Birthdays, weddings and Fiesta de las Cruces.

By the end of April, after several weeks of abnormally cold and wet weather we were finally treated to some typically southern Spanish spring weather.  The people began to fill the streets and the plazas again.  Tourists, bless ‘em, began to crowd the Albaycin once again.  The weather was fabulous by the time another Spanish holiday, Fiesta de las Cruces, came around in early May. 

The Fiesta de las Cruces is really an interesting holiday.  This holiday celebrates the emperor Constantin’s vision of the cross on the eve of a very important battle and some subsequent events involving his mother and his conversion.  That’s the very short version. 

This festival occurs in early May and is celebrated in Spain and Latin America.  The city of Granada is known for having one of the most beautiful celebrations of this holiday.

Every neighborhood that chooses to do so, decorates a square or plaza with traditional items and typically rural settings.  Each square or plaza features a cross of course, covered with red or white flowers.  Each neighborhood’s display is unique and all are stunningly beautiful. 

The holiday begins on a Friday (although set-up for some begins on Thursday) and is over by Sunday.  The weekend is one of incredible celebration as the plazas and squares are filled with people from all over Spain and Europe drinking and dancing as music is played, many times by live performers.

The children all get dressed up in traditional Spanish dress clothes, with the little girls all looking like Flamenco dancers,

and the little little boys all looking like Antonio Banderas in Zorro.  Many of the adults dress up as well but the kids are absolutely precious.

Noella was of course one of the cutest, in our opinion!

We used Las Cruces as a backdrop for our own celebration. Kellie turned 23 while we were there and Brittani would turn the same age the following month.  Of course a special cake was ordered from  Pasteles and we enjoyed fabulous food, drinks and great company at Puerta de las Pesas.

Another very special event occurred that was memorable and unique.  Brittani’s parents, Mitch and Deb were celebrating their 25^th wedding anniversary with a trip to Europe, the first for Deb.  They came to Granada to enjoy some of their very special time with Brittani, unbeknownst to Deb, her very romantic husband had been working out the details of a special renewal of their vows while in Spain.  With Fernando’s help we were able to reserve a time with the priest in the Monastery of Santa Isabella Real (a small and beautiful chapel in the monastery has a public mass twice a week).  It was built on the site of an ancient mosque within the original Palace complex in the Albaicyn.  This monastery has changed over the years and now houses and order of cloistered nuns.  They have no public contact and during the public mass twice a week they sit behind a wooden screen.  They provide the music for the mass by singing beautiful hymns.

On the evening that had been arranged we all went to the church – having explained that since it is so rarely open to the public we would all go down to see it right before the scheduled mass.  When we arrived in front of the church Mitch went down on one knee and asked Deb to marry him all over again, it was very touching and when she discovered that he had arranged for them to do it right then, in this beautiful church she was overcome.  Allie had come along with us to translate for the priest, no one spoke any English, but the service was simple and beautiful and created a very special set of memories that their family will cherish forever. 

It left quite a mark in all of our hearts as well!

A fabulous dinner had been ordered by Brittani and we were all treated to exceptional Spanish food and of course some lovely Cava (Spanish version of Champagne) at the restaurant and then the following day the folks left to head back to the states.

Kellie and Brittani still had until the end of June of their teaching contracts so they would be staying a while after all the rest of us had gone ahead.  Time was getting very short for us, 10 weeks had seemed like a long time when we planned it but it had flown!  Finally, the weather was beautiful, Spain was beautiful and we were going to be leaving in a few short days.

"Home" is not found on a map.

Home for us, has become wherever we happen to be at any point in time.  This new life does not have a "home" anchored a specific spot on a map.  Home is a state of mind rather that a piece of real estate.  We have immersed ourselves in this new view of home and have found to our delight that we love it.

Having friends from the states come to visit was a rare treat for us.  We got to show off our love for and enjoyment of this particular new "home".

Granada was really starting to feel like home to us so we were very excited to share it with those we love.  Our friends were married in May but did not have time to take a honeymoon until September.

Brent and Paige were spending time in Europe and planned to swing by and see the Alhambra and visit with us in Granada for a day or two.

I am not sure who did the planning but they made the perfect landing in Granada arriving in the late afternoon in time for a bite to eat and a short nap before touring the Alhambra at night.  The Alhambra is always spectacular in many ways but the nighttime viewing is a special treat for those who can work it into their schedules.  

We met up the following day for a late breakfast at our favorite Irish pub, Hannigan’s and then headed out for an epic walk up into the Sacramonte and the Albaicin,

the really old areas of Granada that have become home to us.

 Suffice it to say that sharing our new "home" was a wonderful experience for us.

 We found ourselves explaining the unique history that we were learning and of course,

taking them to meet the people that have become so important in our home life here in Granada.

Enjoying the Tapas experience, sharing the new foods and wines that have become our regular fare now was a unique and thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Spending the late evening listening to our favorite Flamenco guitarist Wahdi,

over more tapas was the perfect end to wonderful day.  We can't wait to do it again!

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Our little home in Granada.

On Monday, the day after we returned from the beach, we contacted the friends of a friend about the little house they were renting.  It turned out that they were moving out on Wednesady!  The house was in the Sacramonte, the gitano (gypsy) neighborhood just above the Albaicin known for its Flamenco schools and restaurants.  We arranged to meet with the young Australian couple who were living there later on that evening.

The Sacramonte is a family neighborhood and is known for the cave houses located there.  These cave house are really quite incredible, some have been around for a few hundred years.  There is a very specific method that has been developed to properly excavate a cave and if done correctly, the rooms created will be safe and long lasting.  Caves also have the advantage that they remain at a constant temperature (about 25 degrees Celsius) so they are cool in the summer and warm in the winter.  Today, cave houses generally have a more traditional looking house built in front of the actual cave itself so many of the houses in the Sacramonte are much larger that they initially appear.

Unfortunately, the house we went to look at did not have a cave but it was charming nonetheless.  The house was small, around 80 square meters, the plumbing was not ideal, the water heater leaked, the oven hadn’t worked in years and the small second bedroom above the garden appeared to be an addition that had been built without permits. 

The stove worked well and it and the water heater required bottles of propane gas (another learning experience).  Of course, we fell in love with it right away, primarily because of the little private garden.  Private outdoor space is at a premium in the Albaicin and this looked perfect for us.

What now ensued was the most unusual lease arrangement I had ever been a party to.  The owner was living elsewhere in Spain, the young Australian couple were leaving the following day and their deposit covered more than the utilities but there was no way for the owner to give them their remaining deposit back because they had no Spanish bank account (neither did we of course).  To further complicate matters, we did not yet speak Spanish well enough the complete a transaction like this.  The woman who owned the house had left many of her personal belongings behind in the house.  This was not a sterile apartment rental but rather we felt that we would be moving right into a completely Spanish home.

Using the Australian lady’s Spanish we negotiated a rental rate for three months, paid in advance and that we would make up the deposit difference and buy out the Australian’s unused deposit from them.  Sound complicated?  All this based on a discussion we only partly understood but confirmed in an email in a language we couldn’t, at the time, read.  We also arranged to purchase linens, towels and pillows from the Australians for a discounted price since they weren’t going to need them in Spain anymore.

On Wednesday morning we met with the Australian couple one last time.  They had loaded their belongings in a taxi and over a quick cup of coffee we gave them the money for the share of the deposit and the other items and they handed us the keys.  We had been given the landlady’s bank account number in order to pay the rent and the rest of the deposit which we did a couple of days later.  All that was left for us to do was to move; easier said than done.

An hour later a taxi dropped us off at the bottom of the long, narrow and very steep stairs leading to our new digs with our 120 kilos of luggage.  Four hot, sweaty trips later I exhaustedly collapsed into a chair in our new garden.  We had done it.  We had found our own place to live in Granada, it had everything we were looking for, the price was right and the location ideal.  Now, we just had to learn to speak the language.

New people, new friends, new language.

In these early days at Castila, we met Diana, an attorney from Baton Rouge who had arrived just three weeks before we did and Kelsey a vivacious 18 year old from Colorado doing her “gap year” in Spain and who, damn her, spoke Spanish fairly well.  

From Australia we had a classmate Lesley and a couple who were both physicians, another couple who had just spent 9 months in Nepal as observers in the electoral process were originally from England.

 We met university students from both mainland China and Taiwan, a woman from Singapore and a travel journalist from Hong Kong.

  Ricardo, a 22 year old from Florida who had just graduated and was headed back in the fall for grad school joined our class, and we got to know Ethan, a 16 year old high school student from Chicago whose Spanish was several levels better than ours and those are just the people we got too know in the first couple of weeks!

On Friday afternoons, after classes, the school would get everyone together for an afternoon tapas hour, occasionally it was hosted at the school with Victoria cooking but most often they would pick a local restaurant and off we would go “a tapeo”.  Most of the restaurants and bars in the Albaicin and many all over Granada are family owned and have been for several generations.  After our experience in the market at Plaza Larga we started going up there regularly to shop and also to grab a drink after class or to enjoy “comida” (traditionally the large meal of the day eaten in mid-afternoon) in one of the several restaurants in the area. 

Puerta de las Pesas (also known as Puerta Nueva) is actually a very special gate in the wall of the original city that dates from the 11th century.  It was a strong defensive position and the place where the people who came from inside the city would leave to go out to the markets that built up outside the walls and then return with their purchases.  As they passed through the gates the weight of the items that had been purchased would be verified by the authorities for the payment of taxes.  If it was found that a merchant had cheated someone (shorted the weight) then the merchant’s weights would be confiscated and hung above the gate, effectively putting him out of business.  Puerta de las Pesas in Spanish means Gate of the Weights. 

Every time we would go up to Plaza Larga we would pass through this beautiful reminder of what a wonderfully historic place we had chosen for this new beginning.  One afternoon, on the way to the open air produce market we stopped at the restaurant named Puerta de las Pesas, a family owned restaurant just beyond the gate itself.  We needed a drink and a tapa to ease the after school headache and they were offering a great “menu del dia” special of the day, for comida; an appetizer, main course, dessert and bread for 8.50 euros.  We chatted with Jose, the waiter, in our very broken Spanish and learned that the restaurant had recently changed ownership and had only been reopened for a month prior to our arrival. 

The school had activities of one kind or another almost every evening.

 We took a long beautiful hike above the Alhambra and got some of the most spectacular views of Granada, the Albaicin and the Sacramonte we had ever seen. 

This old city was really starting to capture our hearts.

We tried “movie night” and although we do understand that listening to Spanish is a great way to try to train your ear, we were so far out of our depth that we decided movies would be much more enjoyable after a few more weeks of lessons. 

Our interest in and fascination with the history and culture of this area was increasing daily, what a great choice Granada was for a first try at living overseas.

Granada, for the first time....

Arriving in Granada in the pouring rain at seven in the evening wouldn’t be any fun even if you knew where you were going and how to get there, which we didn’t.   We had arranged our accommodations through the TEFL school and were a bit nervous; we had made the very conscious decision to “go local”.  We had booked into their version of a “boarding house” called the “residencia”.  We had been able to secure a bedroom that had its own private bathroom attached but knew that the rest of the house for the most part was bedrooms with shared bathrooms in the hallway.  We would be sharing a kitchen and living area, an experience we had never encountered before and which we expected to be a significant learning experience.

Knowing only that it was located in the oldest part of the city, the Albayzin, in a renovated 16^th century building with tiny narrow streets that were like a labyrinth, being tired and carrying baggage we did the only intelligent thing and decided to forgo trying to learn the bus system for another day and just take a cab.  Much to our dismay there were other passengers waiting at the cab stand but no cabs……in the cold and the rain.  In hindsight we think the couple of lone cab drivers that showed up in the next 10 minutes to take the first few groups of passengers into town must have just called all their friends told them to take their cars to the airport.  Eventually we got in a cab that did not have a meter, signs or anything that remotely made this late model Mercedes look like a cab but the driver was taking us to town so off we went.  Stupid, but at the time there were not many alternatives.  We made it to our destination 45 minutes and 35 euros later, should have been 30 minutes and 20-25 euros but, what did we know?               

Thankfully the rain had stopped while we were in route and we were let off right in front of a big archway that led to what looked like a church with a big wooden door to the left that turned out to be our destination.  The residencia had originally housed a seminary and was where the young monks lived while preparing to enter the order.  The area had originally been part of a Moorish palace complex built in the 11^th century but that was destroyed by the Christians at the end of the 15^th century.  The monastery was built on the location in the 16^th century.

The architecture still carried the Moorish flavor and featured very thick walls to keep the heat in or cold out depending on the season.  When we entered the building it immediately charmed us with an inner courtyard that had a fountain and plants and that would be open to the sky three stories up when the weather was nice.

It was larger than we expected and as Antony, our contact from the school, showed us around we found that the building had a rooftop terrace with the most spectacular views of the Alhambra that we could imagine.

Our room was tiny with two twin beds that we made into a king, a small nightstand and a small desk.  All of the furnishings were very rustic antiques in keeping with style of the building.  The room had one window that opened into the interior courtyard but not to the outside.  The bathroom - a sink, toilet and shower crammed into less than 5 square feet was surprisingly functional.

The entire Albayzin , this oldest area of the city, is a protected UNESCO World Heritage site.  This means that no updating or remodeling can be done without very a very rigorous permitting process which makes it very time consuming and expensive.  Everything has to be done to protect the integrity of the original structures and this means that the foundations cannot be dug up and new pipes put in underground unless the old clay pipes fail and there is absolutely no other choice.  We discovered that this meant no paper of any kind goes in the toilets.  Every toilet has a basket next to it with plastic bags and you NEVER flush toilet paper… talk about new experiences.

Antony explained the cardinal rule of never getting lost in the Albaizyn.  You can only go two directions, up or down, no matter how far to the right or left you go you will always be able to find your way to your destination within a few minutes’ walk.  He walked us to the school; 2 minutes away so that we could find our way to class and showed us the most common way down to town so we would not get easily lost.  While in town we picked up a few basic supplies fearing that everything would be closed the following day, Sunday, and then got settled in.  Our house manager was a lovely little Ecuadorian lady who spoke no English at all but was more than able to make you understand her meaning when it came to the rules of the house.  She showed us where to store our stuff in the communal fridge and cupboards and we learned that in addition to the TEFL students there were other residents in the house, some for short stays others as longer term boarders.

Sunday we walked around the area in the daylight to get oriented and discovered that “everything is closed on Sunday” doesn’t really mean “everything”, we had a meal in a charming little restaurant near the church San Miguel Bajo and picked up a few more supplies for the kitchen.  Our fellow students were arriving and we had an orientation meeting scheduled that evening at 8pm.  This was our first real experience with people who live on a Spanish schedule and for them, 8pm is not considered late for a meeting to start.  Orientation was, as most are, 2 hours of information that could have been covered in 20 minutes, but then we did get to take a lovely group walk to the Mirador San Nicolas to see the Alhambra all lit up for the evening and we later stopped at Bar Kiki for a drink and a tapa before heading back to bed.  Granada is just about the only city left in Spain in which tapas are free when you buy your drink.

We were definitely the old folks of the group; our fellow students were significantly younger than us, all under 35 and most under 30.  Ten students, from 5 countries, it was quite a mix.  The young enthusiastic energy that this group created was great for us, and everyone was very accepting of each other, so it was with a very positive outlook that we all got ready to begin classes at 9:30 Monday morning.