Last Friday was my birthday so I decided to treat myself to an English movie (Münich) and a meatball sandwich as Subway. Ironically the theater looks old from the outside but is modern inside. Also interesting is that the subtitles for other languages are in Spanish...not English despite the entire movie being in English.
I did not hear a single word of Spanish while I was waiting for the film to start; I thought I was in London.
Well, I didn´t find that reason not to go to Granada so I left on Saturday. Unfortunately I slept past the first bus, so the next one was at 11am. We arrived in Granada around 4 and because Angela was craving a burger we headed McDonalds. I think my ¨thing¨for Spain will be to eat-at /walk-into a McDonalds in every city...but only once (Barcelona, Marbella, La Linea and Granada) and it was ubermodern as you can see on the left. One time I am definitely going to order a Royal with Cheese, and eat French Fries with Mayonaise
We took a Bus into the heart of the city which has an awesome approach with the Sierra Nevada in the background.
We didn´t know exactly where to get off so we just picked the town center (which has a University) to start looking for accomodations. After walking through a fairly seedy part of town (the hostel was also a bar, and people were smoking hash) we found a "Zurich" hostel which was being managed by an American who was studying in Granada. Pretty cool, two beds, a TV, clean for 15 Euros each.That night we headed off for the Alhambra. I think I need to put together a list of lessons learned. One is always go with your instinct. I saw the map and knew we had to head North. However, the signs for the monuments were pointing west. We made a huge circle, and when I finally asked someone they said, if you are walking this is a long way around. The reason those signs are there is that there are no cars in that area of town.
We did get to go see it (from the outside) and along the way got great views of the Sierra Nevada. We ate at a Morrocan restaurant that was meant for tourists, but it was still very good. After a good deal of walking we came back and found the Hostel. It´s location near the University was handy because from there its location near Plaza de Trinidad, was even handier (sic?).
The next morning we woke up to a 2-3 inch snowfall that covered the city and it was continuing when we left. Finding a taxi in Spain at 8:30 can be difficult. Few people are up that early, especially on the weekend. Based on the number of people on the street you would swear it was 5am.
Finally we found one and headed to the Granada bus station to take the bus to the Sierra Nevada, the first one was at 9 according to our book. The bus station was pretty big (expected for a city like Granada) and we got a bus at 10, the first, because of the conditions. The bus ride usually takes between 40-50 minutes depending on everything from traffic, to the amount of snow/ice. Angela and I met 5 American girls on the bus, doing something similar to what we are doing. About 30 minutes in, Angela says to me, "I hope it is not too much farther because I need to use the restrooms."
Remember that list of hints I am going to compile? Apparently we boarded the short bus because we had to stop every mile or so to put chains on the tires. 2+ hours later... we made it. There was a dash to the restrooms by all aboard.
The village area is really cool which puzzled us as to why the guide book called the resort "horrible", a "mess", and a "joke for serious skiers". I would hate to see they would call the places I have skied in the past. I particularly like the photo on the right.
The mountain did not open until 12 so the half day ticket was all we needed anyway. They had two ways of getting up the mountain, a chair lift (for the more intermediate/advanced runs) and a telecabina (Gondola) for the beginners.
I wanted to finda bunny trail but to no avail. Angela said that usually the practice slopes require a lift to get to here. Angela was full of crap. What she insisted was a bunny run, was an intermediate. I fell once (or three times depending on how you look at it...getting up on a steep part is hard) and fortunately did not fall the rest of the day. I would like to have tried that again later in the day but we ran out of time. The beginners runs are really nice. Very wide, long and have natural mini moguls. It was the first time I skied in (3 inches) powder which is pretty different. The views from the top of the mountain, where it was a chilly -5 C, were phenomenal as you can see to the left (or will see, this computer is bugging me)
We finished at 5 and grabbed a bite to eat before heading off to the bus area. I "lost" my ticket so I had to get another one. I found it this morning (I would have found it there had we had 5 more minutes before the bus left) in my money pouch that Granny gave me. Lesson 4, keep your bus pass in a dedicated pocket.
4 hours later we arrived in Marbella and began the long walk (at least it was downhill) home (again, no taxis, and again long because we were tired)
To be updated with photos (edit: told you I would. The movie will come later, it takes too much time to compile and upload),
Joey
