Las Navidades Part II: Navalmoral, Toledo, Granada

Ugh, the task of writing up my whole Christmas break is proving to be too much. I want to write about my birthday and my return to school, but I feel like I can’t until I document my trip. So, I’m going to try and give the abbreviated version. Bear with me, please.

So Allison and I arrived to Navalmoral and I was so happy and proud to show off my little town to her. We settled in my apartment and rested up a bit before going to dinner that night. For dinner, we went to get a few drinks first (Quetapa…so good), then hit up my favorite restaurant (Los Claveles) for food. The food, as usual, was superb, and to top it off, a band of old men came in and played music for about an hour right next to our table. It was like a private concert. They were drinking, chatting with us, and an (even older) old man joined the band from his dinner table with a bird flute he just so happened to have with him and played along. The Christmas spirit was alive. After dinner, dessert, and a few shots of crema de arujo, we went out to bars.

The next morning, after an always delicious breakfast at my favorite café, La Casita de Chocolate, I gave Allison a guided tour of the humble, yet wonderful Navalmoral de la Mata. I really enjoyed getting to show off a little of what I know. After that, we picked up some baguettes, 4 bottles of wine, and cheese at Mercadona (to Allison’s delight, all for only 9 Euros) and headed home to start preparing our Christmas Eve. I did most of the cooking with Allison’s moral support. That night, we feasted on chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, Stove Top stuffing, Ocean Spray cranberries, salad, fresh bread, and a lot of wine. After we were very full, we opened presents, ate a Reese’s No Bake dessert, skyped with family back home, and went out to a few bars.

Sunday was a lazy day. We watched Christmas movies, ate leftovers from the night before for lunch, skyped more family, and just enjoyed our Christmas Day. We grabbed a drink that evening with a few of my friends, then called it a night and packed our bags for our early departure to Toledo the next morning.

We woke up early Monday morning and caught a bus to Talavera and from there to Toledo. The hostel we were staying in ended up being more of a nice hotel, complete with TV in the private room we were in. We unloaded our stuff, and then began exploring the city. Toledo is really beautiful. Small, but beautiful and full of history. Before Madrid, Toledo was the capital of Spain. We walked around a bunch, stopping into an Army museum, a Jesuit Church (where we climbed to the top and got a great view of Toledo), ate a delicious lunch, shopped a bit, then returned back to the hostel/hotel to rest up before venturing back out for dinner.

Since Toledo is really small, we were able to see everything we wanted/needed to in one afternoon, so in the morning, we took a bus to Madrid, then got on another to Granada. The bus ride to Granada, though 5 hours long, was surprisingly pleasant. Though in Spanish, they played two movies, “Miss Potter” (awful, awful) and “It’s Complicated” (delightful), which passed the time nicely.

Once in Granada, Allison and I had a terrible time of finding our hostel. Both of us had severely over-packed and with our huge rolling suitcases, we rolled all through the streets of Granada before finally finding our home for the next few nights.

After dropping our stuff off, we headed out to a lookout point that was recommended to us to see Alhambra. A grand palace, left over from the Moorish invasion of Spain, Alhambra is incredible. We got to see it all lit up at night from the lookout point and pictures couldn’t do it justice. After soaking up the view, we ventured out to find these so-called “incredible tapas” that everyone relates with Granada.

Oh, man. Those people were not kidding. Allison and I never ordered food in Granada. Not once. We simply ordered glasses of wine or beer and were given HUGE plates of tapas…for free. The whole world should be that way. Drunk and well fed. So we went from place to place, eating, drinking, chatting with people, and just having a great time. Later, we went to a 6 Euro flamenco show and I was pleasantly surprised. We entered the small bar called Le Chien Andalou (I kept having visions of ants crawling out of the bartenders’ hands) and grabbed a table while the rest of the audience filed in. The flamenco was great. I’ve seen it two other times, once in Valencia (awful, awful, awful) and once in Sevilla (so good!) and can say it was right up there with Sevilla’s…and this one was so much cheaper. We went to bed that night knowing that an early morning was awaiting us.

We hadn’t bought our tickets online for Alhambra until about 5 days before our trip there. That was dumb of us. When we went to buy them, they were sold out. A trip to Granada is not complete without a trip to Alhambra, so we were determined to do whatever it took to get tickets. A few people told us that if we woke up early and got in line at Alhambra, they always have some tickets reserved for the day of. So we got ourselves out of bed and stood in line for about an hour and a half in the freezing cold outside the palace…but we got tickets!

We spent the next few hours exploring Alhambra. I can’t even explain how cool it was. We saw palaces, gardens, Arab baths, and so much more. It was so beautiful and waiting in the cold was so worth it.

We were pretty tired after our early morning, but also pretty hungry. We decided on going to get one or two tapas, then hitting up the hostel for a much-needed siesta. The best laid schemes of mice and men, right? Well, we ended up getting about six or seven drinks/tapas and were quite “happy” after that. We set off to find the cathedral and passed through a hoard of rosemary pushing, palm reading gypsies. Having experienced them when I visited Sevilla, I knew to be firm with my “NO” when after telling me the rosemary and palm reading was a gift, they asked for money. But poor Allison had also been accosted and once I escaped mine, I had to go save her. Once safe, we walked around a bit, Allison went into a chapel as I went shopping, then we met up to go back, finally, for our siesta.

We slept for five hours. Five. Hours. Five hours later we woke up, put on our ganas glasses, and went out for round two. We were still massively full from our day eating, so we tread lightly for dinner. We ended up hanging out at an Irish pub that night and hitting up a disco (that was pretty much empty of people) at the end of the night. Again, we slept well.

We had to check out of the hostel in the morning, as we were taking the overnight bus to Valencia. So we packed our things and stored our luggage before we got some café for breakfast. When researching things to do in Granada, I found out about a place that had turned real Arab Baths into a spa. For only 30 Euros you got to swim in seven pools of different temperatures and got a 15-minute massage. Allison and I decided it was worth it. So that morning, we went to our appointment. Honestly, the Arab Baths may have been my favorite part of the entire trip. It was so relaxing and peaceful. We got to drink hot mint tea (delicious) and the massage was one of the best of my life. Allison and I, along with one couple, were the only people in the place and we all did a good job of staying out of each other’s way. After the baths, Allison and I were in a daze and so we went to get, what else, but a glass of wine.

We had (this time) two or three drinks/tapas, and then couldn’t figure out what else to do to pass the next hours until going to the bus station. Again, while researching things before the trip, I had written down the name of a restaurant. I couldn’t remember why I wrote it down though. But Allison and I decided to have an adventure and try to find it. Over an hour later, we found it very far away from the center. It ended up being super cheap, you could choose your tapa, and the food was a big portion. But, we were feeling about 453 pounds heavier from the two days of eating/drinking, so I don’t think we enjoyed the place to its full potential. Afterwards, we made our way back to the center, hung out at the Irish pub again, picked up our luggage from the hostel, and headed to the bus station. Around midnight we got on the bus to Valencia, which ended up being the longest (7 hours), most uncomfortable (heat turned up to 100 degrees) bus ride of my life.