Granada

Next Spanish city: Granada. Monisha’s dad’s friend, Paco, lives in Granada, and we were delighted to get to spend time with him. Paco has an incredible amount of historical knowledge. You can’t imagine how much he knows about Granada until you walk around the city with him. He showed us many less known spots that have fascinating stories. The university has many buildings around the city, but we explored one quiet segment with beautiful courtyards and an amazing and extremely old library. 

We went to a baroque church that had the most ornate décor of any of the churches or cathedrals we’ve seen: intricate gold throughout, carved wooden doors. This was Nolan’s favorite place we saw in Granada. Paco showed and told us about the silk market, several other churches, and the old city walls. 

  

  

The three of us also went to the main cathedral which indeed lived up to its hype.

  

On our first night Paco and his family took us out for dinner at a nice Spanish restaurant.  Paco had many nice things to say about Monisha’s dad. It was quite special to hear how about how much Brian is admired.

  

  

Monisha: I feel like when a lot of people grow up and start to learn more about their parents in different contexts, they see more of their flaws and realize that they don’t see eye to eye with them in a lot of regards. One thing that has struck me recently (especially since hearing my mom’s family and now Paco talk about my dad) is that the more I learn and hear about my dad, the more incredible I really he is and the more I look up to him.

One evening we walked to a famous viewpoint in Granada that looked out over the city and had a great view of the Alhambra.

Unfortunately, due to the spontaneous nature of our trip, we didn’t plan our Granada visit long enough ahead of time to get tickets to the Alhambra. We went and walked around the areas that are open to the public and don’t require tickets, and it was quite amazing even without the full tour.

Granada is also one of the most famous cities for its tapas. It is one of the few (maybe the only?) cities that serves tapas in the traditional way: you order a drink, and they bring you a tapa with it. You don’t actually order tapas or choose what tapa you’re getting. As you order more drinks, the tapas become more plentiful and elaborate. It’s a fun way of eating a meal – you don’t have to make any decisions about what to get, and if it’s a good place, they’ll choose yummy things to give you :)

  

Granada was also one of our favorite cities so far to just walk around in. It’s hard to pinpoint what makes different cities feel different. Granada of course has many aspects similar to every other big city. But somehow it feels particularly welcoming and pleasant to be out and about.