A thing or two about Granada

How can one not like a place where you can ski in the morning and then enjoy sunset sipping one’s favourite beverage on a picturesque sandy beach?

A place where they give one complimentary tapas ( varying from marinated fish, through sandwiches with fries, grilled octopus, sushi, Chinese, pasta, to Arab treats) with one's drink, and sometimes everything can be complimentary (if you’re blonde, that is ;) ).

A place so small one can walk everywhere in about 40 minutes and yet so diverse that with every passing 10 minutes one feels like in a different town altogether.

A place where flamenco is very much alive in the numerous Gypsy caves and in the place’s inhabitants’ hearts. Where one can choose to spend 15e one a professional flamenco show, 8e on a professional flamenco show, 6e on a semi-professional flamenco show or only the price of drinks if one chooses to have a laugh with 3 or 4 lovely Gypsy chaps trying to make it happen while singing and dancing their hearts out (and at the same time having problems with the mic, getting entangled in the cables and wearing aquamarine polyester shirts with lots of gold chains around their wrists and golden rings on their fingers).

A place where the walls are decorated with amazing street art and where historic buildings are not demolished by vandals who think their tagging’s art.

A place in which you find foreigners from all over the world on every corner but that has not become one of English, German or Russian colonies (like Frigiliana, Nerja or most of the places on Costa del Sol like Marbella).

A place with some of the coolest designer boutiques and chain stores one can imagine, which are mixed with 60s and 70s clothes second hand stores.

A place where you can live in one of the most picturesque and touristic parts of town - el Paseo de los Tristes, where visitors enjoy their coffee and snacks with the mighty Alhmabra in the background, and yet after less than a ten minutes walk find yourself lying atop a hill, listening to the river flowing down below and the birds chirping up above, surrounded by such views:

Simply put, a place where you can enjoy life.

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I have to admit it took me 2 or 3 days to fully give in to Granada. Whenever I talked to someone who’d been here I’d hear: “Oh, Granada..” with this longing in their eyes. I didn’t see it at first, but the more time I spent walking around the town, the more I liked it. And it’s been almost a week now, spent walking around. From simple wandering about on my own, through a guided tour with M and some nights out with other CSers, to a flamenco scene mini-tour my friends made sure I got. 

Granada truly does seem to have everything – a big student community with a happening nightlife, nice architecture and important touristic sights, charming alleys of Albaicin and Sacramonte, Indian-Arab stores along the Calle de Elvira and north from it, a good shopping street and peaceful mountains couple of minutes away from the city center.

Unfortunately for me though, it makes you lazy to move around the region, especially if you’ve met some cool people here and are tempted to just stay behind and live the good Granadian life for a while..

Oh, and have I mentioned the enchanting flowery smell of spring in Granada?