Granada & Sierra Nevada: Unexpected meetings pt. 3

This might be it, people! I mean the last blog post from my time in Spain. In just 3 days it is time to head out for new adventures. I am kind of sad and happy at the same time. Sad because I have really loved these past 5 months, but then again eager to go back home again. Anyway, this week is my last week… But what a week it has been so far!

 

The last week here in Spain started on Friday with a crazy going away party and was followed by an amazing weekend in Granada! Last week, on Wednesday I got my cousin from Finland to visit me. It was very nice to see him from a long while as we had been roommates for over a year before I left to Spain in January. Anyways, on Saturday we left to see Granada with him, my two workmates and a girl from Iceland. By car, everybody in a terrible hang over – of course.

When it comes to unexpected meetings (this is again something unbelievable :D ), I met my friend from Barcelona in Granada (see this blog post). Of course I knew she was going to be there, but listen to this: this weekend, the friend that was travelling to BCN with me earlier went there again. The friend who we were visiting in BCN was then visiting Granada with her friends – as was I. But we didn’t know more than that. Little did we know that we would be all living in the same hostel – in the same dorm! I always thought Finland is a small place, but fuck, Spain is minimal! :D

We all headed out together to have a look at some famous street art. Some very nice pieces of work we saw! After walking uphill in the city, we stayed for a picnic in a beautiful park. There was also a small lake in the park. And a small island in the lake. And a small tower in the island. And then, somebody had taken a HUGE dump on top of the tower! :D But we didn’t let that bother us too much.

After picnic, we left for some beers and tapas. This is also something that is really something. One beer costs from 1,50 to 3 Euros. Every time you order a beer, you get a tapa (small dish of food) – every time. I mean, that is probably the most ridiculous tradition I’ve ever heard - but also one of the best! Imagine going out never having to think about if you had eaten enough or not: you just go drinking and you’ll get a free dinner same time :)

The next day, we woke up pretty early and went to see the Arab city high on the hill. The city and the view were totally worth the climb.  Unbelievable. Granada, is just a beautiful, beautiful city. After the tour, we decided to take our Renault and head for the hills: Sierra Nevada, baby! IF you ever go to see Granada THEN you must go to see Sierra Nevada as well. To be precise, go to Los Cahorros. I have never seen anything like that. The pictures give you just a glimpse how it was. Wow.

About Granada

I never knew so much about Granada, but I had heard some good things. Well, I didn’t misheard!! It is simply amazing city. So beautiful, so different, so bohemian, so Spanish, so sympathetic, so amazing. In Granada you can still see the influence that the Arabs had when they were living in Andalucia. Also, the city is a famous student city in Spain. Also, it is from Granada where Sierra Nevada begins. Also, they very cheap beer (including tapas). Also, I heard that Alhambra (an Arab fortress in Granada) is very easy to defend ;)

For all those reasons above, I honestly think that Granada is definitely THE place to visit in Spain. – IF you don’t believe me THEN look at the pictures! ;)

You're alright but I'm here darling to enjoy the party
Don't get too excited cause that's all you'll get from me
Hey
Yeah I think you're cute but really you should know
I just came to say hello 

Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette - Hello

Sevilla: the most Spanish city in Spain!

Okie dokie people, this time I’m going to tell you a little bit about the culture here in the city where live in. Just like I said in the post about Semana Santa, Sevilla is the most Spanish city in Spain when it comes to religion, culture and holidays. Next you’re going to find out what this actually means. Firstly the Easter week was already an example of this phenomenon, but definitely not the only example.

Few years ago bull fighting was prohibited in Catalunya – but not here in Andalusia. In here, the tradition of bullfighting lives on - regardless the people who are protesting on the streets to stop it! Bullfighting is something that is strongly connected to Spanish culture. I mean, the natives consider bull fights as art forms that are linked with their history, art and culture. Even the King of Spain has said that if EU decides to ban bullfighting, Spain will leave the EU :O

Even though I’m not in favor of torturing animals, curiosity made me want to go see it here in Sevilla. I wanted to see what’s so cool about it? Sevilla has Spain’s 2^nd oldest bullfighting arena just after the arena in Ronda. The arena is actually pretty big, it has capacity of 12,500 people and it is considered to be the most important one in the world and so it attracts the best fighters. During the bullfighting season, all seats are full every evening!

For me, the fighting was not anything special. They brought up around 6 bulls and from the 3^rd one I was already bored a bit. I mean, it was interesting, but the show was always the same and actually more interesting was to watch these 50-year-old Spanish guys show in the top shelf of the audience where they drank wine from a flagon and shouted out insolences :D Just like in Finnish ice hockey games

Anyway, I did not quite understand what was so cool about the fighting. Of course, if you haven’t ever seen ballet, you don’t understand it either, do you? It's like a guy next to me said when people were chanting: "Why he's good, I don't know." :D Well, I kind of think bull fighting as "show business butchering". Because that’s what it is: butchering the bulls. And there’s nothing wrong with the butchering part - you can even buy the meat afterwards! It's just that I think those animals could probably go some easier way...

Soy el quimico unico con la formula secreta del destino
la formula del sonido rapido en nuestro universo - galaxia
voy a mezclar ahora un liquido, quimico, toxico, acido y peligroso,
que cambiare la materia humana, ah, ah...

Ruido sintetico, sonido rapido, ruido incognito, quimico unico...
666 - Ruido Sintetico

Escape to the sin city, part 2: Hello Barcelona!

Early on Thursday morning I headed out for the airport in Sevilla with a… let’s say a good friend ;) By the way we missed the airport bus, had to take a taxi instead and pay 25 euros instead of 2,30€… Nice start, aye? :D Anyway, by noon we were already walking in the streets of Barcelona, capital of Catalonia, Spain!

I chose to go to Barcelona as a friend of mine lives there and she promised to be a guide for us! However, on Thursday she was still on a 9 hour journey back from Madrid so the first day was very typical tourist day. We just wandered around the main street “La Rambla” and wondered all the crazy stuff going on in the “sin city” of Spain (nickname that I gave, not in general use).

In the evening, around 10 or 11 pm we agreed that we’d meet this friend of mine and go for “one” beer… Well you know what happens when you’re going for “one” with a friend you haven’t seen for a while :D So we crawled back to the hostel around 3 or 4 in the night after seeing half a dozen of the coolest bars in the Barcelona city center, some prostitutes in the notorious area of El Raval and some pickpocketers around La Rambla (which the city is infested with)!

Next day, Friday, we got up pretty late (I wonder why) and started to plan our next moves for the day. The plan was to meet up with my friend and go see some of the famous buildings designed by Antonio Gaudi, who had influenced to the architecture in Barcelona a lot. Also generally, Barcelona is very nice city to visit because of its modernism in the architecture!

After that, later in the evening it was time for an international dinner! We had appetizers from Colombia (some fried sliced banana with salt and cheese), main course from Finland (kesäkeitto = summer soup, milk based soup with a lot of vegetables ;) and the dessert from Holland (some sort of chocolate jelly)! Also the dinner party was very international as we had people from Finland, Holland, Austria, Lithuania and Mexico!

Later in the evening, we went shortly to meet my travel mate’s cousin and her friends. This time I was the only European as there were people from all over South-America: Mexico, Venezuela and so on! I have to say that South-Americans, they’re laid back people! :)

Even later from that, we headed out for some SERIOUS PARTYING at the biggest club in Barcelona: Razzmatazz! Well actually it’s around 6 or 7 clubs in 3 floors in the same club made out of old factory building… It was unbelievable! You could change from one “room” to another to listen some other kind of music style and choose whatever room you’d prefer… How cool is that!?

More about the escape to Barcelona on part 3!

Tell you like it is with a kiss,
Baby when it drips from your lips.
Tell you like it is it’s like this,
Don’t be such a slave to your brother.


Baby get shaky after school,
Oooh ooh ohhh ohhh there you ooh there you, baby go crazy break the rules,
Oooh ooh ohhh ohhhh there you ooh there you go go go go go go go go ohoh ohhh there you go go go go, ohhh ohhh there you go!

The Ian Carey Project – Get Shaky

Travelling in Andalucía: Gibraltar

The second day of our travel started pretty early at Marbella. We headed southwest towards this huge rock known as Gibraltar. A small city in the south end of Spain… Except that it is not part of Spain, but the UK instead! While driving there the view was – again - more than nice and it got better all the time we were closing Gibraltar! When we were almost at the border, a huge queue of cars started to gather ahead of us: I guess it is popular for Spanish people to go shopping in Gibraltar as they have no VAT (ALV) at all in there! And so then we stood in the queue for an hour or so…

Gibraltar, here we come!

Finally, we reached the border and the Spanish customs officers who couldn’t care less changed into these very polite British “Bobbies”, which was funny and also a nice change at the same time! After the customs we encountered something interesting! You see, Gibraltar is a pretty small piece of land and most of it is covered with the “Upper rock” – a huge rock that you can’t build houses on – so there is not a lot of land to use in there. And so the weird thing was that when we were driving the road leading to the city we came across an airfield… Like literally: drove across a fully sized airfield! There’s not enough room otherwise, so they just made an intersection right in the middle of the field!

A road crossing the airfield? I would say that DON'T pass when the light is red!
Also, a pointer for the pilot when landing: do not break late! :D

After getting through the airfield we got our first look at the city of Gibraltar, home for some 30,000 British and also some Spanish (I think). Altogether, Gibraltar didn’t differ from the Spanish cities a lot. The streets were as narrow, there were as many scooters, people were driving on the “right” side of the road and architecture was pretty much the same. Anyway, it is still another country and for example all the signs were in English, the currency was pound and so on. By the way, the prices were the pretty much the same as in Finland, except that they were in pounds! So basically a beer was 4,50£ which is like 6 Euros!

So after having some f*cking expensive beer we decided to head up to the Upper rock! There are a lot of things to see up there! First of all, the view in there is amazing! You can see all over to Costa del Sol in the northeast, city of Alcerigas in the north and Morocco, Africa in the south!  Besides the views there are some cool caves on the rock, including some old British fortresses. And then of course the Makakis, the little monkeys! :D Those little fellas are really a fun to look at and even hold in your arms!

I will definately recommend anyone visiting Andalucía to also visit Gibraltar, it is quite amazing!

Sun is up
Move your body
I got moves and all the night I will not sit, yeah.
I came up
For this party
I wont stop till mr.dj stops the beat, yeah sun is up.

Inna - Sun Is Up