granada

June 16, 2006 by j.

Left Seville and we are now in Granada. It is even cosier than Seville, with less of a touristy feel to it. Have not done much here yet except ogle the guys at the pool, get some pottery stuff from a local crafts fair to smash on the way home, and watch a puppy get abused by a dirty homeless man. Nay, un-man.

The train ride from from Seville was lined with field after field of sunflowers, which was gorgeous. Granada, as Seville, seems to be highly influenced by the Islamic culture, in their architecture and design choices. All of the tourist shops in both sell Moroccan items, inlaid wood/pearl boxes, hookah pipes and so on.

Seville had an area called the Barrio de Santa Cruz, which is a series, or maze, of winding alleys lined with residences, bars, restaurants, and shops that is really fun to get lost in. The moorish influence is strong here, in the choice of colors, architecture design, and the design of the tiles that are used to decorate just about everything in sight… a lot of signs are actually written in two languages: Spanish and Arabic.

Getting lost in the Barrio is fun unless you are looking for something. There are only two rules about the Barrio. First, any shop or restaurant that you find interesting and mark as one to “come back to”.. immediately disappears as soon as you walk away, never to be found again. V can attest to this, as we spent a few hours searching for the bar that had 3.50 euro half-pitchers of sangria. Second, any shop or locale you don’t find interesting.. you are sure to walk past again and again and again as in the seventh layer of hell, in your search for the freaking mythical Barrio-exit.

Here are a few gems that V, clearly short on sleep, has been blabbering to me today:

• My sister likes pigs.
• I saw some jugs back there that I love. Big ones!!
• Have you ever had bimbo? I think I had some in Prague.

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