Granada: Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday:
Today is another walk around/grocery shopping day.
Tomorrow I plan to wake up really early and brave the dark to the Alhambra to wait in line.

Did a reconisence mission to the Alhambra. There are two roads that lead there. The main one and one that is a lot closer to the hostel. I walked up the closer one at noon and decided it wouldn´t be very safe at 6am in the pitch black. It would just be you and the hills, the scheming gypsys, a back way halfhour long staircase that is only used in the day by people. I had been told you could walk around the Alhambra grounds for free, but it didn`t look like that. However, as I was walking down the main path, I saw a door several people were wakling through, I went up to it, expecting to see a guard, I walked further in and still saw noone other than guests exiting. I entered the grounds. Even though I was going on many a fellow travelers word, I felt like I shouldn`t be there and kept expecting to feel a hand on my shoulder. But the guards were more concerned with the entrence to the palace and the tower to bother with someone walking aroud the museum and bathroom/snack area. I walked back down and got a doner kebab and an icecream cone in the arab bazarr, didn`t feel too good.

I found the bakrey with the amazing chabata bread but it was gone, so I bought a bagette there that was hard and crusty, so i bought large round bread, it was the same.
After a long walk, was a little less elated at the market.

I was looking at the soup stock cubes, bullion cubes and was almost run over by 7 very excited asian women. Bullion! they exclaimed as the filled their arms with it. Each had a years worth supply of bullion cubes in their arms. it was about.39 for 15 cubes... but if anyone could explain this excitement over stock cubes... I know about soup and all but it was very interesting...
but still bought 10 pounds worth of stuff and hauled it back the 2 miles. Walked through several enchanting squares.
I found another bakrey with chabata bread for .80 and bought it. way too much bread. But I knew a way to revive the mediocore stuff.
...........
A little story:
I love bread very much. I love to buy bread. But there was a time in my life where I wasn`t very responsible about eating everything on time, so it would be wasted. And quality wasted bread is sad (that or I wouldn`t want to eat anything but the bread and everything else would rot). I tried not buying it but I go a little loopy if there is no bread anywhere near me. It feels like something is missing. So I started freezing the bread after I had enjoyed a resonable amount of it.
A little nuking, a plate of olive oil and salt later and I had the greatest snack on earth. I always had bread. Well then I moved into a microwave-less apartment. What would I do? How would I live? Then it came to me. I could steam it! i could heat water in a small pan and set the bread on top and the steam from the water would heat and soften the bread.
............
Yesshie the australian english teacherwas also in the kitchen when I got in. Every day we ask eachother what we did. ¨I went to the supermarket¨ I`ll say with a smile. ¨I did to¨ he`ll say and then we have a contest of sorts as we cook as to who had the more fufilling trip. ¨I got artichokes!¨ ¨Well I got brown bread!¨
Gosh I love australian boys. Not in a I want to marry them all kind of way (that I thought I had for anyone english until I heard a cockney accent). They are just nice to have around. I`ll feel like a hostel is lacking, all the guys will annoy me in some way at first and then there will be someone laid back, confident, and fun- and australian.
I proudly showed my lovely bottle of olive oil. ¨This is coming with me¨
Yesshie looked at the delicate class bottle and laughed ¨You are going to take so much energy trying to not break that.¨
¨It has a handle to carry it.¨
But before he could laugh at me too much I presented him with something else to be amused by as I put my hunk of bread over the pot of water. I tried to explain to him the (above) story and howwith a good crusty bread it works. It`s not soggy and it gives it back it`s fresh baked texture. but he couldn`t stop looking at the bread waiting to be steamed and laughing.
¨It makes it taste better.¨
¨You like soggy bread.¨
¨It won`t be soggy¨
We cooked and he kept laughing at me but agreed to try it. ¨It`s warm.¨ Yes it is. BAM!



Met a girl from Argentina with a question about the Alhambra and 5 minutes later I had someone to walk there with in the early morning (on the previsited safe path)


Thursday: Alhambra
Maryanna and I got to the Alhambra at 6:50. There was already 304 people in line. I know because I counted them. I also asked what time the start of the line got there, a little before 5. I can`t count descretly, my head bobs and my head points, so I either got looks of "what the heck is she on..", amused smirks, or people asking me in 5 different languages what number they were. 150 I said. "Ahhh..."
At 8am there were about 1,000 or more in line (I just did a guesstamint for that). And this was on a nontourist crazed day.
I had come prepared and consumed a gronaola bar, a ham sandwhich, two eggs with olive oil and salt, and a salad.
At 8:30 they started getting things going. At 9 we bought our tickets. Because the Alhambra is so popular, only 20 percent of the tickets are available for the public on any given day, the rest are all reserved. And of the shmucks who wait in line the day of, only 80 or something are allowed into the tower and place per hour. So, being #305 we couldn`t enter the palace or tower till 12:30. We could see the genralife gardens (the sultan`s summer retreat, which amused me the first time I heard it. I had been expecting having to do a daytrip to see his summer getaway and then foundout it was a 5 minute walk away.) and the spot I had snuck into yesterday.

More later.
In short the alhambra was amazing and totally worth it. €10 and 7 hours. usually I get bored after a while, but every room and garden i walked into I was struck. Even with all the people, I almost forgot they were there... until I tried to take a picture without people in it. =)

Maryanna needed to grocery shop, and i went along to support her.
And buy .79 pate (tastes like liverwurst.. is it liverwurst?) , lotion, white wine, a .59 dark chocolate bar (yeah, maryanna was going to through away a cake she didn`t like and I ate it... confirming there is no taste adversion to chocolate... but there is an exteme caution still, so that`s good), mushrooms, and olives. Made an amazing asian soup. with a stock cube and fresh lettuce and mushrooms I pan cooked a little first and rice noodles. delicious.