Granada!

First I'd like to point out that while I know how to use paragraphs, blogger.com does not (thank you for pointing that out, Alex) Anywho, the epic of lost blog entries continues. February 10th to February 14th: After Leaving Málaga, I headed north to Granada! I wanted to stop back in Orgiva but had not heard back from Mathis about a visit, assuming that he had already taken his boxes to the frosty north. So I stopped through town anyway, donated some clothes to the women's group in town and said hi to Ananda's Mundo. Then continued on to Granada. I booked into Oasis hostel and was quickly enchanted by its people, activities, and services. I had hoped to find a slightly cheaper place or couch surf, but that didn't happen, which was really quite providential because I met some amazing people and had a wonderful time there. And it was in a beautiful area, the Albazin, surrounded by teterias and Moroccan-style shop-stands (only with less pushy sales people!). The receptionist, Eric, was very nice, and the crowd gathered in the common area were chatting away. I quickly started chatting with Diana, a Kiwi who works in London. She was very sweet and since the hostel was hosting dinner we ate together, along with Ricarda, a German girl who goes to uni in Scotland, studying abroad in Spain for the semester after studying in Brussels the semester before (whew, worldy, huh?). The dinner was delicious, the company pleasant and I turned in early. Free breakfast is the best thing ever. And I again shared it with my new friends. I had hoped to go on the free tour the hostel offered but was feeling lazy so I just hung out and sent Lauren (the girl I met in Málaga) a message about hanging out while I was in town. Dianna was playing a card game with some other guests and I asked if I could play. We moved the game to a close-by bar and got some beer and tapas and about seven us drank and played Presidente. After a while we got distracted from playing by various conversations. Three of the people were traveling together and were planning on going to the Alhambra that afternoon and invited me to come along. Ramon and Lucia were both Spanish but the other girl (whose name completely escapes me) was from Andorra! They all studied together in Barcelona and were taking a holiday together. The four of us walked up the hill to the castle, just a few blocks from the hostel (of course we had to walk pretty far around to get to the entrance). The outside was beautiful but once we got to the entrance they told us we couldn't go in because they would close soon and we wouldn't have enough time to see everything. Oh well, we walked around a bit more. It was funny listening to them speak to one another, switching between Spanish and Catalan and English. Once we got back down the hill they went off to a cafe but I wanted to head to the hostel for a rest. They were hosting another dinner and then a tour of the good tapas bars in the area and I was also supposed to meet Lauren that night. I hadn't had anything to eat that day except breakfast and tapas at lunch time and I was starving, along with a ton of other hostelers waiting in the common area. That's when I met Kelly, an Aussie, and Sophie, a Chilean-American, who were very amusing. We had an amazing dinner of Paella where I also met Ian and Sophie (another Sophie) who were Canadian. Then it was off to the tapas tour! The first place was delicious and had all sorts of organic wines, liquors, and cheeses! Kelly and Sophie were there and we had a lot of fun chatting along with Fallon, another Canadian. Kelly and Sophie had actually met in Seville at the same hostel and decided to come to Granada together. Fallon was just out of highschool and spending some time working as a nanny for some family friends in Paris but taking time off to travel around. By the second bar, Sophie and I discovered we both did belly dance! Then we met some other people from the hostel, Melanie, Mick, Wallie, and (shit! I don't remember his name either! damn my procrastination!). All except Melanie were also from Australia who was from New Zealand. We ended up going to one more bar but it was not a tapas bar and kind of lame, so we left. Of course by the time I remembered I was supposed to meet Lauren as well that evening it was far too late and I was already pretty tipsy. I made sure to message her the next day with my apologies and a new attempt to meet up. The next day I got up and ready in time for the free tour along with several friends from the previous night. The guide was a very theatrical Englishman who included several amusingly-told historical facts (my favorite kind). He talked a bit about the Alhambra, but mostly showed us around the Albazin, the Arab district of Granada, where there are beautiful gardens, bathhouses, fragments of the old city wall, and the caves where all the gypsies live! It was a lot of fun and lasted for about three hours! Afterwards several people from the group decided to go up to see the Alhambra and I was going to go with them until I realized I needed something from the hostel. Once I got there I decided I would just go another day and I would take a siesta instead. Considering it was raining and quite cold on the tour this ended up being a good idea because when people got back Kelly told me it had snowed! Dinner at the hostel again, this time homemade gnocchi and passatelli made by the local Italian! We had a drink with dinner and then gravitated to the hostel's bar for more drinks. There we met a Brit, Kerry, and another American, Brian, and we got three of the hostel workers to come out with us too! Some of the employees of the hostel were talking about a good club to go to but when we got there they had an entry fee so we found another bar to go to. We all chatted and danced the night away and didn't get back to the hostel until around 4:30am, after a drunken stop for kebabs and falafel of course. I hadn't quite gotten over the farm schedule and still woke up fairly early. Wally, Melanie, Mick and the other guy were all hoping to take a day trip to Cadiz on Saturday for Carnival but after our very late night they did not catch the 9am bus, and I think they mostly missed breakfast too, heh. I just barely made it but was feeling surprisingly chipper and enjoyed a morning chat with Ricarda. We decided to go to the Alhambra together that day, along with Sophie and Ian. Apparently they only let a certain number of people in the inner palace at certain times and Ian and Sophie had tickets for one time while Ricarda and I had tickets for another. Once we went inside Ricarda and I got separated as well, which I didn't mind since I was immersed in the beauty of the place, even if it was cold, windy, and raining a lot. In fact the poor weather I felt made it even more enchanting. I had no idea what time it was when I finally found the exit and figured that Ricarda was either still inside or back at the hostel but I found her waiting at the bus stop and we headed back together and stopped at a cafe for something to nosh. There was a free "Spanish lesson" early that evening at the hostel so I joined in. It was really casual and pretty much just playing games in Spanish. People of all different proficiencies joined in, we learned basic phrases and then played Spanish trivial pursuit with teams. Fallon and I were on a team with Kelly sitting off to the side trying to blend into the wall (she didn't know any Spanish at all and didn't want to participate but still wanted to be social). It was fun, Fallon kept trying to read Spanish with French pronunciation and there was a Slovakian guy who was practically fluent in Spanish that won, but Fallon and I were a close second. Then later that night I was supposed to meet Nicos! We'd been keeping in contact about his visit to Spain and meeting in Granada. He was supposed to be staying in town but ended up staying with some friends a ways outside of town, but we met up anyway briefly for a glass of wine. It was so great to see someone from Iowa City! And I think he felt the same. He asked me about everyone from Anomy house and how they were and I told him what I'd heard last from everyone and got him up to date and Alex's life and mine. We took a picture outside and then had to go our separate ways, me to dinner and he back to his friend's place. Back at Oasis everyone was already drinking and I joined in. Many people had gone to an Irish pub to watch a football game that afternoon (Ireland vs. France or something like that) and had already been drinking for quite some time. We stayed at the hostel for quite some time before going out. When we finally did I was actually quite tired and didn't stay long. I intended to leave on Sunday for Cordoba but when I got up for breakfast Kelly and Fallon said they were headed to Madrid and invited me along. I figured I didn't have any specific plans and thought, what the hell! So I packed my things and found Melanie was joining us as well! So we all hopped the city bus to the station and got on the next bus for Madrid, only a five hour ride.