Granada, Spain

3^rd - 4^th May

I never really wrote anything for Granada before we'd moved on so far that I feel a little silly writing this 2 weeks later. So I'll be brief and just summarise that Granada is on my now rather lengthy list of most liveable cities. The city is nestled against the Sierra Nevada mountains with much of the town built up along the foothills. Perched at the top of a hillside is the Alhambra – a UNESCO World Heritage Site which is the biggest draw for tourists.

We were warned at our campsite to book tickets in advance as the queues could be very long and it was even unlikely that you'd get in on the same day. Not to mention that we'd turned up on a bank holiday weekend, so the crowds were especially thick. Unfortunately we found all of this out around 9:30am on the morning we were planning to go and the man at reception gave a little chuckle when we asked about going that day.

Books in hand to keep us preoccupied in the lengthy queues, we arrived around 10:30am and wandered around trying to figure out where to buy tickets. A huge queue snaked from the main ticket building and looked like at least a 2 hour wait, but then I noticed another obscure sign pointing the opposite direction for reservations. We followed a maze of barricades to the back of a building that wasn't visible from the street and stumbled upon a row of 4 ticket machines with 2-3 people queueing. Surely this wasn't right, but we hopped in line and walked up to the machines, purchased 2 tickets and out they popped, complete with a reservation to see the most beautiful part of the palace at 18:00. The rest of the grounds were open to browse throughout the day. Feeling quite proud of ourselves, we walked past the hundreds of people still waiting in the other queues, vowing to share our secret to any fellow Kiwis or Americans in the crowd.

The sun beat down on us but the Alhambra grounds are so vast that it literally took us until 4pm to explore them. Gardens, a massive mud bricked fortress and the views overlooking Granada are definitely worth fighting through the crowds, and the Islamic/Spanish architecture in the main palace certainly sums up why the site is now so heavily protected. I'll let our photos tell you the rest of the story, but Granada is definitely worth a long weekend break if you haven't visited this intriguing town.

Granada Photo Album

Vejer de la Frontera, Spain

Fri 25th April - Sun 27th April

According to the tourist office, Vejer was voted the most beautiful town in Europe in the 1970's and it's easy to see why. Situated on a hilltop overlooking the mediterranean, Vejer is a fortress of white Spanish terraced flats stacked on top of eachother, complete with a church tower and a small castle at the very top. You'll need your asthma inhaler to explore the steep streets but it's definitely worth getting lost in this small maze of shops and tapas bars just to stumble across an incredible view overlooking the other side of the city clinging to the hilltop.

One of my best friends in London, Charlotte, was kind enough to loan us her parents' flat in this town which we would have otherwise overlooked on our trip. I hate to write about it now and risk that others might discover its beauty so if you're reading this, promise you will not tell anyone else about it!

After weeks in a leaky van and the freezing cold, we were ecstatic to move indoors to a flat in the centre of town. Campsites aren't all that bad, but they're never located within walking distance of the city, so you're always committed to a bus journey and cooking in the van at night. The sheer luxury of sleeping in a full bed without having to build it first and walking out to dinner made us seriously consider signing up for Spanish lessons and packing in the rest of the trip to stay for the summer. Doubtful that Charlotte's parents would have been keen to that idea, we decided just to appreciate the flat for a few days and remember what it was like to have a stable household.

Thank you Van der Meersch family!! Talk about the best daily life routine you could ever ask for! We'd awake in the morning and walk down to the local panaderia for fresh bread. After helping ourselves to a fresh cup of espresso at the cafe overlooking miles of rolling green hills, we would climb back up the white cement stairs and sit on the roof overlooking the Med while munching on yogurt and fresh bread. Afterwards we'd either wander the streets in town, take a tour or just sit on the roof and read a book until it was lunch time. Lunch = sangria and tapas, followed by a few Cruz Campo, the local beer. By 3pm, you're feeling pretty sleepy and it's siesta time so we would curl up in the very cool tiled bedroom and awake just in time for a stroll around town at sunset. What a life!!

If you are considering visiting Vejer (which we definitely recommend!) check out El Cobijo for rooms. Susanna (the owner) is extremely friendly and the rooms are beautiful and cozy. You will not be disappointed.

Sevilla, Spain

Thurs 24th April

A few years ago my cousin, Amanda, decided to do a semester of studying Spanish in Sevilla, Spain. She came back to the states fluent in Spanish and sporting a level of fashion that convinced me Sevilla was on my list of places to visit. As one of our fellow campers put it, "You will find more history and culture in Sevilla than the entire country of New Zealand or the USA." I think he may have been right.

In Porto, we'd run across a few English speakers who recommended Sevilla but warned us that it was a tourist trap. I can see what they meant, but I still think it's definitely worth a visit as it's one of the friendlier, beautiful and laid back cities to visit in Spain. Just watch what time of year you visit! We arrived in late April and it was 34 degrees celsius -- the hottest temperatures we had encountered on our trip so far.

Our campsite was about a 30 minute ride away from Sevilla and thanks to my hundreds of mosquito bites, I was feeling a little apprehensive about venturing out in public. Thirty-one years old and a zit still makes me feel self-conscious, much less 300 hundred welts swelling on my face. I whipped on the biggest sunglasses I could find and we hit the city tour bus to soak in as many sights as possible within 24 hours.

Sevilla has it all -- from one of the best bull rings in Spain to a labyrinth of cool shops and cafes hidden down narrow streets, you could easily lose yourself in this city for days and not get bored. I loved it and wished we had longer to visit here, and had my cousin Amanda to show us around.

But one downfall is not really its fault. It's the number of American exchange students living in this city that transform how you view the local life. We were shocked by the number of 20-something American voices in the streets on their mobile phones saying, "Yah man, what happened in class today? Dude... I'm walking around with Trish cause we just couldn't make it to class. It's too hot yo!"

My end opinion is to definitely visit Sevilla and enjoy its beauty, but avoid April when American spring break hits and June - August during the heat of summer.