Granada Trip

The following entries are a kick-off to my new travel and food blog.
Currently my boyfriend, Mike, and I are on a two week trip to Spain and England. We decided to write this as a guide for others going to these places to help them find their way. Each post will have subsections that are reviews of things we did that may help you decided what's for you. Mike is taking photos that I will upload when we are back. Also, we live in the south side of Chicago so we would like to continue blogging when we return to talk about a different side of Chicago. Hope you enjoy!
-Courtney (and Mike)

Dia Uno
Madrid Airport
We arrived in Madrid at 8am. The airport was very nice and modern, but oddly deserted. I'm not sure if it is the recession or just the fact that we were in early. There was not a soul at customs so we were actually confused for a moment if we were going the right way. I had also forgotten different small things in Europe, like the fact that there are few paper products. I went to go wash my face in the bathroom, but there was only a hand dryer. You also have to remember to throw away your toilet paper, rather than flushing. I suggest bringing plenty of extra tissues and toilet paper (restaurants did not always have tp). There were plenty of ATMs at the airport to get cash and I wouldn't recommend exchange booths - they usually don't have a great rate. If you are looking for a great card to travel with, I recommend Schwab's checking card that has no ATM fees worldwide, nor exchange rate fees (Bank of America has both).

Getting Around Madrid
We took Renfe to the bus station where we were catching an afternoon bus to Granada. I hadn't realized that renfe had a train system throughout the city (similar to the metra in Chicago) in addition to the high speed trains throughout the country. The bus station was in an ok, but boring, neighborhood in the city. If you have time, I would recommend storing your bags (5 euros for up to 24 hours) and hopping on the underground to check out some sites (12 euros for a 10 trip pass that you can share). We were exhausted after about an hour of sleep on the plane, but managed to walk around like zombies to the palace and the Retiro park. I would equate Retiro Park to the Central Park in NYC. It was beautiful out and a ton of people were paddle boating - if we had any energy left we would have gone.

Supra Alsa Bus
We took an Alsa bus to Granada. We opted for the "supra" alsa bus that was slightly nicer and more expensive. I think it took about 4.5 hrs. We had opted for this because we learned that the train becomes more expensive as the date gets nearer and we missed the cheaper fares. For slightly less than the train we booked the bus. It was a really enjoyable ride. We had a stewardess that served a sandwich and later snacks. There were complementary drinks, headphones, and newspapers. There was a bathroom on board and you can feel safe storing your luggage in the bottom bus compartment. We reclined and slept most of the way. Compared to the train , I think it was a great choice and we also got to select our seats which we couldn't do with the cheaper bus or train options. If you don't really care about the ride, the normal alsa I'm sure would be fine. We may be taking that to Malaga later in the week, so I'll update.

Apartment Rental in Granada
We arrived in Granada that evening and the person from whom we were renting an apartment for the week picked us up in his car. He wanted us to call his cell phone when we got in and that proved to be a challenge. Usually if I travel for a while I buy a local SIM card for a small European cell phone I bought on previous trips. We figured there was no one to call so we didn't get a SIM this time - also my current SIM for the UK would probably work just fine, but just cost more to call Spanish phones. In the end we tried for a while to use a payphone. Little did we know how challenging that would be! The trick we finally figured out was that you don't need the country code for a local number - seems simple right? Once we got a hold of Javier, we got picked up and taken to our apartment. The apartment is cute and a nice medium size right across from a hippy park in the Albayzín. The apartment was in the low 50's and took hours to warm up with the small electric radiators. There was little to no insulation with the windows/doors that opened to the street, but in the 50's and 60's that's a bit cold. The two person beds were also much smaller than our double back home. Everything in the apartment is heated by electricity, including the hot water, so we did run out of water in the morning sometimes. If little things like those above are an issue for you, go for a hotel, otherwise we really liked having an entire apartment to ourselves. We had a kitchen for cooking, a washer (no dryer), and a separate living room. It was also a great deal ~40 euros or $50 a night.

Our First Taste of Tapas

Patatas Volcanicas

We got in pretty late, around 8pm, but that wasn't an issue for grabbing food. We walked around the Albayzin around 9:30 for dinner and found a great little bar called Casa Torcuato del Albayzin. The place was full and lively inside, but we managed to snag a table. We got two red wines "vinos tintos" (we learned you don't get much choice in type of wine or beer unless you can speak Spanish well enough). We got delicious Tempranillo usually. With our wine we got some fried whole fish. They also had a menu with cheap tapas on the wall. We ordered patas volcanicas, which were delicious crisped/blackened potatoes with warm red sauce in the center - I would highly recommend. We also had some secreto, which is a "secret" cut of the Iberian pig near the bacon. It is very rich and buttery - unlike the typical cuts of pork in America. All of the food was delicious! Our total bill was only 12.20 euros, which was a great deal.

Secreto