The Best of Southern Spain

So after Lisbon we thought we had it all planned out. We were originally planning on visiting southern Spain since it's another significant part of the country to visit during a European tour.

Seville is one of the main destinations for tourists visiting southern Spain, so we thought we could just hop on a train and Eurail there from Lisbon. We got a little naive and found out that it's not that easy, so we had to replan it a little bit. Somehow, Alex found out about some town called Merida in Spain, which is a few hours away from Lisbon by bus. We were able to get a host there from couchsurfing so we were in agreement that that would be the next destination. It would also buy us more time to find hosts in Seville, or even Granada (another popular southern Spain destination), since we were having trouble finding anyone that could host us in those cities.

We met up with our host, Pedro, in Merida which ended up being great because we got there in the afternoon and it was a Sunday, so Pedro had time to hang out with us and show us some of the city. Merida is known for its Roman ruins, which it has a lot of scattered throughout the city. A lot of the ruins were even just hanging out downtown, so you'd be walking around the city and then BOOM, you get your fix of Roman ruins, which is always fun. So we saw a lot of cool ruins there and got excited for Rome. But the rest of the city was pretty cool too and Merida is much smaller than many of the other cities that we typically visit, so it was nice to be in a quieter place. The day went fast in Merida but we were thankful for Pedro's hospitality, and he was a great host. 

The next day we had to leave his apartment early and had a pretty interesting experience: The first thing we wanted to do was go to the train station to try and catch a train to Seville, which was only a couple hours away, and sort of part of the original plan. Buuut the daily direct train there had already left earlier that morning, so my first thought was BlaBlaCar (which we had taken before from Berlin to Amsterdam), and sure enough, I found someone who could drive us from Merida to Seville for cheap. I tried calling him but the catch was that he couldn't speak English. The phone call was a failure, but thank god for Google Translate because after a couple quick text messages our driver was able to pick us up from the train station and take us to Seville. 

It was a fun little two hour ride, full of silence and questions asked from Google translated Spanish with answers that I couldn't understand, which resulted in me nodding and responding, "si si, bien bien." But it worked out, and he was a nice guy. He even dropped us off at the Seville train station, where we found out that we could take a train to Granada for only 4 euros each with our Eurail passes, which we did. We had a few hours to kill so we saw about one main sight in Seville and then killed some more time before hopping on the train to Granada.

A nice view of Plaza de Espana in Seville

When we got to Granada we were pretty exhausted so we didn't do much the first night. We had planned to do a walking tour of the city the following day but it was real rainy so we stayed in and relaxed in the morning, and then began our tapas experience in the afternoon. For those who aren't familiar with tapas, it's one of Spain's main culinary claims to fame, especially southern Spain. The way it works is you go to a place that serves tapas, you order a drink (which is usually always relatively cheap), and you get a free dish of food with it. Our minds were blown. Depending on the place, you might just get your first dish free, or you might not get any tapas for free with a drink. But Granada is one of the few remaining places in Spain that sticks to the old tradition: for every drink you order, you get a free serving of tapas. The dishes usually vary, and from my experience, they just surprise you by bringing something delicious out. I'm not sure if you can be picky and tell them exactly which tapas you want without being charged but we were completely okay with being surprised with food after only paying a couple euros for a drink. The usual dishes consisted of the local roasted jamón (or ham) and some rice and bread, which was absolutely delicious. Because it was raining most of the day, what else were we supposed to do? We couldn't get enough of the deal, and every single time we ordered a drink we'd get a plate of food with it...every time. It was too good to pass up, and I have no idea how any of these places stayed in business. We would basically bar-hop, having one drink and tapas at each place, then go to another one. 

Great view of Granada and the Alhambra

After a few hours of nonstop drinking and eating, we met up with Kelly, our friend from Reno, who joined us in our Granada adventures. I had heard of some Gypsy caves nearby which sounded pretty interesting, and I saw that there was a tour being offered to check them out later that day. We decided to take the tour, and it was totally worth it. These caves were unreal. They were completely man-made, dug into a hillside overlooking the entire city, including the Alhambra. These gypsies literally had the best view in town, and they weren't paying a single penny for their living situation. They were tapping into all of their own electricity and water supply, and there were some pretty sophisticated cave setups. Some even had their own satellite dishes to amplify wifi signals for some free internet. It was really impressive, and it was difficult to resist the urge to move into one right then and there and just live there for a few years, but unfortunately the tour had to continue. We ended the tour at a cave bar of course, and yes, it had tapas. We spent the rest of the evening seeing a really interesting flamenco show and having more tapas. Flamenco is the traditional style of music and dance of southern Spain and it's definitely worth checking out. We had eaten tapas and drank all day. I was completely full all day and I think I had already gained at least 5 pounds over the course of the first day we were there.

The next day was really productive and we saw one of my favorite sites of the trip so far. The Alhambra is a pretty special place. It's the main tourist attraction in Granada, and for good reason. It's basically a large palace/castle district built up on this hill with spectacular views of the surrounding area. It's difficult not to indulge in the peaceful, euphoric atmosphere that radiates from this place, and it's one of those "you've got to see it to believe it" kind of places. We spent a few hours there before returning to reality, and I already felt like our day was complete. There's not much else to say about the Alhambra other than it's the most visited tourist attraction in Spain, and I highly recommend seeing this place, as words just don't do it justice. The rest of the day was quiet as we continued to stuff ourselves with tapas and churros and chocolate (which was WAY too much food). 

I think it's safe to say that Granada may be my favorite destination in Spain so far, with one more city here to go. It was great having another random meet up with old friends, catching up with Kelly, and having her join us in Granada. I couldn't be happier with our trip there and I'm happy to say that I undeniably took advantage of the tapas culture. 

Looking forward to see what Madrid has in store for us!