After my Brussels, Sierra Nevada, and Cádiz trips, I spent the last couple of days of February chilling in Granada. I can't believe I've been here for 5 months, yet there's still so much to do and see! I think I'll spend the next month exploring more of the city and the nearby towns. Anyway, a little of what I've been up to since:
We caught a free flamenco show in one of the local bars here in Granada. Now flamenco is actually a music genre, and not just dancing. So a flamenco show could be either a flamenco singer or a flamenco dancer or a flamenco guitarist, or a combination of two or all three. The show we caught had
cante (singing),
toque (guitar playing), and
palmas (handclaps). The singer I think was a local singer. I don't know much about flamenco, but she sang really well with a lot of emotion. Not bad for a free show.
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| Flamenco singer and guitarist |
A guy from
Couchsurfing messaged me a few days back to ask if I wanted to meet up; he was looking for a local to show him the city. I mentioned that I wasn't a local, but I'd be happy to take him out for tapas. We didn't have much time since he was only in town for 2 days, plus he was on a school trip with a tight itinerary, but we managed to have some quick tapas on a Tuesday night. It felt nice being able to talk about Granada and show him places to eat, almost as if I were a local.
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| Tapas with some new friends |
It's been getting warmer and warmer lately; Spring is
finally on its way! One day, I took advantage of the sunshine and warmth and headed to
Parque Federico García Lorca, a big park about 15 minutes from my place.
It was a really gorgeous day. I walked around a bit, exercised in the exercise park, and was just content lying down on the bench and reading. Can't wait for more days like this!
Lyle and I have been meaning to try the
churros con chocolate at one of the cafés near our place, so we did just that the other day. It was good, but
San Gines in Madrid still takes the cake for me.
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| Churros con chocolate is always a good idea |
Today, February 28th is
Día de Andalucía (Andalusia Day), and celebrates the day Andalucia was made an autonomous community. Schools usually have the day off (they didn't have classes on Friday), and there are several celebrations going on around the city. I don't know exactly what was happening but there were a bunch of horses at the park near our house.
And finally, I checked another thing of my bucket list and caught a football match at
Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes, Granada CF's home stadium. Even better, they were playing my team, Barça.
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| Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes |
I wasn't quite familiar with the way so I took a bus to the stadium. The match was at 4pm, but I arrived early, around 3:15. I had bought my tickets the day before, and just asked for the cheapest ticket, which was €75. A little bit over my budget, but it'd do.
I easily made my way in, found an usher, and he pointed out my seat. Wasn't bad at all, about 5 rows behind the goal. I started to take some pictures and settled down, and then was told I was in the wrong seat. A father and son (whose seat I was in), kindly pointed me in the right direction of my seat.
My seat was higher up, on the second level, but because the stadium is small, you still get a pretty good view of the whole field. It was a lovely warm day, but I remained covered up in my jacket because I was wearing a Barça shirt yet surrounded by Granada fans. Still had a good experience though. Watching live at the stadium is always fun. :)
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| Some confetti pre-kick off |
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| The Barça fans |
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| Teams lining up |
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| Kick-off! |
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| Xavi takes a corner kick |
Granada's penalty
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| Full time 1-3 |
It wasn't the most exciting game, but a good game nevertheless. Barça won and I got to see Rakitic, Suarez and Messi score. I was mostly happy really just getting to see my favorite team and Messi play live. :)
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| Visca el Barça! |
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