beach…nevertheless, it was Mediterranean and that made happy!

We spent about couple of hours driving from one small town to another in search of a hotel to stay that night. Finally we settled in for a pretty decent hotel in Torrox. In all the concept of “open night” was fun, although I have to admit that searching for the hotel got a little frustrating at times.

The Mediterranean

The next morning, we were off to Granada to see the Alhambra. We were not able to secure prior reservations for the Alhambra tour so we were on a rush to get to Granada and get the tickets. Luckily, everything worked out fine and we were able to get tickets for the same day at the counter. We had about an hour before our tour began… so we walked around the gardens. It was a really hot day and I couldn’t enjoy much as I was getting worn out. Granada and for that matter most of Spain has dry barren land… and that combined with the heat was not at all impressive. I am sure if I had toured the gardens late evening or at night and looked down on the city of Granada from the fort it would’ve been a beautiful sight… 2 p.m on a hot day is not the right time!

After the tour we had to drive around quite a bit to locate our hotel; the hotel was in a place called Plaza Nueva and all the roads there were blocked to regular traffic. We decided to drop our rental car and cab it to the hotel. Granada was the last stop in Spain for P & K, our combined vacation was soon coming to an end. One good thing about Granada was the free tapas you get with the drinks and we didn’t want to waste a minute. We had some bocadillos, grilled meat and we even tried the famous Jamon Iberico! For dinner that night, we were back to craving “real food”… as soon as we spotted an Indian restaurant, there was no looking back. After our dinner we said our good byes and bid adieu to P&K as they had an early flight the next morning.

The Gardens of Alhambra

View from the Bell Tower

The famous R rated "Sebbbiiyyaaaaa" Action

Vicky can't wait to bite in to the gross looking Jamon Iberico!

Spring is in the air

I am not always good about taking my camera for the right things at the right time. Yesterday happened to be one rare occasion. After nearly three years of living in this area, we finally managed to see the Cherry Blossoms in peak bloom! Last year we went two days too late...

Spring is hands down my favorite season. With winter being a thing of the past, with the days getting longer and with the colors popping back in to everything.... Life feels normal again.

Trip to Spain - Seville

Situated on the bank of River Guadalquivir, this energetic city is described as the artistic, cultural and financial capital of southern Spain. Seville (pronounced: Sevveeyya) is also the capital of Andalusia. Compared to Toledo and Cordoba, Seville definitely had a big city feel to it. Not in a bad way though.

We stayed in the heart of Barrio Santa Cruz – the historical downtown. The only downside to this location is that our hotel didn’t have parking, and even if it had, our car didn’t fit through the streets! So we parked at the nearest possible street parking and walked to our hotel. Not wanting to waste time, we dumped our luggage and set out in search of beer. Our timing was just perfect; the shops and restaurants were opening after siesta. We settled down for a beer in an open cobble stoned plaza over looking a fountain. The one thing that stood out was that no one was in a hurry to get anywhere… it was all leisurely. You walk up to a restaurant, choose a table that’s empty, you get what you want and then you can literally sit there for hours… and leave when you want. No one comes by to ask you for the thousandth time “how’s everything here?”

We walked through the meandering streets stopping at restaurants to taste some classic tapa dishes like Spinach and Chickpeas, grilled meats and the like. While we are on the topic of Tapas, let me tell you this, one cannot…. at least we found out that the four of us couldn’t survive on just tapas. It was just not enough food (period). We had seen some Chinese restaurants while ambled around the town… and we all were thinking about the same thing, but K was the only one with the courage to suggest “guys, we should have some good rice and chicken for dinner”. At first we all laughed and turned down the idea of eating Chinese while in Spain… but two hours and several miles of walking later, we were all cramming in to a Chinese restaurant. Rice has never been that tasty before!

On our way back to the hotel later that night, we stumbled in to a bar with live music and lot of noise, it looked like one of these old neighborhood joints… but the doors were sort of ajar… as we entered we realized that we were walking in to a private party. We were ready to apologize and set out when everyone there urged us to say… Well, if they insisted! It was the most fun thing we did… We hardly understood a word most of them said…. Especially this young chap who was giving us company most of the time… and in every sentence of his he would punctuate it with SEBBBIIIYYAAAAAA with hand movement to accompany that, which we found out was an R rated action!! From then, Vicky and Kapil got the Sebiya bug. Rest of the trip they kept saying SEBBIYAAAA and break out laughing. That night I realized that you really don’t need to know or understand a language to really have a good time! We watched some Sevillano dance, which until 3 weeks ago I thought was Flamenco. In all, I had a wonderful day. Seville was growing on me. There was a sense of being at ease when I was there… doesn’t mean that I didn’t like any of the other places that we visited, but I really didn’t feel like a tourist in Seville and I think that’s a really good feeling to have.

The next morning, we had some more time to kill until our tour of the Cathedral. So we took a horse carriage ride through the town.
After seeing the Cathedral and climbing the spiral ramp all the way to the bell tower… it was time for us to leave. I would love to go back to Seville and spend more time, not for the regular touristy things, but just to hang out and relax.

Now, here are some pictures courtesy: K

This big "bull" board was a common thing on the roads of South of Spain.

In front of our hotel

Tiny parks and Narrow Streets

People gathering at resaturants after their siestas

View from the other side of the river

Seville Cathedral

Plaza Espana

He wont have an issue finding a job, would he?