Granada, Spain -- night

I sit now by a fountain just down the hill from the Alhambra. The air is pleasant, now that the sun has set after a hot, dry day.

Before writing this entry, I looked back in this journal to realize that it was a little over a year ago that I was in Granada, Nicaragua, the other Granada on the other side of the Atlantic.

It's really peaceful here now, with the sound of water flowing gently behind me. This is exactly what I need right now after a tiring day. Cherise and I got up early, after a late night last night, to walk with backpacks to the Gran Via of Madrid to pick-up the rental car. Unfortunately, it took us a while to locate the place to pick-up the car. Once we got going, it was already 9:30 a.m. Four and a half hours later and we were eating lunch at a diner on the outskirts of Granada.

As an aside, in case I didn't mention earlier, we decided to rent a car to meet our transportation needs for the rest of the trip in Spain, first for financial reasons as a rental car is actually cheaper, and second, to avoid another mess like the one in the bus station at Barcelona.

So getting back to today, we drove into the city after leaving the diner. We stopped and parked near a small building that was marked as tourist information. When we arrived, though, we realized it was closed for siesta. But as luck would have it, there was a young man sitting at a bus stop across the street from the closed tourist building. We approached him and asked for directions to the area of hostels. Since he was waiting for a bus to go into town, he offerred to come with us to give directions into the city. He was very nice and helped us with a brief tour of the city. When we parted ways in the center of town, he invited us to his bocadilleria, called Piccadilly Circus.

Cherise and I drove back on to la Gran Via of Granada, parked, and compared four different hostels to eventually choose one for 25 euros total per night, with parking included. After checking in and dropping off our backpacks, we walked down into town. We stopped in a few souvenir shops, then saw a double-decker sightseeing bus. Since we were both tired, we decided this would be a good option to see the city. Towards the end of the tour, I began to feel really exhausted. After a night of little sleep then driving for nearly five hours, I needed a nap. We went back to the room and slept for almost three hours, longer than we expected.

We left to go out at about 10 p.m., dinner time. We walked back on to the street behind the hostel and randomly I saw a sign for Piccadilly Circus. Of course we went in and we saw our friend Mohammed, who hooked us up with a falafel for Cherise and a shawarma de pollo for me. It was so coincidental. The food was great and Mohammed was once again very nice. I ordered another shawarma for the road, we walked back to the Gran Via to catch a mini-bus up to the Alhambra and here we are. And here I am writing, finishing this entry.

Madrid, Spain -- early morning

This is my second night in Madrid. And in a matter of hours, we'll be leaving Hostal Prado to pick-up a rental car to drive to Granada.

Madrid has been a tale of two cities: one very bright and sunny but less lively during the day and pleasant and livelier almost rowdy by night. As far as Madrid goes during the day, it is not a world-class city like London, Paris, and Barcelona have been. There are no major monuments and it seems as if there is little to do during the day except walk around and get a feel for the city; which isn't such a bad thing except for my shins.

Despite the overall dullness, last night was surprisingly one of the best, if not the best night of this trip. We came upon a restaurant just a few blocks from the Plaza de Espana where there was a great deal of the common 'menu del dia' for only 7.50 euros. We went in and we were the only patrons, which was great since we sat right up at the bar and got great service and good conversation from the owner and cook, Ricardo. The food was delicious, from a Russian salad to a main dish of Iberian ham cooked with mushrooms and cognac (or perhaps it was white wine). Also included was a glass of red wine. The meal was excellent, and for a very reasonable price. Ricardo and I got into a conversation about music, football (soccer), and the history of Spain.

Immediately afterwards, we rushed to a flamenco performance at Las Tablas restaurant right off of the Plaza de Espana. There were two guitarists, two singers, and three dancers, and the crowd was only about twenty. It was a very cozy environment, with a complimentary glass of red wine. The music and dancing was very entertaining, due especially to the fact that all the performers had a lot of great energy. By the time we walked back to the hostel, it was after one in the morning.

Earlier in the day, we arrived in Madrid after an enormous mess at the bus station in Barcelona the night before. We somehow missed our bus that was to go direct to Madrid, so we had to argue to get onto a later bus to Zaragoza, where we again argued (or more accurately, had a Spaniard aruge on our behalf) to get on the only two empty seats on a bus to Madrid. The whole system at the bus station in Barcelona was a chaotic mess. After the whole fiasco though, and a long bus ride through the arid north of Spain, we arrived bright and early in Madrid yesterday.

We undertook an arduous walk across much of Madrid to eventually locate the area where I had researched there would be hostels. We found the area and visited three other hostels before finding Hostal Prado at a reasonable price of 28 euros total per night. The owner, Pepe, was very nice, and has been nice our entire stay here.

After checking in, we walked our own tour of Madrid, seeing la Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real, and la Plaza de Espana, which I already mentioned. We took a walk through el Palacio Real, which was very regally decorated, the throne Room being the most outstanding.

Earlier today, after sleeping in very late, then dealing with changing our flight tickets with Air India, we walked to el Parque del Retiro, which was serene and beautiful. There we saw el Angel Caido and el Palacio de Cristal, with a small lake of fish, ducks, turtles, and pigeons. Unfortunately there were no signs for la Plaza de Costa Rica, which I wanted a photo of.

Alright, I've gotta get up early tomorrow morning, so time now for lights out. I'm excited to move on from Madrid to Granada and the south of Spain.