We studied Spanish for two weeks at the not-quite-beginner level at a fabulous school, Escuela Carmen de las Cuevas. Most of this time we just went about our daily lives: studying, managing groceries and laundry, exploring the upper Albaicin neighborhood where we lived. Then we hung around for another week seeing all the big tourist sites and some smaller ones as well. We also needed some time to catch up on the website.
Where we stayed:
- Hostal Venezia near Plaza Nueva. A nice, quiet, clean double room at a good rate, but VERY cold in winter. A slight sewage odor was annoying.
- An apartment arranged through the school. Located in a great area, Very cheap, with good housemates (2 out of 3 anyway), but lacking sufficient heat and hot water, which was immensely frustrating.
- Hotel Palacio de Santa Ines, a lovely restored 16th-century palacio just above Plaza Nueva. Our splurge, but really pretty affordable in the off-season. After 2 weeks in the student apartment, we were thrilled to have wifi internet, cable TV, ample heat, and all the hot water we wanted. The slight sewage smell was back. This seems common here and might be a result of adding exterior pipes to older buildings.
- Hostal Antares on Calle Elvria. The upside: Big, bright, airy rooms, WiFi, and a great central location. The downside: prehistoric bathrooms and lots of street noise. (There’s about a 5-hour window of silence at night between when the barhoppers on Calle Elvira go home and when the construction workers and drivers start up.)
Good places we ate:
- El Ladrillo, on Calle Panadaros in the upper Albaicin. Great seafood. Huge portions (a single menu del dia would have been plenty for two). The paella was good here too.
- Horno de Paquito, in Plaza del Aliatar in the upper Albaicin. Good basic food (the usual Spanish menu, pretty much) and nice free tapas. Good croquetas and rabbit in cider (conejo en sidra) especially. Lovely outdoor terrace.
- Meson El Yunque Antonio in Plaza de San Miguel Bajo in the lower Albaicin. Good food (especially the papas pobre) with shaded outdoor tables on a pleasant plaza, with cute wandering cats. How can it get better than that?
- Taverna Salinas II, near Plaza Nueva. Great food, pricey but a good splurge. Menu is a bit wider than the usual fare.
- Al Andalus kebab stand, on Calle Elvira at the end of Plaza Nueva (look for the yellow sign). Go for the falafel pita sandwich with hummus. Yummy and cheap.
- Muglai II, on Calle Joaquin Costa (a few streets below Plaza Nueva). Apparantly, this and its sister restaurant are the only places to get Indian food in Granada. It was good, but we had to ask for muy piquante to get something even mildly hot. A great change from Spanish fare! (Beware, though: rice costs 3 euros and will be brought unless you say you don’t want it.)
- La Chicota, on Calle Navas off Plaza del Carmen. Great sangria and gambas pil-pil (shrimp scampi). Make sure to get lots of bread to mop up the sauce.
Favorite things in Granada:
- Whitewashed houses with tile roofs under blue sunny skies
- Great little architectural details whenever you look up
- The Moorish influence in general, and the glorious Alhambra in particular
- The Carthusian monastery
- Exotic, like a little taste of the Middle East
- Amazing oranges and fresh orange juice
- Lots of cute cats (and cute girls too)
- “Spanish hours” and the idea of the post-lunch siesta
- People’s patience with our halting Spanish
Least favorite things:
- Cigarette smoke was awful and everywhere. Another reason to be here in a warmer season when we wouldn’t have to eat inside!
- The repetitiveness and blandness of the restaurant food. (The produce is great, though.)
- Graffiti (says Chris, it didn’t bother Melissa).
- Dog crap everywhere on the streets.
- A certain attitude among officials that if visitors really want to know something badly enough, they’ll figure it out themselves.
- Dusty, smoggy feel, especially in the lower city. It always felt like it desperately needed a good heavy rain (which doubtless it does).
Final thoughts:
Granada is at once sunwashed and seedy, labyrinthine and exotic. Nearly every corner leads to something that (to an American, anyway) seems amazingly old, quietly crumbling in the damp air. The downtown (el centro) is noisy and dusty, but the shopping areas are fun to stroll through.
We enjoyed being here long enough to really feel like we knew our way around a bit (physically and language-wise). And we especially loved getting to know the upper part of the old Moorish quarter, where our school and apartment were located. It’s a wonderful warren of twisting allies and whitewashed houses.
The Alhambra lived up to our high expectations. That said, we feel like we missed a lot by not seeing the Alhambra closer to summer when the gardens would be in bloom. They’re integral to the experience. Also, two sections of the Alhambra that we really wanted to see were off limits because of restoration. So we’re already thinking of coming back for a few days in a couple of years once they’re done.
