Strike & Hike

November 14 was an important day across Europe. It was the European Day of Action and Solidarity, in which millions of labor union workers in 23 European countries joined together in protests and strikes. The strike of November 14 is the biggest Europe has ever seen, with an enormous workforce joining together in unity to make a statement to their policymakers. Their slogan, “we have no future!,” sums up their feelings, doubts, fears, and anger about the current situation.

For Spaniards, affected by the “crisis,” as they commonly call it, it was a day of national strike where over 80% of the workforce joined to protest against the government’s austerity measures that include public spending cuts in critical areas such as education and healthcare. The crisis has hit Spain especially hard, with their 26% unemployment rate making the United States’ 7.9% unemployment look like chump change. Some bigger cities were affected badly by the strike, with police cars being set on fire in Barcelona and bloody clashes between protesters and police in Madrid.

Protesters on the main Ave in Granada. Police monitoring.

The issue felt closer to me thanks to my professors, who fully supported and almost participated in the strike in their own ways. One professor cancelled class to attend a morning demonstration. The other surrendered control of the attendance list and only showed up to work because she believed it was an unjust practice to not pay workers for a day they take off to strike. Many others I know did a consumption strike, purchasing nothing on that day and not taking part in any work or school related activities.

As a foreigner I feel like it is not my place to protest for someone else’s government and try to make another population’s issue my issue. Instead, I tried to do my part by taking part in a strike against general consumption, heading into the Sierra Nevada for a day hike.

The hike I took is a popular one called Los Cahorros, easily accessible by Granada in the nearby village of Monachil. It is a circuit hike of 8km that takes about 2 hours to complete. For a relatively easy hike, it is very diverse and fun. It starts with a quick, uphill walk through the outskirts of the village to the beginning of a gorge. You cross a long, wood and cable bride to get inside the gorge where you walk along the river on a narrow shelf of rock, at some points being forced to crawl or grip rock outcroppings to slide by.

After the end of the gorge there are plenty of open green spaces to relax and eat lunch along the river, surrounded by the beautiful mountains of the Sierra Nevada.

Beautiful.

Unfortunately, there was not much to continue the hike after this point as the path was blocked off nearly at the top of a nearby hill. I climbed past the barrier to see the view from the top but didn’t want to take a chance continuing further without knowing why the path was closed.

The riverside walk was really cool, crawling half under caves and over ravines.

A pretty kitty that made friends with us.

To find my way to and through this hike I used a guide created by the people of Trek Sierra Nevada, an excellent resource to people looking to explore this beautiful piece of Andalucia. On their website, http://www.treksierranevada.com/, you can find descriptions of many hikes with distance, difficulty level, estimated time, how to get there, and walking directions with a map. All the guides were written by the people who have actually done the walk themselves. I suggest anyone in Granada to take advantage of this bountiful resource to get outside the city and enjoy all that the Sierra Nevada has to offer!

Tasting Spain: Paella

Paella is more than just a Spanish tradition, a time-honored dish representing Spain around the world…it’s delicious. A bed of yellow rice slowly cooked in a broth infused with spices, a mix of vegetables and, typically, an assortment of seafood from shrimp and clams to mussels and calamari (paella de marisco). Valencian paella, the original paella, had more land-based meats such as chicken or duck along with some beans. Either way, the result is a rich and savory dish enjoyed by all.

If you ever are in Spain and looking out for a place to try out some of this delicious Spanish, avoid places with signs with pictures! You can find these exact same signs set up on the street all over Spain and all it means is that this restaurant buys frozen paella, all pre-prepared, and merely heats it up when you order it. I actually tasted a sample of this wanna-be paella when a friend of mine ordered it and they brought it out in 15 minutes. Not only was the rice still hard, but the seafood in the dish was scarce and hard to find.

On the other hand, if you go to a restaurant and order paella only to be informed by your waiter you must call ahead for it to be prepared, do not be too disappointed! It just means they take pride in crafting their paella from scratch from individual orders and it will be completely worth it when you return the next day. Another hint my program director shared with us: if your paella still has eyes, it’s good.

I’ve been told that paella is a popular lunch to get on a beach day, so when I visited the beach of Salobreña, a mere hour bus ride from Granada, I clearly had to partake in this Spanish tradition. This freshly prepared for the lunch crowd, affirmed by a small sign I saw next to the bar indicating that all the seafood was sourced from the nearby Malaga seaport. (Yes, it was exactly as delicious as it looks, if not better…and it had eyes!)

Salobreña beach, it’s really quite nice.

The moral of this story is…don’t come to Spain and leave without trying paella! Especially if you’re in the Valencian region of Spain. And since many bars offer it as a tapa, there really is no excuse.

El Bañuelo

El Bañuelo is just one of those things that, if you’re spending any time in Granada at all, you don’t really have an excuse not to visit it. It is an old public Arab bath (hammam) located right on Paseo de Los Tristes (or Carrera del Darro) that is free to get into and open from 10am to 2pm on Tuesdays through Saturdays. Keep your eyes out though! It’s quite easy to miss though it’s right on the road.

It’s pretty small, but a good opportunity to see an authentic Arab bath unchanged from the time it was used in the past. You can easily stop by and check it out for a few minutes and then continue walking up along the road to see a decent view from below of the Alhambra and continue your explorations in the Albaycin or relax in one of the cafés along the street for a cup of tea or some ice cream.

 

Passeo de los Tristes/Carrero del Darro, El Bañuelo is down this road.

View of the Alhambra over the river.

A strange sight in a window…

Gibraltar and Ceuta

This weekend I had what is probably my best couchsurfing experiences yet (out of a grand total of 2 officially using Couchsurfing.org) in the British territory of Gibraltar. For those of you who aren’t in the know, couchsurfing is a way to travel the world, meeting locals, and staying on their couches (or beds, hammocks, air mattresses, whatever they have) for free. A free membership on the couchsurfing website grants you access to the worldwide network of hosts, surfers, and people who sign up on the website just to meet other locals and travelers on their website. While there are a lot of pros and cons to using this type of system, I’m not here to discuss that. I do my own vetting and research to find a reliable host and have always surfed with a friend so far.

Our host :)

Gibraltar is nearly the southernmost point of Europe (beat out only by the Spanish city Tarifa), a small outcropping hosting the famous Rock of Gibraltar. You can see the not-too-distant mountains of Morocco and Ceuta in the distance on a relatively clear day from Europa Point.

Europa Point

The smaller land on the left is Ceuta, the mountains on the right are Morocco.

So arriving to Gibraltar is relatively easy. Though there are sometimes direct buses to La Línea de la Concepción, the small town right on the Spanish side of the border, we (my friend Amy and I) took a bus from Granada to the nearby port town of Algeciras.  The bus totaled to a little less than 50€ roundtrip, plus an additional 2.30€ for the bus from Algeciras to La Línea and walked 5 minutes from the bus station to the border crossing. The border itself was a joke, you can definitely just flash any small ID-shaped card or passport looking book to get through, the guards care so little. Immediately after the border there’s a British-style red public phone box (perfect for taking tourist photos!) before you have to cross the airstrip for the Gibraltar Airport.

Algeciras

Gib runway

We met our host right away and walked with him to the main square, Casemates Square, where he was finishing up dinner with his friends. After hanging out for a while and getting to know them, he drove us up to the top of the Rock to play with the infamous Gibraltar monkeys. I’m not sure what I expected, but it certainly wasn’t the hoards of caramel-colored monkeys, some with babies clinging to their fronts or backs, crowding around and reaching into pockets in search of food. Though feeding them is illegal because they can get somewhat testy, our host brought a bag of grapes to tease them with. Afterwards, he finally brought us to his house so we could put our bags in our room and relax. The view from his balcony was fantastic.

T’was the season for baby monos.

The next day was exciting because it would be the first time either of us had stepped onto Africa! Visiting the autonomous Spanish town Ceuta on the northern coast of Africa, sharing a border with Morocco, added another continent to our tally. The easiest way to get to Ceuta is by taking a ferry from Algeciras. The high speed ferry is 62€ round trip across the board (worth it compared to the slower ferry at 59€ round trip) and though its advertised to take only half an hour, it reality the journey is around an hour. Once you land in Ceuta, the city is so small you can walk to anywhere of interest, including the beach, where we spend over an hour combing for sea glass.

On the “fast ferry” to Ceuta!

Playa La Ribeira.

While relaxing in a café later, we wished we had woken up earlier to spend more time in Ceuta since we only had the choice of ferries going back at 6pm and 9pm. This is the biggest downside to couchsurfing as I see it. Though it would not deter me from couchsurfing, you can’t just go in and out as you please like you could in a hostel or hotel. We wanted to make sure we got back to Gibraltar at a reasonable time so that our host would not be put out having to pick us up. It turns out we actually got back at the perfect time though (and we got stamps at the border!), as we had enough time to stop and get some food before hanging out with him and his friends for a really fun night in Gibraltar.

Yes!

The next morning, we had enough time to drive around a bit and visit Europa point, St. Michael’s Cave, and the tunnels carved into the Rock before heading back to the bus station to return to Granada. One of the biggest perks to couchsurfing is insider local knowledge and discounts. We got to visit the cave and tunnels for free thanks to our host’s Gib resident card, whereas if we were on our own we would have paid around 40£ for them both (rough estimate, around $80USD). In that case, I would have just skipped them, but I’m glad I didn’t have to! After this weekend, I really can’t wait to surf again next week in Alicante, introducing another one of my friends to the joys of free accommodation with extra perks and making new friends.

The view from one of the tunnel lookouts.

St. Michael’s Cave

A beautiful mosque in front of the Rock at Europa Point. 

Street Art in Granada: A Photoessay

Vibrant colors, detailed portraits, emotionally charged visualizations. You might find these things in an art gallery or a museum, by all you really need to do is spend an afternoon or two wandering around the streets of Granada to see some of the most stunning and personal art. At least to me, the graffiti and murals on the side of building and shops’ metal barriers are some of the most captivating works I’ve seen, not only describing the artist or the place, but the people of Granada and Spain as a whole.

We see not only some great creativity in making even the most boring things eye –catching and beautiful:

But also Granada’s vibrant music scene:

People making statements:

And looks into the gritty reality of what has passed these walls:

But then some things are encouraging and hopeful for the future:

And you can tell these people take pride in their work, their city, their freedom, their people, and their county. They love what they’re doing:

The art I find in the street speaks the most to me. It represents the person who is not represented elsewhere, whose art would not make it into a gallery or a museum. Some people such as Banksy, Os Gemeos, and Harper Ferry have managed to make strong statements through their street art and I like to recognize those artists who speak to their own people through a medium they encounter every day. This is one way I understand Granada.

The Red Fortress

I didn’t really know what I was getting into at the time, but after trudging through the cold drizzle, up a massive hill, and fighting my way through hordes of tourists I finally got to see why the Alhambra is such a big deal.

An artist’s depiction of the area below on the street leading the the Alhambra.

To start off, even in the rain, hundreds of years after the colorful paint decorating walls and ceilings faded away and people have altered and “restored” the beauty, it still holds its original elegant and detailed beauty, where unbelievable effort way put into every single colored tile along with all the delicate-looking stalactite arches carved along the ceilings.

Every single room I walked into made me stop and stare, and just as I thought it couldn’t get any better I walked into another, even more elegant and precise work of art, whether it was a trellised garden or a foyer.

It also helped that I could tell our group’s guide absolutely loved his job. He passionately explained the history and reasons behind such minute details of the house, such as curved entranceways (so outsiders cannot look directly into the building) and the continuing motif of water (fountains, small rivers) and green (gardens, plants) to foster tranquility and peace.

As the palace and fortress of the Berbers occupying the top of the tallest hill in the Albaycin, it shows the advanced skills and appreciation of beauty and elegance by the Muslim rulers that once occupied southern Spain before the Reconquista. You really have to go see it for yourself to truly believe and appreciate what a work of art it is. And while you’re at it, look out all the windows. The overlooking panorama of Granada and the Sierra Nevada is stunning.

Toledo, the Walled City of Swords

On the way to Granada, we had a one-day side trip to the Old City of Toledo, right south of Madrid. Toledo used to be the center of the Spanish Empire and a place where the Christians, Muslims, and Jews of Spain could mingle peacefully before the Jews were prosecuted and forced to convert to Christianity.

We took a panoramic bus tour of the city before crossing over the San Martín bridge, a medieval, bridge crossing the Tagus River, to enter into the Old City.

Sheep’s enjoying the view.

The old, nineteenth century Gothic Cathedral and the main cathedral of the city are gorgeous buildings, with a mixture of Gothic and baroque styling including small jokes left behind by the builders.

Though there are not even enough Jews in the city to have any official Jewish meet, or minyan, which requires at least 10 Jewish men, there are still remnants of the old Jewish culture from before the persecution sprinkled throughout the city. The Synagogue de el Transito is one of them, an old synagogue now hosting the Sephardic (a word designating a Jew whose ancestry is Spanish) Museum.

There are also a lot of swords. Everywhere. And some pretty interestingly themed ones.

In our explorations, a friend and I got lost and somehow found outside the city walls. In our search for a way to get back inside, we stumbled upon a set of epic elevators leading back up to the city from below. Later on, I discovered these escalators actually won many national and international awards for their design and functionality.

I really enjoyed wandering around Toledo and taking in the rich history, which is very well preserved in the Old City compared to many more modernized cities. But at the end of the day, I’m excited to finally be heading down to Granada and settling into what will be my home for the next three months!

Gourmet burger vending machine found while lost…hmm…