How Granada has “ruined” my life forever

I have been living in Granada for almost a year (in total). I left for three months which ended up being a short holiday in Eastern Europe (specially Poland and the heart shaped country, Lithuania), which is no secret that I love it there.

These are (some of) the reasons why living in Granada has ruined my life forever:

• It’s cheap as fuck.
• You can walk everywhere.
• Thank God for chinos. Small Asian owned grocery stores that are open till late and where you can buy 1€/litre beer.

• Tapas. Tapas can be a small meal while drinking. And best of all… they are free!

• The (Mediterranean) Sea is only a bit more than an hour away.

• The (Atlantic) Ocean as about three hours.

• The Sierra Nevada is like less than  an hour.

• Cheap alcohol: a small beer (33cl) in the supermarket is only 25cents

• I have my own shot at my favourite pub, Hamelin.

• The servers at my favourite café already know what I’m having: full English breakfast.

• More tapas!!!

• Nightlife starts after midnight.  Going out for tapas is going out for a drink before going out drinking.
• Amazing and cheap breaksfasts!

• Magnificent hikes that you can do on your own for free!

• Nature, nature everywhere. 

• Unfortunately, dog shit as well.

 

• Free Spring rave-ish music on the hill behind Granada, a.k.a. Perdiz Tropical.
• Another free rave in the (super) close town of Santa Fé, a.k.a. Dragon Festival.
• Lovely weather even in February (sorry that my friend is in the screenshot).

 

• Lack of appropriate heating and insulation but then again, there are only three months of winter.
• Impressive Game of Thrones-ish like castle: Alhambra.

• Kebab shops. I don’t know, there might me some debate here. Berlin’s kebabs are also very good, specially the one that is close to that U-Bahn station in Neuköln. Over here they are known by their Arabic name: shawarma. The one in the photo is called tarrina: it’s kebab meat with chips and shawarma sauce. Perfect drunk/hangover food.

 

• More nature.

• ok, this is mostly not nature but it was fun to go paragliding.

• Joe Strummer lived here and has his own little square.

• Free live music.

• Impressive sunsets...

• and even more tapas! 

So peeps, those are some of the reasons why Graná has ruined my life. When I hitchhiked to Lithuania last year, I was in Bilbao ordering a beer with my friend and the first thing I noticed was there was not food coming with the beer.

I was on the quest to find my happy place. I thought I found it when I spent an awesome year in Estonia but it was not until I came back here that I realized that this is the place that makes me the most happy in the whole world. Estonia was and is a very special place for me but this small city stole my heart from day... 54

hahaha

all roads lead to Granada, part I: KRK - Lille

What can I wrote about Kraków that I haven't written before, I don't think I can write something new. Or maybe...

...there is something, not travel related but an important thing, for me at least. I was happy to be part of my friend Mateusz's graduation party. He graduated something, I don't know what. Someone asked me "you are some kind of friend" to what I answered: "he's my friend not my girlfriend!"

For some reason that I'm still trying to figure out, earlier this year Justyna and I said that we were going to the zoo my next time in Kraków. Not only did we go but we hitchhiked there! We hiked to one of the mounds in town, there was some kind of race. There are no cars allowed on the hill in which the mound is. The only car allowed that day belonged to the organizer of the race. We hitchhiked the only car allowed on the bloody hill! 

Sadly it was time to leave. Given my past experience hitchhiking on sundays I decided that I was going to take the bus to Łódź where I was supposed to meet the girl I was going to hitchhike west. 

Contrary to my own (hitchhiking) "rule" of asking regardless of what might happen, I didn't ask the driver of a car with DW (Wrocław) license plates because I thought that the car was not going in my direction... the guy asked where I was going and not only did he take me but drove me all the way close to Berlin!

One night in Berlin is never enough and I couldn't catch up with a lot of people but it was nice to be back to the place it was my home at the end of 2011. Arthur, you are a great host as always, until next time!

The same goes for Utrecht, I can't really write anything else, except that it was a great stay with Edy and Marinda. I realized this time that Utrecht is one of those places I will always go back over and over and over and over.

It took me the same amount of time to get from Berlin to Utrecht than Utrecht to Lille and it's a third of the distance... hitchhiking works in mysterious ways. Finally I met Matylda, a friend of a friend of mine. We almost meet last summer for the hitchgathering but she didn't go. Only stayed one night in Lille but it's alright, I was there last year.

The 800 Km between Lille and Bordeaux seemed doable in one day except for one tiny little detail: Paris was in between...

Berlin. Again.

I've lost count how many times I have been to Berlin. I just remember that my first time was at the end of summer 2010. Yet I have been so many times I always discover something new, new places and meet new people.

I'm not very keen about staying in hostels (even if it's free) because most of the people that stay there are not in my frequency. I mean they travel in a different way I do. I'm not judging in any way. I just don't like it. Let me make one thing clear thought: working in one is different. Why? It's hard to explain but I will try. When you're working in a hostel you are there to make guests feel at home. Not that you are forced but I was doing it because is one of the best jobs I've ever had. Staying is different, you go there and you are on the other side of the reception desk. At least for me it's easier to talk to people while working rather than go sit in the common room as a guest.

I think I didn't explain anything but I know there is a difference. If I have the option between staying in a hostel (for free) or staying with friends/CS/BW, of course I would choose the latter. Let's leave it like that.

I met Annika in Tallinn and we met again in Berlin for a few days while she was on holidays. I have to admit that she had me dancing (twice so far) without me being drunk. Actually I've danced sober three times already; first time was with Karolina back in Tallinn. I also met with Laura. I met her in 2011 when I was living here. We got lost looking for Kreuzberg!

The world is a very small place because I was going to meet Hannan and coincidentally she was staying in a hostel just around the corner from the hostel I was staying. We were thinking about hitchhiking together to the UK but well, that is not going to happen.

It was a pitty that I couldn't meet with Filiz this time. It was awesome to hitch with her and can't wait to do it again...soon!!