We started the day with a coffee and a strawberry tart and then went a few blocks away to the cathedral - which was gorgeous! It was decidedly smaller than the ones we'd seen over the past few days, but it was still absolutely exquisite, not to mention the resting place for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabela! Cool!
After being in the dark cathedral for awhile, we emerged into the sunshine and began our own walking tour of Granada.
We walked in the sunshine along a cute little river and stopped to listen to a man playing music (dad stopped to listed to street performers about as often as I stopped to look in store windows - haha). After five or ten minutes of listening, Dad threw the man a few coins and began to walk away, but turned back around when the man started saying something to him. And this is how the most epic story of the trip commenced.
The man's cup had been empty, so when he looked down to see the nickel and few pennies, he knew who'd it come from. He looked up from the cup and at my dad incredulously and, all at once, began cussing him out in Spanish. My dad, not understanding Spanish, though the man was very vehemently thanking him... And so he smiled and just kept saying "De nada! De nada! Wonderful music!" as the man continued screaming.
Most. Embarrassing. Moment. Ever. >_<
Not having any cash on me besides a €20, there was nothing I could do... And so I walked away quietly, not telling my dad what had happened and not acknowledging that I'd been able to understand the poor man's tirade. :-/ It all made me really upset at the time, but since then it has turned into everybody's favorite story from my whole trip! Ha. >_<
Anyway, we continued on our walk and strolled through the Albayzín, which is a hilly neighborhood that has maintained its medieval moorish construction and is comprised of narrow winding streets, cobblestone roads and white white white buildings and homes. While walking around there, we came across our first Holy Week procession! People were winding around a small plaza, all dressed in black and holding candles. At the head of it all was the priest, followed by about 12 men all supporting a life sized Jesus on the cross. They were just leaving the church to begin the procession and people had filled the plaza to watch and take photos. It was definitely one of those, "Todo, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore..." moments!!
During the second part of our walk, we came upon a square with a lookout point with a wonderful view of the whole city! In that same little plaza, there was a mini crafts market going on with jewelry and art. As I had been attempting to build a put-together Spring wardrobe, the only thing I'd been unable to find was a turquoise necklace, which (at least on countless photos on Pinterest) really seemed like a piece that would tie it all together. I'd decided I would be able to find one on our trip, and when I came upon this market, I was determined!! :) After 20 minutes of looking at each vendor three times, I decided on one and bought it! Yay! A unique, handmade necklace from Granda is way cooler than the one I'd been looking at at one of the main clothing store chains in Madrid. ;)
By this time it was after noon and we were starting to get hungry, so we stopped in the first mini plaza that had restaurants. This plaza had three or four little hole-in-the wall places that each had just a few tables. They all blended together and it seemed like the owners (who were also the cooks and the waiters!) were all friends and all helped each other out.
As we looked at all of the Menus of the Day ("Menu" means a meal with a fixed price, where you have a few choices for appetizer, main course, dessert and beverage), ,I saw a little girl of maybe eight standing in the doorway of one. She stood there, chest puffed out and nose in the air, as if she were a jaded 70 year old shopkeeper! It was pretty adorable. :)
When we went over to her chalkboard with the Menu on it, though, she immediately ran inside to get her grandmother. Haha! The lady came out, with the girl hiding behind her, to talk to us, and dad decided to eat there.
We went inside instead of sitting on the patio and found that the tiny establishment had five tables in it and we were her only customer! She got Dad's order, but never asked me for mine (o_O)... So we just ended up sharing his. Weird...
Anyway, the girl brought us our drinks with a very serious face, and then turned to me and went to try to say something in English and then said (in Spanish), "Um, you DO speak Spanish, right?!" "Sí" I smiled. She proceeded to tell me that her grandmother had told her to let me know that I'd have to use the straw upside down, cause the top might have holes.
The way she said it was too cute for me to realize how potentially unsanitary it might be to use a straw that knowingly had holes in it might be!
Throughout our meal the girl would sit and stare at us, sometimes helping when her grandma would ask for something. I talked to Aitana (when dad asked her nane she ran away, so I had to ask again a little later) a little about being on break and working with her grandmother for the week. She broke character every time she talked to me, which was pretty adorable. :)
At the beginning of my program, we had a class discussion about at what point we thought it was okay to say person was fluent, and a few of us jokingly said when you could be easily understood by a little kid and, also, easily be able to understand them! After our first few weeks of school, we all felt so lost with our child interactions in Spanish, because their voices were so high and they spoke quickly and had no regard for the fact we were foreign. And then when we would try to respond, they could never understand us through our thick American accents! >_< It felt near impossible.
But seven months later and I love talking to kids the most! I learn the most from them BECAUSE they cannot subconsciously dumb their Spanish down for me like adults do. And because they'll giggle and tell me if I mispronounce something or make a mistake. :)
At the end of our meal, I searched my purse for something to give this little girl to entertain her for a little while and make her smile. I still remember when a waitress at a Japanese restaurant in Aspen gave me a Tamagotchi dinosaur once! It was the coolest thing ever! So I wanted to make this girl's day, like that lady had for me when I was about Aitana's age. Of course, I had no Tamagotchis on me, but I did have my international squished penny collection, so I slipped one into her hand when we left. Her eyes grew wide as she ran to show her grandmother. ^_^ Not the coolest present ever, but hopefully she enjoyed it a little.
As we continued our walk, we finally came across the part of Granada I had been waiting allll day for - the Arabic markets! I walked up and down the streets absolutely mesmerized by all of the colors and the enticing scents of incense. When Dad said he had to go back to the hotel room for our Alhambra tickets, I said I'd stay right where I was to continue my journey through the markets. :) I felt like I was in the scene from "Sex and the City 2" in crazy amazing Arabic market, and I wasn't ready for it to end.
After he left I went back through and found the lady I'd seen earlier who was giving four American girls henna tattoos. She was free when I found her and she smiled, remembering that I'd passed her a little while before and marveled at her work. I sat down and she started henna tattooing my hand with flowers! I'd always wanted a henna tattoo and I was way excited to finally be getting one!!
She was super sweet and we talked the whole time she did it. It turned out that she was from Morocco and told me I had to visit. :) She complimented my hands (which was cool, as I've always thought my hands are the most elegant part of myself!) and wrote my name in henna on my hand, too - "for being such a nice girl - much prettier and nicer than those other American girls earlier." Ha! :) She finished it up by shaking glitter all over the wet henna! So. Freakin. Cool. ^_^
A little while later, Dad and I were on our way to the Alhambra. Right when we got there, I accidentally dropped my camera and it stopped working. I was so upset by this that it made it pretty near impossible to really enjoy the beauty of the place. The next day, my camera seemed mostly back to normal... But I really thought I'd killed it for good. :-/
Anyway, the intricate designs were incredible, as we're the gardens and the view of the city below. After we visited the palace, we went to a little instillation about the chief archeologist on the project, which turned out to be really intriguing, as well!
After our two hours at the Alhambrap, we went back to town and while Dad took a short nap, I decided to go out to explore some more. On my walk, I accidentally ran into my first big night procession of Holy Week ("Semana Santa")! The whole thing was just so cool:
First, the crowds were huge and lined the streets. I tunneled my way through the families and other spectators and eventually managed to get a pretty good spot right in front! I stood there for an hour, watching the statue of Jesus on the cross go by, the statues of the saints pass and the statue of Virgin Mary surrounded by candles go by. All of these statues were situated on little scenes, and all of it was carried by men shuffling along underneath them, or to the side of some. They would put them down at some parts in the procession, and when they lifted them up again, the statues would all bounce a little and everybody would clap!
In between these big displays were people from different churches of the city dressed in those outfits with the tall, pointy hats - you know, the ones that look like what members of the KKK wore? Yeah, those. In all fairness, the KKK got the idea for the costume from these religious processions, but it still took me a minute to not feel an impending sense of doom just staring at them.
Another group of people who walked in the procession were ladies dressed in black dresses, with black high heels and a black Spanish comb in the hair which helped to drape a black lace veil over themselves. Each women had a rosary tied around her hand, and had bright red lipstick on. The women were meant to be in mourning and their expressions were very somber.
Both the tall pointy hat people and the ladies in black carried a long candle each, and when the procession would stop for a moment, kids would run into the way of the procession with a little ball and would catch drops of wax from the giant candles. Little by little, as more processions go on during Holy Week, they get enough drops to be able to have wax balls the size of a grapefruit! They kids love it and are all so proud of their wax balls - haha!! It was definitely a cool thing to witness, and definitely not something you'd read in some culture section of a Spanish textbook! Whenever I see little authentic cultural moments like these I'd never heard of, I feel like I've found my own little anthropological secret all on my own, and I wonder how many other Americans have ever heard of it, much less witnessed it! It's crazy to think of all the things I don't know about in the world that are so common to so many other people.
As the procession was ending, I realized I was going to be late for dinner with my dad and squeezed through the crowds and found a short cut back to where the restaurant was. ^_^ I love being able I find short cuts in towns I've been in for less than 24 hours! ;)
We had a yummy paella, and then it was off to bed to rest up for our journey the next morning. All in all, I loved Granda!!!
XOXO
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