Boondock Puffins

We arrived into Sierra Nevada late on in the evening, about 10pm. In true stereotypical Spanish style, our local friend was fashionably late to collecting us, at 11.30pm we set off from the airport, tired, desperately hungry and happy to be in Spain!

As it was so late in the evening, we weren’t left with a huge range of options for food, and our first taste of Spanish cuisine was the McDonald’s on the way back from the airport… it is worth saying that there were some interesting options that apparently aren’t available in France/England including chicken wings, gazpacho and a McIberica burger!

We finally got back to Granada at 1am and crashed, with an agreement to reconvene at breakfast time to make a plan for our fairly short stay.

The following morning, it was already baking hot, the sun burning down on the earth, and there was no trace of the snow that had been coating the ski resort which rests at the top of the mountains in the background. Realising that if we wanted to do any form of exercise, it was going to have to be as soon as we woke up, Tom and I headed off into the mountains to explore.

We returned as tired and sweaty messes from the inclines and unforgiving heat, and collapsed onto a chair on the shaded balcony to enjoy coffee and wait for our friends to wake up. When the Spanish body clock eventually went off, our host treated us to a perfect, simple breakfast of avocados on toast. I should say that, having lived in a ski resort for the last 6 months, avocados have been both scarce and entirely unaffordable.

Having gathered ourselves together, we went for a tour around Granada with our friend as guide. It was notable just how much he knew about his local area, more than the average English person would know about their own town or city, certainly! While scuttling from shaded place to shaded place, we covered a lot of ground. Some of our highlights were:

1) Alhambra (after which the beer is named too!)

2) A trip into the school of architecture.

3) Admiration of the works of art by local artist El Niño de las Pinturas (actual name Raul Ruiz).

4) Visit to a Mirador (a ‘scenic point’)

The day culminated in an excellent lunch and drinks at the Café Bar Miador de la Lona by the Placeta de San Miguel Bajo, where we were treated to a mix of local specialties, all of which were to be recommended.

Embracing the lifestyle (and trying to survive the heat), we headed back to our friend’s house for a siesta, prior to an evening of socialisation with a group of mostly only Spanish speakers. Top tip: if you want to be entertained while sitting in on a conversation in a foreign language that you have no way of even beginning to understand, imagine everyone as minions and watch out for facial expressions and laughter – it makes the whole thing much more bearable and you can look like you are genuinely engaged while still having no clue what is happening!