Albaicin - seeing Alhambra from a distance

Three posts within a week and then a longer silence. After the whole birthday/end of schoolyear/ K.'s eye surgery whirlwind, I can finally sit down and write a new post.

Last time I wrote a few words about our first impressions of Granada.

If you remember, my husband offered to get up early in the morning and try to get us tickets to Alhambra palaces. Did he succeed? Did he even manage to get up that early? How was it?

When I woke up in the morning, he wasn't there. It was still very early, but I couldn't sleep anymore. I was too excited and too nervous at the same time. I stayed in my sleping bag, though, cause I didn't want to wake up the kids. I was staring at my phone so intensly that I could almost see through it. I was waiting for some kind of a message from K. A watched pot never boils. Nothing. Not even a lame, old "I got there" or "I'm still waiting". For all I knew, he could have just left us there and gone home. Or anywhere else for that matter. You'd say I could have texted him myself. That's true. But then again, I didn't want to butt at least this time.

The kids got up, got ready for breakfast. We sat at a table when I finally got a message. "I'm coming back". That's it?? Seriously?? No information?? Did he get the tickets?? For which session? Are we even going to get in? Anything? No, why should he. Why give any information to the person most interested, right? No, that's so not right.

Ok, he got back, sat at the table with us and started telling us the whole story while eating breakfast. He got there around 6 a.m., two hours prior to the opening of the ticket offices. It was still totally dark, apart from the tiny path lights a few inches above the ground. The line was already about 200 m long. He sat down, took out his book (luckily the end of the line was near one of the path lights) and started waiting. By eight o'clock, the line was three times as long.

Eight o'clock. The time of truth. The fight for the remaining tickets begins. The ticket offices are open. They started selling the tickets. When K. got close to the top of the line, he heard a message in Spanish (a language he doesn't speak). The only word he could understand was "finito". The end.

Next the message was given in French, which he luckily speaks, cause it calmed him down (before the message was given in English). Tickets were sold out, but for the morning session. They informed that they started selling the tickets for the afternoon one. So there was still hope.

He then took out four tickets for the afternoon. The session started at two p.m. and we had tickets for the Nasrid Palaces for 6:30 p.m. (if I remember correctly). My dreams were about to come true!

We decided not to waste too much time at the campsite and go see the Albaicin. It's an old Moorish district of Granada with a wonderful view of Alhambra from the tower of St. Nicholas' Church.

We got on the bus to Albaicin in the city centre and... we didn't know when to get off. Nobody was saying anything, giving no clues. The bus was going through narrow streets, up a hill. When it seemed like it was staring to go down, I decided it was time to get off the bus. And so we did. It turned out the bus is going in circles (not to and from). And we got off at exactly the point where we wanted to get off. Right at St. Nicholas Church. Talk about perfect timing to make a decision ;)

We got on the tower first. To see Granada. To see Alhambra. To see the rooftops of Albaicin. It was perfect.

Then we went out the church, decided to get back to the town centre on foot. Through the narrow streets of Albaicin. Inbetween the beautiful white buildings. All so calm, so quiet. Until we heard the first noises from the shops selling all kinds of clothes, teas, herbs, spices, souvenirs.

We got back to one of the squares close to the Cathedral, sat at one of the restaurants and had the best paella we had in Spain. We were waiting for the time to come. For 2 p.m. For entering the grounds of the Palaces of Alhambra.

(A little bit of Poland in Southern Spain. The coffee cups in which coffee was served in the restaurant, are manufactured in Łubiana, a place an hour and a half drive from our home)

Where we met with Isabel I of Castile

Let's go with the flow and write another post! Third one within a week. I'm definitely on the roll! Or want to finish what I've started. Either way...

We're going to stay in one place for a few posts now. Basically, because we all liked this place and there's some things I want to describe. And, most importantly, the place was so beautiful that there are many things I want to show you. Although we just spent there only a day and a half.

Our #Eurotrip2016 was a lot about making mama's dreams come true. Our next stop was also a lot for me.

Having reached Gibraltar, we were ready to head back north. But not too much, not too fast, not yet at least.

Our next stop was a place I wanted to visit since I read Philippa Gregory's The Constant Princess. Her descriptions of the place were so detailed, so vivid, so colourful, so full of passion and admiration, that I knew I wanted to go there (the book was a little boring otherwise).

We got to Granada, cause that was our next stop in case you haven't figured that out from my lame description, around mid-day. We had enough time to set up our tent, eat something and go to the city centre to see... something. We didn't know much about Granada back then (and we know just a little more now). Alhambra. Albaicin. And that was it. But we didn't have too much time for sightseeing either. Cause what is a day and a half in a beautiful place?

Luckily, our campsite was located just by a bus stop. The bus took us to the centre where we could either stay or change for other buses (to Alhambra or Albaicin).

We decided to go to Alhambra first. We knew that sightseeing just like that was not an option. Not that we wouldn't like it. But you need a lot of time to see the place. Half a day is minimum to take it all in. Or at least most of it. And all the sources state that the place is heavily booked in advance. To avoid any confusion or disappointment, just buy your ticket in advance if you can.

We couldn't do that. We didn't know if and when we were going to get to Granada. Same story as with the cable car to the Rock. We had to take our chances. Take the risk. If we're lucky, we were going to see the beautiful palaces. If we weren't... well, tough. Happens.

We got to Alhambra easily. It felt wonderful. We were already so close. We decided to find somebody, anybody, that we could as for the tickets for the following day. If we didn't ask, we weren't gonna get them for sure. But maybe... Maybe we'd be lucky... A security guy told us that the tickets were sold out. We knew that. However, we couldn't really commuicate with him in English. Luckily, a guide lady showed up with her group and took over the conversation. She told us, again, that they were sold out. However, if we wanted to get the tickets for the following day, there still was a chance. They have a set of tickets that they sell for a given day early in the morning. We thanked her for the information and as she was walking away, I just shouted out one more question.What does it mean that we have to be here in the morning to buy the tickets? Six a.m. should do it, was her answer.

We said goodbye to Alhambra. In no way any one of us was going to get up that early and come here to buy the tickets. We got back to the centre, walked around a little, then decided to see the cathedral. It was still open, so... why not? We bought the tickets, which came with audio guides. Artur got himself audio guide for kids (yes, they had a version for kids) in English. We got an adult version.

The cathedral inside is impressive. It looks amazing. However, the audio guide we got was... can I really say it was boring? We quickly decided to just turn it off and just look around the place for ourselves. Artur, however, was listening to his guide very intensly. Maybe we should have been given the kid version as well...

We finished up the visit to the city centre with ice cream, of course. And we bought ourselves some tea mixes, which were delicious by the way (cause, sadly, they're all gone). We got back to the campsite. The kids went to play on the playground and my husband told me, that he was planning to get up early in the morning and go and try to get the tickets to Alhambra. Cause he knew that I really wanted to see it... Can you have a better husband? ;)