Beginning of Granada and a note from Barcelona

So far having a really hard time in Granada. First there isn't a tourist office at the train station, and no bus straight from it, so when a train arrives the taxi lines are massive. So we walk down to the main street to get a taxi that ultimately doesn't take us to our hotel, dropping us at a nearby plaza, saying cars cant go where we are staying - which would be true, except theres an exception specifically for taxis going to hotels. Anyways, after an uphill climb on cobblestones, on what I would later find to be a lovely street beside the Darrow river with views of Alhambra but at the time was pure torture, we get to the street of our hotel. Which is even steeper and cobblestonier. And technically, it isn't a hotel  but more like a bed and breakfast, except breakfast isn't really included. So an Inn? Not sure what I was thinking booking it. I think I was swayed by proximity to Alhambra, and being in the historic district, which is nice, but not worth the inconvenience. If I ever find myself in Granada again, Im going with somewhere near the Cathedral, preferably on the Gran Via. Or, one of the handful of hotels actually in Alhambra, which though hard to get to, would atleast allow you to wander the gardens. And given how pricey the hotels there are, presumably they'd have shuttles to handle transfers? Anyways, heading out for a bite to eat now. Hopefully things start looking up. Spain vs Portugal tonight! -------- So, currently sitting at the train station in Granada waiting for our overnight train to Barcelona, after a very long two and a half days. The train station is ridiculously tiny and ill equipped to handle a steady flow of tourists. Not only is there no tourist office, as I complained about earlier, but also, no luggage storage of any type. luckily I found out about the luggage issue ahead of time, so planned our trip around needing to be in Albaycin in the evening. No facilities here meant we had dinner at a bar nearby, which actually worked out nicely. I really love this price model where you get tapas free with your drink. Not super fancy stuff like In the touristy restaurants, but sandwiches, soups, and just now, chicken wings. Easily enough food to cover the cost of your drink.  Anyways, to recap. Our first half day in Granada went ok. After resting a bit in our hotel, and chatting with a really nice Australian couple while waiting out the hottest part of the day, we wandered the downtown a bit, shopped, and ran some errands - basically getting my cell phone set up. We tried to book our tickets to Alhambra at a ticket office near Plaza Nueva, but found out that the preorder tickets for morning entry were sold out - and when the temperature climbs up over 40C, you definitely want a morning ticket. So we planned to get to Alhambra before the ticket office opened at 8am to buy a day of ticket.  After that we wandered around a bit looking for dinner, when we realized it was close to game time so went straight to a bar that the host at our inn recommended. And we had a fabulous time. It was the first time we encountered the free tapas with drinks, so it actually worked out that we didn't have dinner before. And having gotten there a bit before game time we had awesome seats. The game itself was fab, and even mom got super into it by the end. It would have been perfect if it was shorter, given the early start we'd need the next day. Anyways, almost train time. More soon.  ---- And now sitting in the restaurant car on the train. Mom is in her couchette and is watching our beds. I'm not super comfy hanging out there - need to remember to upgrade to the highest class possible for overnight train rides, especially to the first level where your group would have the car to themselves. Will probably hang here until I finish my diet coke, before sequestering myself in the room. There's aircondiioning there, but the rooms haven't chilled yet.  And back to the recap. As I mentioned earlier, our first full day in Granada started super early. Given our proximity to Alhambra, we walked up the hill to it, not stopping to have breakfast. Though we did stop many times going up the steep hill to take breaks and have water. Anyways, we get there, and mom stands in line while I grab cafe com leche for me, and a cafe cortada (just a bit of milk with the espresso) for mom, along with a sandwich. We get our tickets without any major issues, and enter the complex not long after it opens. And it's gorgeous - but I don't think I was fully properly appreciative, since it pretty much looked like Morocco. Honestly, having been to morocco, it was never in my plans to visit Granada, a city whose main attraction, but or some reason mom (who was with me in Morocco) wanted to see it, so in the itinerary it went.  ------- So - currently I'm starting my second day in Barcelona, and our schedule has been too tight to blog much, with us getting up early and staying out till late. Today wiling more of the same, with squeezing in as much time here in Barcelona for sightseeing before we fly out tonight to Palma. Where we have the Euro final, and then another early morning because of my conference presentation. Anyways - posting this incomplete recap now. More to come later, maybe after my presentation is over and done with?

From Madrid to Granada

Apparently it's been a year since I last posted, almost exactly - mainly because I didn't blog at all my last trip to Asia. Hopefully I get back into he swing of thugs this Spain trip, so am all set for my African adventure at the end of the month. Currently sitting in the train, waiting to leave Atocha station here in Madrid. A bit disappointed - turns out our window seat doesn't really have a window, so mom is currently sitting in another row, which hopefully isn't reserved. Also, the train doesn't seem to have wifi, though online it said the entire Renfe system should, and there are neither plugs at the seats nor a restaurant car that I can find. Though all that does make this a good time to start the first blog post of the trip on my iPod while conserving my laptop battery to do work later.  Though we've only been in Spain for two days so far, it feels like we've been travelling here forever.  Starting off with our flight from Toronto that was late into Heathrow making us miss our connection to Madrid. The flight we were rebooked to was also late, and notably did not have food service as our scheduled flight should have, so we had to grab a super fast snack at the terminal. Which was super necessary for me, as for the frat time ever, I actually got the low calorie meal that I have down on my expedia profile and forgot about. The dinner was fine, though super plain (lettuce and vinegar, plain chicken breast, rice, and cut fruit - everyone else had cheese cake), but my breakfast was unsweetened apple sauce, which I don't really eat. Really have to remember to change my meal request before flying home.  Anyways, our first day in Madrid started off with a siesta - both because we were super tired after our trip, and because it was really hot outside. We had taken the metro from the airport, an easy trip, but walking to the hotel after taking our suitcase up the stairs almost ended me. Our taxi driver today said it's supposed to be 42C today, and it felt atleast that hot Monday. We stayed at the Gran Hotel Conde Duque, booked off a travelzoo deal and going over my budget was totally worth it. The hotel was gorgeous, with a library, tea room and bar, and our room was well appointed even having a little sitting area. The wifi was kinda meh, limited to 2 hours not per day but per 24 hours, which made it difficult on day 2 since I had checked my email late the night before, but the quality of the quality of the breakfast more than made up for it. I'm going to miss it - besides standard stuff like eggs and bacon, there was spanish omelettes, churros, fresh squeezed orange juice, and awesome coffee. There was even a little corner with specialty foods, including stuff like pate, and Goji berries for your cereal. The places were in for Granada and Barcelona are smaller so likely won't have quite as large a spread, but are hopefully good too. I try to take into account reviews of breakfast quality when booking hotels, since I'm not a toast and cereal person. Though worst comes to worst, Mc Donalds  does have a yogurt parfait on their value menu I want to try.  Luckily, life in Madrid is built around taking a siesta, so even with a late start to the day we got a lot in. We walked from our hotel all the way to Plaza Mayor, only getting lost once enroute. On our way, we passed pretty much everything, including the Gran Via, the Plaza D'Espana, the palace and two surrounding gardens whose name I forget, the Opera, and Puerta de Sol. We ended up having food at a McDonalds enroute because I wanted one of the special cups for Euro 2012, though we did snack and have gelato at one of the bistros at Plaza Mayor. We ended up staying put much later than expected, largely because the Spanish keep such late hours - the plazas and cafes were still just filling up when we started heading home at 10.  Day 2 in Madrid had more wandering around, ending off with the Prado museum. In the morning we wandered the courtyard of the castle, and ended up attending mass at the cathedral. My fave part of the day was lunch at the Mercado San Miguel, tapas, paella, Sangria and churros con chocolate. We did some shopping in the afternoon, both to be indoors and because mom didn't quite pack for this weather. Then we were off to the Prado, which is fabulous. If I'm ever in Madrid again, I'm definitely devoting more time to museum hopping. The collection at the Prado is really well curate featuring mainly Spanish painters ad painters to the Spanish court from the 18th and 19th century in the rooms we visited. After reading the notes by almost every painting, I felt like an expert, seeing connections between the works of Titian, Rubens, Velasquez and Goya among others.  Anyways, I should probably get to work. Need to go over my notes for the conference, and also hopefully work on another paper. We have a few more days of tourist time before we hit Palma, but given how long our days have been, this might be one of my last chances to really get stuff done. Will also hopefully have a chance to just sit back and enjoy the fields, orchards, and mountains of the Spanish countryside.  More soon :)