Granada is a really interesting place. Its a small town in southern Spain about 600m above sea level. When I first got there it was about 35 degrees celsius (its always about 35 degrees - it even felt about that hot at night) and yet to the north east you can see the snow tipped peak of the Sierra Nevada Massive.
[pic: a view of the Alhumbra with the mountain in the background]
The backpackers I was staying at was in the Arab quarter and it reminded me of Kusadasi. There is a mix of Morrish and Spanish architecture in Granada so its a pretty cool looking place.
The main tourist attraction is the Alhambra, a palace that overlooks Granada. I got some pretty spectactular pictures there.
[pic: the garadens in the Alhambra with Granada in the background]
[pic: the view from the top!]
Because I was a bit sick following the Contiki Tour, I took it easy in Granada so don't have any drunken stories. However, on the last day I did the street art walking tour (all the walking seemed to be uphill and it was the hottest day I was there - I honestly felt like I was going to keel over a few times). We visited a cave/home (a cave that has been converted into a home) and its very eccentric owner who told us how the cave regulates the temperature nicely so he can walk around naked in his home all year! Weirdo.
I'd recommend Granada if you're ever in Southern Spain - its really nice.
SAN SEBASTIAN
I then trained to San Sebastian (which is on the north coast of Spain about 20 minutes from the French border). Its funny, I'm staying in backpackers where ever I go but I have a first class Eurail ticket (I couldn't buy the second class one for some reason) so I'm going from crummy hostel to crummy hostel in absolute luxury!
Dave and Billie met me at the train station. It was terrific to see a familiar face! Dave hasn't changed a bit and its been great catching up with him.
They have only been in town for 3 weeks and are staying at a backpackers (where Billie works) in the meantime. The backpackers itself is probably the worst in terms of facilities that I've stayed in so far, but I've enjoyed my stay in this one much much much more than the others. Everyone here seems to be really nice and its close to everything.
San Sebastian is probably my favourtie place in Spain. It actually doesn't feel Spanish at all, but rather European. It has two beaches both about 5 minutes walk away from each other and you get a sense of space here (unlike a lot of other places in Europe).
Being on the coast I have had my first swims of my trip, which have been enjoyable (albiet, pretty cold though). There is topless sunbathing in San Sebastian just like in pretty much all of Europe, so its been pretty interesting. Interesting I hear you thinking, don't you mean awesome? Trust me, interesting is the better word as for every one cute girl that's topless there would be 15 old ladys/naked old men! I had a particularly bad experience yesterday as about 20 metres away from where I was at the beach there were two very old, very naked men. I almost left the beach in protest...Billie later told me that the spot where I was is the spot that the naked old people tend to go to so I won't be going there again!
Last night we had a big night out. We first went to the football to see Spain win (although people from San Sebastian don't really like Spain as they want to be their own independent nation...) and then went to Dave's work for some dinner. By way of background San Sebastian is known for its food. There are a wealth of amazing restaurants all over the place and Dave works at one of the really nice ones (not one of the super exclusive ones, but still really nice). He did warn me that its also pretty pricey. Sometimes he gets discounts and other times he doesn't so if we went there we had to be prepared to pay (maybe) up to about 50 Euros per person.
I was keen.
So when we got there we started on the red wine and cokes (mixed together, sounds disgusting I know, but try it on a hot day - its actually incredibly refreshing!). Then had a really really nice steak, salad and chips. Meanwhile Dave was chatting away (in Spanish) to the bar staff.
[pic: Dave and Billie and the wine/cokes]
[pic: dinner]
After our steak we started drinking the rum and cokes (after Dave bought me my thrid one he told me that they were triples!) and started mingling properly with the bar staff and other patrons. At one stage we got chatting to two older Japanese guys. They were nice enough but their English wasn't that great and the conversation wasn't going anywhere, so I decided to bail out. Before leaving though I asked what they did for a living and one of them turned out to be the president of Fuji Film in Spain!
I should have been nicer to that guy...haha
After the place closed we kept drinking and mingling and I got a bear hug from the owner who is a pretty friendly but full-on guy.
[pic: note the rum in my right hand (it was my third). You can tell that girls thinking: when's this guy going to give me my sunglasses back!]
All this time I'm thinking: awesome, we're all getting on so well the owner will surely give us a massive discount.
Unfortunately I was wrong...it ended up being a really expensive night!
Good times though.
Here are a few photos of San Sebastian, its easy to see why I loved the place so much!
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