Hi hi
I arrived at Valencia this morning at a brutal 5:30 in the morning and have just settled into today´s hostel with some free coffee and free internet.
First off, Granada was probably the most beautiful place I´ve been to so far (Porto is trailing behind a bit now)... got some amazing pictures of the valley, the Alhambra, Sierra Nevada, etc, that I´ll upload in due course.
I stayed in a very quiet, very cheap hostel that was more like a guesthouse. There were two others there - Tzvi, the Israel-born Californian and Dennis the Australian dude, who´s lived in London for a year.
Very laid back and was just what I needed. Some awesome views were waiting for me from the square near the hostel as its right atop a hill, across from the Alhambra. Because of this it was a little touristey around the place - tour groups wandering around and such (one guide sounded like Borat "and here we see the Alhambra - is nice") and the Menu del Dias weren´t amazing. There were also good parts to this - the Gypsies playing Flamenco guitar at most points throughout the day in the square and selling handmade trinkets to people.
I´m now at the point where I definitely feel superior to these tour groups flocking past. Tzvi made a good point. He hasn´t brought a camera on his trip and thinks that you take your surroundings in as memories more if you don´t photograph everything. What the people in these tour groups tend to do is spend more time taking pictures, than letting it sink in. I think I´m in the middle somewhere, I´ve taken some 400ish photos so far - not bad I think, for 1 month´s travel.
Another point floating around, was that its best to enjoy the view (or whatever) first, then take a picture, rather than the other way around. The tendency can be to just walk upto something and snap away, rather than taking time to fully appreciate it first.
Well, my first day in Granada Tzvi, Dennis and Vlad (he was only there for that night) went for a walk up a hill and looked at some Gypsy caves and took loads of pictures of the landscape - was a laugh. I was even tempted to have a little hash, that Dennis had bought, that smelt of ass. We then wandered off for some Tapas.
Next day was the Alhambra. I didn´t manage to go the back way, as I couldn´t decipher the map enough. Still enjoyed it though... but I don´t know if I enjoyed the building more, or the views. Not that it matters.
Those 4 days went far too quickly anyway, but I was glad I found the hostel.
As for Valencia, I´m only just waking up now from the train journey... didn´t scrape together much sleep, so I´ve not seen much yet. Hell, its only just gone 9. Anywho I´ve read Paella is meant to be the very best around here. Also, that the Holy Grail is kept in a museum nearby, the only one recognised by the Vatican, will try and check that out. Aside from that I reckon I´m only going to stay here the one night, then head straight to Barcelona.
I´m now reading Catch-22, and am stuck lugging 2 books around...
No more pictures yet, folks.
