Granada!

We made it to Granada.

The maids were pounding on the door in our hotel in Barcelona and Chris was somewhere trying to exchange his dollars that I made him bring as some insurance in case our plastic failed. I was so tired. Jet lag, time zone differences, and all of our walking stole my last morning in Barcelona, and I realized that age is a real thing.

We got to the airport too early. Better than being late, but it took far less time to get there than I anticipated and we sat there for hours waiting for our flight, which was only an hour and a half.

But it was a turbulent flight, and if you know me, you know how much I hate flying to begin with. I can tell you with some certainty that I may be the world record holder in number of airport restrooms I have puked in. Flying terrifies me, and it seems to be getting worse with age. Those short kind of flights are the worst, because the planes are older and you can feel every little bump. I was scared on this flight. Because the distance was not that great, we couldn't fly as high as a transocean flight, and I hated every one of those 90 minutes. But we arrived.

The airport was tiny, and we stepped out of the plane and had to go outside to walk to the gate. I've been in those types of airports before, but it's always surprising to disembark down some steps to go outside. And it was very warm. And Chris had left some stuff behind in the security line in Barcelona and just realized it.

Idiot.

Seriously.

But I left my Nats sweatshirt behind in the Beirut airport once. I had worn it everywhere. I miss it.

We didn't know where the heck we were. It's called "Granada" airport, but it was a good forty minute cab ride away from Granada. To be honest, the scenery at first was so much like Lebanon that I got confused for a bit. And then we saw the mountains.

And I didn't take pictures on the taxi ride. Geesh. (See how tired I was?)

I had made a reservation at a pension on booking.com (I now swear by them) but I was worried about our accommodation because the room was so cheap. No, really. Twenty-five euros a night. The reviews had been good, but really, twenty-five euros a night. But it was lovely. The woman owner didn't speak a word of English, and I'm convinced she didn't speak Spanish either, because neither of us could understand a word she was saying except "booking.com." She had a paper with her reservations, and she was very, very nice, but there was not a single place in Spain where we had more communication problems than Pension Mario. Between my broken Spanish and Chris's pretending Italian is closer to Spanish than it is, we couldn't decipher anything. Everywhere else we had zero problems.

Anyway, finally checked into a downright charming room, we headed out for something. It was early evening at that point and we thought we should try to find a place to eat something. The hotel restaurant manager in Barcelona had told Chris there was a big soccer match that night and we thought maybe it would be fun to watch football in Spain. But first we wandered a bit. And we found the Basilica of St. John of God (John the Evangelist.) This is what we saw.

Granada's city color is green...probably because the Moorish history and the color of Islam is green. Loved this dome.

It's called the Basilica of St. John of God (St. John the Evangelist who wrote the Book of Revelation)

And then we went to another church basically across the street.

Then we went for food. We stopped at a square that was populated with many students, as Granada has a student population of 70,000. And they were everywhere. We had tapas. And beer.

Then we searched for the bar that the waiter recommended so we could watch the big match.

We went to the place we were told to go to, but even though it had the game on a big screen, no one was really into it, so we left at halftime and were heading back to the hotel.

But.

As we walked, we passed what seemed to be a true sports bar that was full of people watching the game, and Chris wanted to stop. I did not. But there were people outside smoking and as Chris said come on, let's just have one, I said no, but these guys were adamant in their support for Chris's suggestion, so we went inside for a beer.

So glad we did.

We ended up having two beers each instead of one, and we really into the game. I found myself rooting secretly for Madrid Atletico over Real Madrid because everyone on the planet seems to root for Real Madrid. And though we are not experts in international football, we certainly recognized Ronaldo instantly.  Because of his bad hair.

Our waitress was the best one in Spain. Not kidding. She is the one on the right standing up. She was on top of everything.

The game ended in a draw, which was somewhat disappointing because I had wanted to see the bar erupt into either a fit of jubilation or a fit of disappointment. There's nothing like watching a soccer game in Europe.

Then we went to the hotel and went to bed, because we had an appointment for Alhambra that we absolutely could not miss at 9am. Oh, did this deadline cause me much stress.

Last full day in Barcelona

After we saw the Gaudi farce, we wandered in the general direction of our hotel, though we were pretty far from it. We just wanted to see the city, as we would be leaving the next day for Granada. We stopped for a beer and tapas at a place near the church and, having walked so much in the previous days, sat for a bit longer than we would have otherwise. We were in a more residential part of town and we watched the people of Barcelona getting off work.



Let me tell you something about Barcelona. The buildings. I mean, that's generally the case in Europe, but every corner you turn in Barcelona has something surprising. Like this:

There are flags, and then there are full balcony banners...

We came across this church that has managed to survive despite the surrounding buildings trying to squeeze it out.

Buildings like this give soul to the city, soul that is sorely lacking in our days of concrete and glass. We don't build like this anymore. Architect is a job, not an art. I think this contributes to the prevalence of mental illness in the United States, the depression, anxiety, sociopathic behavior, lack of empathy. No soul. No identity. A Starbucks on every corner. Life is hard enough when you're trying to find your place in the world; when everything looks the same, when everything looks like it's been manufactured in and shipped from a Chinese factory, it can be a struggle to find your identity.

America's older cities have some of these buildings, relics from times when we cared about beautiful things. We used to have more but we tore them down and replaced them with ugly.

One of the many things I love about travel is the different plants that you can encounter. Aloe is something exotic in my part of the world - it was everywhere in Spain.

In Spain, churches abound, although attendance has dwindled. It's the same across Europe, and churches are being turned into all sorts of things. I read about one in Germany that was turned into an indoor skate park. Another reason I love Europe - they value reason over religious superstitions. It only took 2000 years. But wow, are these churches beautiful.

Some of the sites from our walk. The things you see when you open your eyes to the world...

Scooters were everywhere. Chris went in to see how much they cost.

A normal intersection

Random juggler walking down the street

Dogs...or sheep?

We came across this submarine sculpture. Despite Spain's strong naval history (Spanish Armada?), I'm not sure they have too many submarines. After further investigation, we discovered it was created by none other than Josep Subarichs, the architect responsible for the most hideous parts of Sagrada Familia. This sculpture was interesting.The submarine is going through the hull of an old ship. Modernity destroying the old ways? That's what the Barcelona Modernista movement - of which Gaudi was a part - sought to do.

We came across Casa de les Punxes designed by another Modernista architect, Josep Puig i Cadafalch. It looked somewhat like a church. Or a castle.

Then we came upon this church, Santuari de la Mare de Deu del Carme. The dome was interesting, so we went inside. The organist was practicing so it added to the ambiance.

We continued. These folks reaaaally want independence.

Then we came across another Modernista work, Casa Comalat by Salvador Valeri. You can see the Gaudi influence.

This was next door

We found our way to the Eixample neighborhood. Eixample (pronounced aye-sample and Catalan for "extension" because it was an extension of the old city), is known for its Modernista architecture. I knew Gaudi's Casa Mila was around here somewhere, but to be honest, I wasn't going to go out of the way to try to find it. We'd been walking for quite awhile, so it was time to stop for a beer, and more importantly at that moment, a toilet. We went into the first place we saw.

Interesting building in Eixample

View from the bar we stopped in.

The bar was a bit swankier than those we typically visit, but when nature calls...The bartender was great. He's the one who told us how to pronounce Eixample. I've said it many times before, but the Barcelona people were wonderful.

We had two beers there and then set off. When we came out of the bar and crossed the street, I turned around and couldn't believe my eyes. The whole time we had been sitting INSIDE Casa Mila. It was pretty funny.

Gaudi's Casa Mila

Everything started looking Gaudi to me.

Well, not this. But I did like the way it looked in the dusk lighting.

We made our way down the street towards Placa de Catalunya and came across this funny window display. We went inside and were surprised to discover how beautiful the inside of the building was.

Funny window display

We soon reached Gaudi's Casa Batlló on the Block of Discord, as it's called. If Hobbits were giants, they'd live here.

As I said before, the English word "gaudy" comes from Gaudi.

It looks alive...

Next to Casa Batlló is Casa Amatller, another work of Josep Puig i Cadafalch, again with the church-like theme

Theater

John Ashcroft would be appalled.

Tapas!

Doesn't look too comfy

This is blurry, I know, but I wanted to post it to show where Gaudi got his ideas for some of those Sagrada Familia tops that look like berries or piles of fruit.

Necropolis. Would have liked to go inside but we didn't have time for everything!

Picasso at night

Barcelona cathedral at night

Dork