Spain: Granada, where you can find Rambutan!

Next stop is Granada. We all took a bus from Alsa, the local bus company. It was a 5-hour ride from Madrid and on our way, we thought we reach some dessert.

View from the bus

Granada is yet another hilly area and we booked this awesome hostel called Rambutan Granada, ran by a few friendly Aussie youngsters. Why rambutan? Because they thought that the hostel property is very hard to look for, just like it is very hard to look for rambutans in Granada, or in fact, the whole Spain. Rambutan Granada is very cosy and has a very beautiful panoramic view of Granada. Except the fact that they keep a cat and dog in the house, I recommend this hostel if anybody’s stopping by Granada.

Great Hostel-Rambutan Granada

Granada is a beautiful place, with cactus all over the path. It is home to the majestic Al-Hambra, which we can have a clear view from our hostel’s balcony. This building housed 4 palaces and 2 gardens. It has architecture from the Arabians, with very delicate carvings. It’s worth the early wake up we took to go to this place.

The Albayzin's majestic AlHambra

 Besides that, at the Sacramonte area, you have the gypsy caves. Yes, there were still gypsy families staying around that area, dressing very hobo-like and playing music that make you want to move your feet.

One of the gypsy cave in Sacramonte

All is beautiful except for the food. First dinner in Granada was a cheat. Being a tourist area, do not expect to find good food. And being a small town, expect their siestas to be longer than the others. So the first day, we weren’t familiar with the area yet. And here comes a big lady, trying to promote her restaurant and food with her rich body language. She even offered us free chips with ham. So we thought we caught a good deal. When the food arrived, we were quite disappointed. We had Paella, salad, and a lot of fried food. The fried food were very oily. Their paella was not the best that we’ve tried. I though it was too wet and the texture is a no good. Everybody was qquite unhappy after dinner. Well, good food makes you laugh but bad food pissed you off.

Chips and Jamon and Sangria

Fresh salad - not appealing

Fried seafood - not fresh and oily

Paella

Probably best thing of the meal - Flan

Second night, we went to this tapas buffet bar, recommended by the staff in our hostel, called Reina Mona. It’s cheap. According to them, for 2 euros each drink, you get to choose 3 types of tapas. So, tapas is the must-eat thing in Spain and I thought that we weren’t having enough. Furthermore, the price was really cheap. Therefore, everybody was really excited about this bar. And their food does look good.

Cold buffet spread

Disappointment hit us again! Their food weren’t as good as we expected. While the others took the 8 euros all-you-can-eat buffet, boyfriend and I only get the 2 euros drink for 3 tapas option. And we were already very stuffed from their lasagne and many other more food. I guess it’s the lack of proper food heating system that caused the food to be cold and thus, not delicious. The fried food were soggy and cold and other food seems to be so not appealing. *Sigh* We were really out of luck with food.
The best thing we had in Granada was the lunch in this small cafe. Their food gives me a very homely feeling. *giggles*
And tribute to the gelato. YES gelato in Spain!

Pretty gelatos

Comfort after lousy meal

 
In general, apart from the food (you can get better food at the plaza in the town although they might be more expensive), Granada is a very beautiful, small town. Flamenco dancing also originates from Granada and boyfriend and I actually planned to catch one show. However, there weren’t enough time for us. But if anyone is dropping by this town do go for a Flamenco show. It is way cheaper than any other towns that we’ve been to. One of the hot recommendation is Le Chien Andalou, they have professional dancers at only 6 euros. I still think it was a waste that we didn’t had more time to stay and watch.

Flamenco that I will never get to watch