To go back in time a little bit: Madrid was nice, especially the parks, plazas, and the cheap tapas places. I did a bike tour (which is a really fantastic way to see a city - wish I'd done one in Amsterdam as well!), visited the Palacio Real, wandered around the Plaza Mayor and the Puerto del Sol, and visited the Reina Sofia museum (free for students) where there was, among many other things, art by Picasso and a really interesting exhibit by a Japanese artist who's now living voluntarily in a mental hospital. I had a great time seeing two friends from UM and exploring the city with them.
From Madrid I flew (cheaper than the train!) to Barcelona. I did another bike tour and met some really interesting people (including a neuroscientist from Germany and a Danish photography student) and saw some of the wild buildings designed by Gaudi. I spent a lot of time at the beach and the parks (one of which has an amazing fountain designed for a World Expo in the early 1900s) as it was so so hot, especially on my second day! I had lunch one day at the food market (just off Las Ramblas) which was incredibly fun to walk around, full of stalls selling seafood and candy and animal heads and pretty much everything you could possibly want (or not want) to eat. Barcelona had especially good anchovies - available at almost any restaurant or sold a la carte in seafood places, and very tasty!
Fountain in the park in Barcelona:
The Sagrada Familia church, designed by Gaudi (construction started in 1883 and is ongoing today, with plans to finish by 2026):
Meat for sale at La Boqueria food market:
After 2 days in Barcelona I flew to Granada, which I absolutely loved! The hostel I stayed at (Oasis) was fantastic. Besides nice rooms and low rates, they offered several walking tours, a paella night, cheap drinks and a wonderful roof terrace. And the city of Granada was great! It was pretty laid back, easy to walk around and set against the beautiful backdrop of the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Alhambra. I only stayed 3 days and definitely wish I'd stayed longer. One of the walking tours went through the Albayzin, or the old Moorish Quarter, which is made up of tiny little white alleys (there are only three roads in this part of the city that allow cars) up quite a steep hill. We also got to go inside one of the cave houses that are popular in the city. One night we went to a flamenco show in a tiny little cave room, and every night we enjoyed copious amounts of tapas (which come free with very drink). By the time I got to Granada I had definitely adjusted to "Spanish time", eating dinner at 10 or 11 and popping around to tons of tapas bars, though I never made it to one of the clubs that only open at 3am. I met tons of new friends, and of my 6-person dorm, 4 of us (me, 2 Kiwi guys and a guy from the UK) turned out to be engineers living in London! Small world.
The Albayzin:
Some street art from the walking tour (it's a staircase):
The tiny streets of the Albayzin:
The Alhambra was definitely one of the highlights of my time in Granada. I did both the day tour (you buy a ticket for a 6-hour slot either in the morning or afternoon) and went back at 10:30pm to see the Nasrid Palaces lit up at night. It's truly an amazing place - it looks like a large fortress from the outside, but the interior is intricately and beautifully decorated with tiles and carvings and the complex is full of pools and arched gates. There are two sets of gardens inside as well, and both are spectacular. I'd love to post about 200 photos from the few hours I spent there (it was that amazing!) but I'll keep it to just a few.
And now I'm in Morocco! The day of travel to get here was really tough but the old medina of Chefchaouen is just unreal; so beautiful and completely foreign. It's almost entirely whitewashed with highlights of blue - some of the alleys are blinding when you walk down them in the sunlight. The main plaza is leafy (very welcome in the hot, sunny afternoons) and has great views of the old Kasbah. The streets of the medina vary from deserted to packed with little shops, selling food or dyes or pottery, with tons of little shops filled with earthenware tangines and leather poufs and metal lanterns.
The place I'm staying at, about 15 minutes walk from the medina, has a lovely roof terrace where I'm sitting right now, listening to roosters and goats and watching the sun set behind the hills. I just got back from an incredible hike to "God's Bridge", a naturally formed bridge/gorge about 45 minutes outside Chaouen. Went swimming in the gorge at the end and managed not to get my camera too wet during the hike!
God's Bridge in Akchour:
On the rocks underneath the natural bridge:
View at dusk from the rooftop terrace of the B&B:
Well, that was quite the blog post - 4 cities in 12 days and so much to say! Sorry for the tons of photos - it's so hard to choose. I'm finishing up my Moroccan mint tea and am about to head off to dinner in the medina (I'm quite hungry for couscous after the hike!) so au revoir for now. I'll try to get in a few more posts before I head back to London on the 15th. Only 1 more week of traveling!
-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:R412,Chefchaouen,Morocco
