Granada = The Easy Life

I had a really good day yesterday. I lazed about in the sunshine for an hour, chatted with an Italian guy who had the same idea and then hung out in my room with 2 guys from Argentina for an hour or so. Went downstairs to the hostel bar and chatted with the really friendly German bartender about everything under the sun while she fed me the best kiwi flavored cocktails I've ever had, and Johann showed up shortly before 9.

We went for tapas at a place near my hostel, had a few more drinks, grabbed some ice cream and then went walking across the Plaza Nueva so I could show him the Alhambra by night.

As we were walking across, we saw a street performer, a clown of some sort doing his performance. He spotted us and our ice cream and came charging up to me to demand that I let him try a taste. I ended up feeding almost the remainder of my bowl to him, which earned me a big wet sloppy kiss on my cheek.

He was brilliantly funny though, and we watched his entire performance along with close to 300 other people who stopped to check him out.

He did gags, pulled people out from the audience to assist him (which I think everyone enjoyed doing) and was a very talented gymnast.

I felt like crap that I only had about 70 cents to give him at the end. I can respect that. Granada is full of transients, hippies and homeless people who all beg or do crappy busking performances and here was one truly talented guy who entertained us for over 1/2 an hour, and all I had was less than a lousy dollar to give him.

We made it up to the Alhambra, and I showed him where my old hostel was since the view is sublime from there. He headed up solo to snap some pictures, and I hung out and waited. I can't imagine how awkward it would be to run into clique central on their turf, and admittedly started getting quite nervous the longer he was taking.

After he finished up on the hill, we headed back, and watched some street musicians. Johann snapped a few more shots while I made friends with some of the stray dogs running around the plaza, and tried to decide which of the motley looking mutts was in actuality, the cutest.

About midnight, Johann headed back to his hostel to get some sleep, so he could be up bright and early to queue to see the Alhambra this morning, and I went back to mine.

Met up with 3 med students from Malaysia there and we drank a bottle of wine on the roof terrace and discussed world politics for a few hours.

Why must I always talk politics when I'm drinking? Not that it wasn't really good fun, because it was, and I always enjoy intelligent conversation, but I always seem to pick the most volatile topics when I've had a few drinks.

Went to bed at around 2:30 and hauled myself up at 10. Minced around the room for a bit in my underwear looking for clothing, and trying not to wake one of the 3 guys that apparently came to bed after me. Had I known I was sharing my room with all men, I probably would have sucked it up and worn pajamas.

Anyway, I assume Johann made it into the Alhambra since I haven't heard anything from him all morning

We have plans this afternoon to catch the train to a beach town called Almeria along the eastern coast of Spain for a day, and then I plan to head to Valencia and Barcelona in the next few days.

I wish I had planned for more eventualities, I'm already at least 3 days behind schedule, and really more like 5 or 6 if I plan to stay more than a day in either Valencia or Barcelona. I had an offer to join a group crossing the ferry to Morocco and that would have been great fun, but I know I don't have the time, and already am trying to get heartless about what I can cut out of Italy, or if I even have time for Greece this run.

Oh, how I hate decisions.