Road Trip in Southern Spain!

Ok, I am not really going to bother with the details of Barcelona so will move on to what happened after. I went on to Valencia which was beautiful but I spent too much time there. I was also a little unmotivated to see any sites as I had just come from Barcelona which was so incedible it´s pretty hard to top. Valencia is known for its art museum, imax theatre, and aquarium which are all designed to be very modern. You can see this in the picture below. The imax theathre is designed to look like a human eye when you stand at a certain spot on the walk way and look at its reflection in the water. Pretty neat. I spent most of my time in Valencia just relaxing and catching up on travel errands (laundry, postcards, etc).

Granada was next. What a cool city! It is unlike any where else in Spain. Much more character and flair as it has such a huge Arab influence from near by Africa. Many small ally ways with shops selling Moroccan ñeather bags, shoes, fabric, clothes, spices, etc. It was an interesting warm-up for whats yet to come.

Granada is located in the mountains so is at a higher elevation. This means ´´good-bye +23¨abd hello +10! So cold! Its also know for the caves located in the hills surrounding the city. These caves are sort of separated into the gypsy caves, hippy caves, and nomad-traveler caves. The gypsies were the original inhabitants of the caves then the hippies took over a section. Most of the caves now have electricity, new this past year. The nomad caves are rented out on a weekly or monthly basis for about 200 euro per month, electricity included. You can also stay in the hippy caves where rent is only a bottle of wine a week. Considering wine is 65cents per litre, I would say its a pretty good deal.. if you can handle the smell of hippies!

The main attraction (other than the caves) in Granada is the Alhambra. Its a palace-fortrace that was built by the Muslim Emirs in the 14th century then King Charles V took it over and built himself a palace on the same grounds. I went up there with a Kiwi I met at breakfast. We spent a good 3 hours wandering the palaces, gardens, and fortace before lunch. Granada is amazing for another reason. You buy a 2euro drink (beer of course) and you get free tapas! Imagine that! Buy a drink, get free food! I didnt want to leave Granada for this reason but also had to leave Granada for this reason. For those who dont know, tapas is like a small dish of food that is served with drinks. Each one is different and all bars have a different menu of tapas they specialize in. One place we went to we got full sized sandwiches with our drink. Another had couscous with beef. So many yummy tapas... pretty much the only thing I have been eating since leaving Valencia.

After lunch that day we were taken on a very informal tour of the gypsy caves. A guy staying at the hostel (major hippy) made friends with a cave woman (hehe) a few days before and offered to bring 4 of us up there. We brought beer, wine, and bread up as ´gifts´as getting food up to the caves is quite a chore. No wonder the cave people (hehe) have stayed up there for hundreds of years! They have the best view of the valley, Granada, mountains, the Alhambra on the other mountain, and perfect view of the sunset! We played music with the gypsy lady, drank a few beers, and watched the sunset, then she gave us a tour of her cave. It was 4 rooms basically dug out of the mountain with white walls, lots of lights, a small tv, kitchen, bedroom, closet, and living room. She had quite the comfortable set-up in there! It was amazing how generous she was to us new comers. The cave people (hehe) dont like tourists but they opened up to us, welcomed us into their home, and offered us more drinks and food. Considering how little they have and how hard it is to get food up into the hills where the caves are, this completely amazed me. This was another ´best day´ for me.

Granada was also where I met our road trip crew. The kiwi I had spent the day with was also friends with 2 other guys (Americans) and we met an Aussie girl that night. The bond was formed... the next day we rented a car and drove south to the coast of Spain. We spent 4 amazing days together exploring the coast, enjoying a couple beers (well... more than a couple, they were only 61cents per litre!!!!!), eating more tapas, and watching many an amazing sunset over the Mediteranian Sea. We went from Granada to Malaga to Tarifa to Gibraltar to Ronda then up to Seville. One evening we found apple pie at the supermarket so took it to the beach and watched the sunset while eating comfort food. Well, comfort food for 3 of us anyways! Today we split up in Seville as Hannah was headed to Portugal, one of the American guys was headed home today, the other American goes home in 2 days, and the kiwi also heads home very soon. Sad day today as most of us split up!

Right now I am in Madrid with one of the Americans. Our kiwi friend is coming tonight on the bus so will meet us here for a couple nights before more good-byes :( On Wednesday I am on a flight to AFRICA! I am spending just over a week in Morocco for 2 reasons: my 90 days in the Schengen countries expires on Dec 23rd so I need to get my passport re-stamped and I have also heard from everyone that Morocco is mind blowingly awesome so I am going. Hello camel tour through the desert!


Dinner time!

Kylie

ps. I swear I will upload more pictures soooon!