Espain, Feb 7-9, Nerja and Granada

We reluctantly left Ronda for the beaches of Nerja on the evening of the 7th. 3 hours of busses later, we arrived. The town is a relatively small beach town, but a beach town nonetheless; it felt a little bit sleazy somehow to me. Anyway, we arrived at our hotel, which was closed with no reception desk, and then, mistakenly thinking that I didn't already give them my credit card number (I did, they charged it. Oops), we went across the street to another hotel and stayed there.

We went to the beach for dinner, in search for the famous Paella place known as Ayo's, but found a huge line of closed restaurants, with the exception of an Irish pub, 2 places that were no longer serving food, and a chinese place called "Oriental".

"Oriental" was relatively packed. The waiter/owner asserted this was because it was the Chinese New Year, and because he has the best food in town. We sat down next to a group of elderly English people. We got a tray of dips and shrimp crackers to go with them, which were very good, and then we heard, from the table next to us, "You know, its always about you, Mary. Me! Me! Me! That's all it's ever about! ...", to which Mary replied "Well you, Susan, are a shit", and then things went downhill from there.

We got the impression that these people were lifelong friends who went to Spain together, and would no longer be lifelong friends after this evening. To this was added some of the worst food we've ever had, a table of Dutch people making fun of the waiter/owner's accent, and we ended that night by leaving a big tip for what was clearly not a good day as the owner of the "Oriental" restaurant, and went to bed.

Generated by Flickr Album Maker

Our second day in Nerja was much better. We went horseback riding with a hairdresser turned cowboy named Errol, who was lots of fun, and got very sore looking at the pretty mountain scenery, which resembled California. We then walked over to the beach, found an *open* Ayo's Paella restaurant, and had some pretty good Paella. After some quality, if windy, beach time, we went back to the hotel, got our bags, and left for Granada.


Granada was pretty cool. Our hotel, Casa Federico, was very hip, somewhat overpriced, and very poorly managed. They didn't provide breakfast even though our reservation confirmation said they would, the whole night was filled with the ringing doorbell that the night receptionist wasn't waking up to answer, and the next day, they *weren't there in the middle of the day* when we wanted to go to our room. Lame.

Anyway, Granada was pretty cool. We went to the Alhambra complex - a fortress, a muslim palace, and lots of gardens, which were all very neat. Large chunks of the Nasrid Palace were closed, but overall it was still very cool. We went back down to town, and went to the Arabic Baths. This is a place where you enter a dark, candle-lit room full of steam, mostly silence, 7 baths of different temperatures, and a load of masseuses, then you get a 15 minute massage and soak your troubles away for an hour and a half, taking breaks for sweet tea, candies and water. A+ gold star.

Our night was rounded off with some arabic tapas and a Flamenco concert, which was amazing/inspiring/great. The music and dancing are equally and insanely intense, and we just had a great time. If you have a chance to see some good Flamenco, take it. It's worth every penny. After the concert we walked back to town (the busses stop running by that time at night), went by some neat views of the Alhambra at night, and went to bed.