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@ -550,3 +550,68 @@ christian church in the 1200s when the catholics took Spain back, and has since |
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been designated a cathedral. It retains much of the Moorish architecture, but |
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with a church in the middle, and is an utterly fascinating place which I |
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neglected to take any pictures of. |
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## Granada, Spain |
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This was probably one of the most interesting places I visited while traveling. |
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It was once one of the most important Moorish cities in Spain, then briefly |
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became a Jewish state, and then the seat of the Nasrid dynasty (the last Muslim |
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dynasty in Spain), and then eventually went back to being a part of the Catholic |
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empire. During this time it also had a large influx of Romani, and out of this |
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mishmash of culture it became one of the birthplaces of flamenco. |
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My bus got in at night, but I was lucky enough to catch the last public bus from |
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the bus station towards my hostel. It dropped me off in the Albaicín, an old |
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Muslim quarter in the city, where the houses retain the old architectural style |
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and the streets are narrow and winding. From there I walked uphill a ways to |
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the Sacromonte neighborhood, the traditional home of the Romani in Granada. Here |
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the people had dug out caves in the side of the mountain, and made them into |
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homes. My hostel was in one of these caves. |
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{% include image.html |
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src="mr-worldwide/granada-2018-0.jpg" |
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descr="The view from my hostel, Alhambra on the left. Granada, 2018" |
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%} |
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The hostel was small and quiet, overlooking both the Alhambra (the castle on a |
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hill, built by the Nasrids) and the rest of the city, and the guys running it |
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were chill. One was Scottish, but he had come to Granada to live and study |
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flamenco, and it was obvious from how he spoke about it that he was completely |
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in love with the art and the people. On one night they took me out to a "real |
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gypsy bar", as they called it. |
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The flamenco artists in town, the singers and guitarists and dancers, make a |
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living performing for tourists, but this bar is, according to my guides, where |
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they would go after the shows to hang out. There was no music in the bar, |
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but, as the night went on, three or four cliques formed up naturally, each |
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around a guitar player and singer, with dancers circling around, the rest |
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clapping to an indecipherable rhythm. The Scott knew the names of a few of the |
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people playing, and told me that it was at gatherings like this that the |
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musicians tried out new things and pushed the art further. It was the "real" |
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flamenco. |
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After that we got kebab and went back to the cave. |
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Sacromonte is situated on the face of a valley, with the Alhambra being on the |
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opposite side. So to get to the Alhambra I had to venture down to the valley |
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floor, where Granada proper is, and found a very familiar tourist district |
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filled with all the crap I'd seen in every other city. The Alhambra itself was |
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interesting, but also packed, and I hadn't realized they only sell a limited |
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number of tickets per day to get inside the castle, so I missed a lot of it. So |
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I went back to the peace and quiet of Sacromonte. |
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{% include image.html |
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src="mr-worldwide/granada-2018-1.jpg" |
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descr="Sacromonte and the valley below. Granada, 2018" |
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%} |
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Being uphill, difficult to access by car, it was in many ways warded off from |
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the wave of tourism which has swept the world and sucked the heart out of many |
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cities. Only those willing to carry their bags 20 minutes uphill could disturb |
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it. I found the absolute best spot possible, with benches overlooking the |
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Alhambra and the city and the sunset, sitting and drawing for hours, and was |
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only disturbed by one or two couples sharing the view in all that time. |
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I had originally planned to head back to Munich after Granada, but after talking |
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with a lot of people who told me I _had_ to go to Portugal, I booked a bus to |
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Lisbon at the last minute and set off. And damn I'm glad I did. |
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