it’s alhambra or nada in granada, spain (part dos)

arches of shrubberies! at generalife, alhambra

we get to alhambra and there is a long line for the tickets. we queue up and after a while S.O. steps away to have a smoke. out of the corner of my eye, i see a woman roaming up and down the line, saying, “dos, dos billetes (two, two tickets)” and the german dude behind me starts to talk to her in broken english. that’s when i wise up to the situation and whip out my grade-school español, “si! si! queria dos billetes, por favor.” she immediately turns her attention to me and explains that she has two extra tickets because her friends couldn’t make it. and i immediately pay her for the two tickets and thank her profusely for saving me the long wait and possible denial of entry to to alhambra, UNESCO world heritage site! incredible! in the meantime, the german dude’s GF joins him in the line and even though i don’t know any german their conversation went something like this:

german GF: what? she just bought two scalped tickets? why didn’t YOU get them?

german dude: i…tried…but this chick just interrupted me…and she got them instead.

GGF: wtf? $%^&* how could you be so slow and stupid? now we have to wait in this long line and who knows if we’re even going to get in?! $%^&*

GD: i…uh…tried…but…but…she spoke spanish!

uh-oh. someone’s in the schnauzer haus.

and that’s how we got tickets to the alhambra — and yes, they were real, bona fide tickets. and let me tell you, it was WORTH THE TRIP! you’re probably tired of hearing my bourgeois griping about the lack of impressivity of the castles in europe. well, this was the castle of all castles. the castle to knock your calcetines off. and i really have to send a big muchas gracias to señor rodriguez, my high school spanish teacher for teaching me basic conversational español.

alhambra has three parts:

1 – the alcazaba (fortification): this fortification makes all other fortifications pale in comparison; the views of the nearby sierra nevada are stunning; oh and even though you’re in the south of spain, it’s chilly here so make sure to layer up.

2 – generalife (architect’s garden): it’s pronounced, “he-ne-ral-LEE-fe” despite it’s resemblance to the name of a life insurance company; i felt like alice in wonderland strolling through the manicured topiaries and walkway of cyprus trees; it’s very surreal and romantic here.

3-palacio nazríes (nazrid palaces): the crown jewel in the complex; it has incredible ornate detailing in the architecture and you really see the moorish influence here; they don’t like to have too many visitors at once, so on your ticket, you have a 30-minute alloted entry time (ours was 1:30-2:00). but once you’re in you can stay until it closes.

see the pictures of alhambra, UNESCO world heritage site!, on my flickr photostream.

it’s alhambra or nada in granada, spain

Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada

UNESCO World Heritage Site!

patio de los arrayanes (photo from wikipedia)

i took a day trip from málaga to granada. (don’t confuse granada with grenada, the country in the caribbean that ronald reagan invaded.) granada is about 90 minutes from málaga on a very crowded coach bus on which nobody observes the assigned seating.  it’s a hot and stuffy ride until a spaniard yells at the driver to turn on the A/C. the main reason to go to granada is for the alhambra, a palace and fortress complex that is a UNESCO world heritage site.

alhambra only allows 6,600 visitors a day. yeah, only. ha! you can reserve tickets on their website or wait in line at the ticket office and hope that you are among the 2,000 people who can buy unreserved tickets that day. this is a very useful morsel of information that my S.O. only came across while reading the guide book at the málaga bus station while waiting for the bus. according to lonely planet, people need to start lining up at 7 a.m. during the high season to make sure they can get a ticket that day. crap! we didn’t reserve tickets and there was nothing we could do about it. i played my nintendo DS virus buster game on the bus and tried not to think about how pissed off i will be if i make the trip to granada and don’t get to see the alhambra.

so, did we make it? were we able to get tickets? stay tuned for more when the saga continues…

from sun to snow and back to sun again – málaga, spain

after jamaica, i flew DIRECT! on virgin-atlantic-the-most-kickass-airline-evAR back to london. the UK is my least favorite part of europe with its crap weather and crappier puritan values (and one of the most expensive places for food and wine, adding insult to injury). alas, i was house-sitting for friends which meant free rent for two weeks.

when i say that the weather is crap, i mean it. this is what i woke up to on easter sunday:

friend’s backyard in cambridge , UK– boo!

after a chilly, rainy, hail-y and generally craptastic fortnight in cambridge, i was back to suntanning on the beach in málaga, in the south of spain.

malagueta beach in málaga, spain — hurray!

málaga (pronounce MAH-la-ga) reminds me of other cities with beaches, like nice in france or even a mini-barcelona without the gaudi influence. the people are friendly and the food is awesome! the restaurants on the beach turn out deliciously charred sardines grilled on a stick, an assortment of fried local seafood called, “fritura malagueña” and all manner of tapas.

málaga is the birthplace of picasso (and also antonio banderas). the newly renovated picasso museum here is a must-see. it contains twelve rooms of his art which amounts to something like 155 works and each one is worthy of contemplation. it’s amazing to see the body of an artist’s work from a young age to his death. the stuff picasso was creating right before he died at the age of 92 still looks fresh and full of energy. there’s no doubt in my mind that the man was a genius.

málaga, like every other city in europe, has the obligatory castle. i’m kind of growing weary of castles but i feel like i have to visit each one just in case there’s something there i might miss. at the very least, they’re high up so i have some nice views of the city. one unique part of malaga’s castillo gilbralfaro is a fortification built by the moors called the alcazaba (from the arabic word al-casbah for “fortification”). this was the palace fortress of málaga’s muslim governors back in the day before the spanish inquisition got rid of all the non-christians. the alcazaba is more interesting than the castle but you might as well go to both of them because it’s a long hike to get up there and the combined ticket is like 3 euros.

you can see pho-tos of the alcazaba, castle and more in málaga on my flickr site.

lisbon – castle of são jorge

the view from castle of são jorge

it seems every european city has a castle; florence, prague, barcelona…yeah, i’ve seen ‘em all. lisbon has a castle too. i can’t say that i was more impressed by it than any of the others i’ve seen. i did, however, get a kick out of their resident peacock. here he is staking his territory against a white dove: