Tapas, Sangria and Siesta

I have been really lazy in updating my blog lately - in part because I don't have a whole lot to write about and in part because I used Spain as more of a relaxing destination! I have been more interested in getting to know the culture than seeing the sights - and their culture involves great food and drinks and sleeping during the day!

The first stop of mine in Spain was Barcelona. I was staying at an interesting "skate" hostel as part of the big Sant Jordi hostels group. The hostel had a mini half-pipe inside!

Barcelona is a big city - one of the biggest I had visited in the last few cities. It is not exactly walkable; metro rules in Barcelona. I had my first taste of Paella, the traditional Spanish rice dish, and I found it to be pretty damn tasty, despite the somewhat sub-par meat used in making it.

I visited the main touristy sites, such as the Sagrada Familia, a church that has been under construction for a few hundred years and is still being completed today.

The highlight for me in Barca was a trip up the hill to the Bunkers of Carmel. I'm not sure on this history of these but it is an old bunker up on a hill overlooking Barcelona and offers pretty spectacular views of the big city.

From here we travelled down to Valencia - the self proclaimed home of Paella. Once more I participated in a walking tour and learnt a little about Spanish history, in particular how the south was occupied by the Muslims until the 1300's and how the Christian army drove them out.

Valencia is a lot more walkable than Barcelona, its main sights condensed into the city centre where my hostel was situated.

Next up was Madrid, the country's capital. Madrid is a hip city - featuring a number of rooftop bars and a good party scene, it makes for a lot of weekend tourists from elsewhere in Europe a top destination. As a result, I was only able to spend two night in Madrid - come the weekend, all hostels were booked out!

I jumped on a late bus to head down to Granada, my favourite city that I visited in Spain. Granada differs from much of Spain in that they are more traditional - tapas is included with drinks! For around 2euro, you buy a beer/sangria/coke, which includes a serve of food. Depending on where you go, you can chose what you get with your drink - anything from hamburgers to panini rolls to fish! This offers a great style of living - you go out late afternoon for a drink with food, and over a couple hours you drink and eat at your leisure.

Granada was the last city to have the Muslims driven out during Spain's occupation, and a main tourist attraction here is the Alhambra, a great castle set up on a hill overlooking the city.

Adjacent to the mountain on which the Alhambra sits is the area of Sacromonte. People up here live in caves they have dug out of the mountain, a percentage of which are licensed by the government due to their age, others are more off the grid housing for youth and immigrants. I did a walking tour taking us up through the arabic neighbourhood before heading up the hill overlooking Granada and seeing the caves.

You can spot the Alhambra atop the hill in the last panoramic photo.

Not only do you get cheap drinks with free food in Granada, but they also have cheap bars, such as the one that did 16 shots for 6euros! Granada is a student town afterall, with a lot of university students - its not hard to see why it is cheap!