Bye altea, hello granada

My time with Mariana, Juan, Juanpi, Ryan & the Americans was absolutely what my heart & soul needed. Friendship.  Laughs.  Love.

I fell in love with Altea & started googling how I could live here.  I’ve always wanted a bed & breakfast & I discovered a lovely 9 bed was for sale located right along the Mediterranean Sea.  It wasn’t exactly in my price range, but it wasn’t exactly out of it either.  So many obstacles to overcome, but that’s the exciting part of life too, right?  If you’re going to dream…dream big & Altea was enormous all things considered.

I juggled my time between long walks on the promenade, long walks up the hundreds of steps to the blue domed church & quaint shops, having lunches or dinners at Artisan Culinary School with the gang & sitting in cafes contemplating life.  I felt really at easy in Altea…like I belonged.  Motivated to be here & my brain was working overtime on how that could happen.

But all things needed to come to an end, some with pain & some with relish…even with an extra night at The Blue Sardine booked already, it was inevitable I had to bugger off to my next destination, Granada.

With hugs, smiles & promises to stay in touch all around, I said my goodbyes, packed my little car with luggage & set off for the 2.5 hour drive West up the coast to Granada.  I chose Granada mostly because I had read it was a gem of a city with multicultural roots & a budding food scene.  I booked into one of the most central larger hotels, Vincci Albayzin, which really blew the bank on any budget I had hoped to stay within.  It was difficult having a vehicle & finding a hotel with parking inside the city, so my choices seemed limited.  After all was said & done, I didn’t regret my decision as the location was absolutely perfect for walking around the amazing city.

Granada was a treasure & everything I love about a city.  Narrow cobblestone streets with quaint shops…check!  Restaurants with seating spilling out to the street…check!  Big old churches right in the centre of town I can walk into & pray…check!  A fortress to explore with a difficult climb to the top…check!  Gorgeous people to make stories up in my head about…check!  My Apple Watch said I easily put on 18K steps the first afternoon I landed in Granada.  My second full day in the city had me digging deeper to hunt out treasures I found while doing research on my phone.  I searched out cafes, museums, interesting streets to walk down, oldest pubs, the Arabian Souks to explore & of course the most coveted food markets.  It was all absolutely amazing & I hold Granada as one of the most treasured cities I’ve been to.

Keep going Laurie…keep going!  Off to Seville!  The city of the flamenco dancers & bull fights!