Recently I had a conversation with a friend of mine about
luck, karma, and other hocus-pocusy superstitions. Although I can’t really say why, some part of me has always
believed in this stuff. At least a little bit. I mean just check the name of this blog. I don’t believe in psychics or
mind-readers or that aliens have already invaded the earth, but fate, good booga-booga , etc., these sorta things just seem to be around us.
Not too long ago, I went to
Granada for some Spanish holiday called a puente (Memo to Self: look up
Puente) and found not only a great time and amazing tapas, but also a little
more evidence (for lack of a better word) for these kinda supernatural things.
Luck
Over the years I've developed a pretty wicked internal alarm clock and I
normally wake up about 3 minutes before my alarm goes off. I think it's
my body's irrational way of giving the middle finger to a device that
is designed to interrupt slumber. Like saying "Gonna try to walk me
up? Screw you, alarm. Already awake." That being said, alcohol
does tend to hit my biological snooze button. So going out until 6 am
the night before I had a 10:30 bus ride was probably not the best idea.
Needless to say when my travel buddy, Phoebe, called me at 9:20 am I
was not packed, not dressed, and not awake. Things did not look good.
But then the metro was waiting for me when I ran into the station and
when I arrived at 10:29 at the bus station, which was crowded with over 60 buses,
something pulled me straight to the bus to Granada. And that lovely,
lucky bus took me here...
GRANADA!
Good Karma
The idea that what goes around comes around is an intriguing one. Even the littlest good deed can pay off and vice versa. I firmly believe that in Granada, the main source of good karma is the tapas. All of Spain is known for tapas, or the small servings of food that come for free with a drink purchase at a bar. In Granada they up their game; you get full freaking meals. For 5 euros you get all that you see below...
And sending these tasty vibes out into the universe shows in Granada. The people are happy, nice, surrounded daily by beauty. Not to mention well fed.
Bad Karma
Our second day in Granada I noticed this...
That's the Bank of Spain with the word "Ladrones" spray-painted on the front. Ladrones means thieves. Just goes to show that in any culture if you screw people over enough they'll get pissed and it'll come back to bite you in the form of graffiti and large public protests.
Jinx
A mix of modern design and Arabic buildings, Granada is absolutely breath taking. And it's crown jewel is the Alhambra. Originally a palace and fortress for Arabic Sultans, construction on the Alhambra began around 1237. And despite being about 800 years old, the entirety of the ginormous complex is still amazingly well preserved. Phoebe and I spent 5 hours walking around and taking in the architecture...
the views...
and the gardens...
(you know just a stairway with waterfall railings)
Every corner I turned I said something along the lines of "I can't
believe everything here is so fabulous. This city and trip is amazing."
Unfortunately in a 13th century stone palace there's very little wood to knock on.
The original Granada travel plan was to stay 2 nights in a hostel and then save money by spending the final night dancing away in a club and catching the first bus back to Madrid. We had worked things out with the hostel so that we could leave our luggage at the hostel until the morning we had to leave. The only catch was that we needed our key to get back into the hostel that early for our luggage.
And of course I lost the key, foiling our glorious plan.
Everything Happens for a Reason
So Phoebe "The Awesome Aussie" and I woke up on Saturday and realize we have no where to put our luggage, no where to stay, and no money to go clubbing all night. Plus I'm uber-pissed at myself for losing the key and our 10 euro key deposit. Stressed and exhausted, we consider our options. And then we just look at each other and know: it's time to leave Granada. As great as the city is I'm fairly certain that if we'd tried to stay out all night, with out luggage, until the 7am bus, we would have died. I'm sure it would have been an interesting death, but still not the ending we were going for.
Destiny/Fate
After changing our bus tickets (it only cost us 1.30 euro), Phoebe and I are looking for a way to fill our last few hours in this wonderful city. So while looking at the map we found it: Plaza de los Lobos. But I've gotten ahead of myself.
In those tense moments before I arrived at the bus station, Phoebe was convinced that I wasn't going to make it and that she'd have to go to Granada alone. The direct quote was "I was ready to lone wolf it up." This of course prompted a conversation about how we were two lone wolves that had found each other and formed an awesome pack (thank you Alan from the Hangover). So the joke became that we were a wolf pack on the prowl in Granada. For those of you that don't know lobo is wolf in Spanish. So it was fate, it was destiny, that our wolf pack should come to Granada and head to the Plaza de los Lobos and that said plaza should be covered with graffiti like this...
Granada, you're freaking insane and I loved every minute of you. But there's a price for such awesomeness and for me it was a horrible cold. I've been all snot and sneezes since the bus pulled back into Madrid (TMI, I know) But I guess there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
K Learns Spanish: Lesson 11
granada- pomegranate. Ironically didn't see a single one on the trip.
cazar- to hunt as in La banda de las lobas esta cazando. Siempre.
destino- destiny, fate
boogabooga- there is no direct translation into Spanish
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