Volverla a ver

La verdad, señora, empiezo a pensar que hay un placer todavía mayor que el de ver Granada. Y es el de volverla a ver.

It's always weird to be back in Granada, to see my old home through different eyes. And it was especially interesting to return with my sister, who wanted me to show her my Granada, and give her my personal tour of all my favorite places. The three days there were a bizarre mix of revisiting old favorites and discovering hidden gems I had no idea existed! I swear Granada is more beautiful every time I come back and volverla a ver.

We arrived at lunch time and had a huge lunch with my host family in their beautiful garden patio of all my favorite foods: rice with rabbit and artichokes, jamón, their homemade salchichón, and for dessert some typical Semana Santa sweets: torrijas (basically french toast, Spanish style) and leche frita. 

Next, we climbed up towards the Alhambra to get a good spot for the Santa María de la Alhambra processions, which were incredible. Unlike most of the processions, which just walk around the city, this one begins in a church next to the Alhambra and descends through the forest down into the city. The sunlight streaking through the green forest and illuminating the white lace on the flat as we joined the mass of people escorting the procession down in the city was magical! 

Nazareños

Following the procession down into the city

When we finally made it back down to Plaza Nueva, we took advantage of the last couple hours of sunshine to stroll along the Rio Darro and up to the Albaicin for sunset. 

Carrera del Darro, Granada´s prettiest street

Making friends

After some tapas, we ran into the Santa María procession again, and watched it begin its ascent back to the Alhambra. I love how representative this procession is of the city, the float is decorated to look like the Patio de los Leones, one of the most famous patios in the Alhambra. There was something so powerful about the physical effort required to make it back up that hill on tired legs. The granadinos turn out in droves to make the trip back up to the Alhambra along with the participants, so many of them that it was impossible to follow and we turned back to continue our tapas crawl instead. 

You couldn´t avoid the processions in Granada if you tried, and despite trying to escape them on the morning of Easter Sunday, we still managed to find the same procession four or five times. The Easter processions are unique because of the bells, the children in the procession and the children who come to watch all have little bells they ring (traditionally, made of clay) so the whole city is full of the sound of tinkling bells. 

Trying to avoid the processions, we stopped at Café Futbol for breakfast, my favorite Granada cafetería (and also my first stop in Granada upon arriving in the city for the first time). It was very weird to be back there, and see just how much I´ve changed since I ordered my first café con leche and churros con chocolate there three years ago! (We were unsuccessful by the way, the procession ended up passing through that plaza.)

Incredibly, despite living there for 5 months, I had completely missed one of Granada´s best attractions: La Madraza, the original Moorish University of Granada. In what is probably a unique case in Spain, when the Christians conquered Granada, instead of destroying this beautiful building, they actually helped to preserve it! (Unintentionally, I´m sure). The building was converted into a city hall, and the Moorish walls were covered with thick wooden panels, which served to protect the room over the centuries. When the panels were finally removed, the original walls were in perfect condition, including the beautiful colors and paint. In contrast, the walls of the Alhambra are now white, since the colors have faded away over hundreds of years of exposure to the elements. 

Lunch time meant a return to one of my favorite places in Granada. Restaurante Arrayanes for Moroccan food! We enjoyed the delicious Moroccan mint lemonade, a meatball tagine, and couscous with vegetables and chicken, ending the meal with the obligatory Moroccan mint tea.

Next, we took a peek inside the Granada cathedral. Some of the Semana Santa floats were still on display, since the processions had just finished earlier that day. It was very interesting to see the floats up close, especially the beautiful detail in the silver and the flower arrangements. This one had strawberries mixed in with the flowers! 

One of Granada´s greatest claim to fame is being the burial spot of the Reyes Católicos, Fernando and Isabel. Somehow, I never managed to find it though. The problem was everyone told me they were buried in the Cathedral and no matter how long I searched, I couldn´t find it! Turns out, they´re buried in the Cathedral, but through a separate entrance. Oops.

Honestly, we found the whole thing a little weird, you descend a short staircase next to the marble mausoleum down to the actual crypt, a teeny stone room with old wooden coffins and a huge wreath decked in bows in the colors of the Andalucían and Spanish flags, odd since it´s very rare in Spain to see displays of patriotisim or flags. As Meg turned to me to say "This is so creepy," the Spanish woman behind us said "Que fuerte! Me encanta" which basically translates to "This is so powerful, I love it!" It must be a cultural thing!

In an attempt to stay dry, we ended up at one of the most fascinating museums I´ve ever seen, and something we never would have made time for otherwise. Thank God it was raining! The Museo Sefardí, or the Jewish museum of Granada, is a labor of love from one of the only Jewish women in Granada (and by only I mean there are actually only 5 or so Jews in the city currently, although there are another 100 in the process of converting) to tell the story of a period of history that Spain often forgets about. We were the only two people there, so we got a personal guided tour of the museum, including the basics of the Jewish religion and culture, the history of Jews in Spain and in Granada, and the roles some important Jews played in Granada society up until 1492, when they were forced to convert or to leave. The most powerful exhibit in the museum was a key, given to her from a woman in Israel. The key had been passed down from generation to generation and was the key to their house in Spain, which they had been forced to leave in 1492. Truly a hidden gem in Granada, I´m so glad we stumbled in here.

While waiting for the rain to subside we got our first tapa in the Realejo, then took advantage of the rain finally stopping to walk back to the Plaza de Toros neighborhood. My feet led me to a bar that I recognized as soon as I walked in- I'd left my phone here once and they called my host family at 1 in the morning. Embarrassing, but funny that I accidentally found the place!

Monday morning, we finally made it up to the Alhambra. Of course it started raining on our walk back down, but it was worth getting soaked for! 

View from the Alhambra back to the Albaicin

A long relaxing lunch with my host family, including pasta carbonara, snails, and arroz con leche, one last outing to the Parque García Lorca to see Lorca´s house  and then we took the first rain drops beginning to fall again as a sign that it was unfortunately time to head back to Sevilla.