Aka: a long freakin’ day.

 

We arrived in Granada around 6 AM. Granada does not have a metro system yet and the bus schedules are not on Google.

 

Did things the hard way, looked on the map, and found the next bus into the city center. I knew I’d only have about three hours or less to not give the city any justice but I tried my best to make the most of it anyway.

 

It was still dark but a lot of people were on the bus. There was no doubt that I was in Andalucia because of the way people talked and interacted with each other. I also instantly saw the unmistakable Moorish charm of the city. There was a problem with the bus for a few minutes and instead of getting upset, people were joking around with the bus driver and laughing really loudly, even at 6 AM in the morning. A welcoming start.

 

We arrived in the city center and walked around until we reach the San Nicolas stairs. It was so cool seeing all the shops closed at sunrise. Walking the streets kind of reminded me of the streets of the Nazareth.

 

The streets were so quiet and the way I remember it, the experience was a bit unreal. One reason being that I’m not a morning person so it was rare to be up at the crack of dawn, exercising in the brisk air. When we reached the top, I prepared my camera for the sun to peek over the hill. Alhambra was beautiful. I don’t think I cried but I definitely think it was worth the trek, the bus, all of it, and could have stayed there looking at the city forever.

 

We decided to descend and arrived at a coffee shop we wanted to eat at. It still wasn’t open so we waited for about 15 minutes as we saw the shopkeeper and his son preparing to open. I remember his son being really cute and riding his bike around after he helped his dad lower the patio tarp.

 

It was seriously one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had. I managed to order a dirty chai (maybe even convinced the guy to add it to the menu) but also ate oatmeal with bananas. It was amazing to fill my stomach with something other than churros.

 

For only knowing Dyson for about three days, we said a rather sad goodbye and I headed back to the bus towards the station. For someone who really likes to figure things out on her own, I’m glad I didn’t have to this time around or else I would’ve been SOL getting to the Alhambra before dawn or too exhausted to understand the way back to the station.

 

This part’s kind of a blur and there’s proof because I left my scarf on the next bus. I got on the bus to Málaga and I fell asleep for two hours not getting a chance to see the countryside. I woke up, arrived, and saw Luis right away. We were instant friends although his English is a little bit better online.

 

With no time to waste we arrived at the parking lot to get to the city center, met with our model Lisa, may or may not have seen Gerald Pique at a salon, and then I quickly checked into my Airbnb in the city center. I can’t wait to tell more stories about that Airbnb.

 

I got dressed pretty fast and then we went back to the salon to pick up Lisa, ate the best tapas ever at Matahambre, (first time I developed a passion for patatas bravas) and headed to El Choro for the photo shoot. I fell asleep in the car again and felt a little bit bad but arriving in a natural reserve in the middle of southern Spain was mind blowing to me. There is this amazing lagoon called El Chorro in the middle of the forest and I don’t really know how I got there. Seeing all the vendors put together the desserts, the dress, and the decorations, was really cool. Watching Luis work in the flesh for the first time was rad as well. It got dark pretty fast and I was gifted with more opportunities to exercise as we tore down all the decorations and carried them up a long flight of stairs in the dark.

 

We took Lisa back to her home somewhere outside of Málaga proper, Luis dropped me back at my Airbnb, and I ascended the stairs of that interesting little gallery I stayed in.

 

I’m met the artist who owns it, we chatted, I tried to do laundry and failed. I used the Internet, I fell asleep, I woke up again because people were being loud, I wondered why there’s a big gap in the ceiling allowing me to hear every noise echoing from downstairs to the next room over., I then fell asleep because I was too tired to care. Place was $12 a night yo.