This was a post I wrote back in early 2009 – right on the cusp of my life taking a dramatically different turn. This was one of those points where life is giving you many roads you can follow – and the one you choose will determine your entire future. I considered staying in Granada….and there were many paths I could have followed from there. I wonder where the many roads from Granada might have led – but as I sit here in 2020, living in Hawaii with my Moroccan wife and our beautiful daughter, I can only tell you where this one led.
Ernest Hemingway wrote “How lazily the sun goes down in Granada, it hides beneath the water, it conceals in the Alhambra!” and he is not the only artist to note the beauty and wonder that surrounds this place. Shakespeare said “Every inquisitive traveler keeps Granada in his heart, without having even visited it.” Chateaubriand said “Granada is like the crystal bride of our dreams, whoever beholds it has the illusion of visiting it again.” And perhaps that is the case for me, but I only know that this city, the energy that exists here, and the people that inhabit it are a wonder worthy of noting. Granada is one of those places that stays with you, whether you go there by plan or simply as one of those last minute holidays that fate pulls from nowhere and springs on you like a wondrous surprise.
Here are a few of the moments and people that have made the past few days so wondrous.
This is Lisa, an English girl with whom I ate delicious meal, drank coffee in a magic coffeehouse, and rambled through a dusty used bookstore with. I loved her adventurous and literary spirit. And these are the eyes of Nieves, Susana, and Constantina…three of my many companions today as we strolled through the gypsy parts of Granada exploring the caves that the gypsies live in, seeking flamenco, braving the rain, eating paella, and visiting the homes of friends.
Along the way we visited a crowded patisserie and got coffee in a dark sheesha bar.
We found the king of the Barrio Abayzin at the highest point he could find.
Alhambra is beautiful. Together, with these new friends, how can there be anything as enjoyable to the soul.
Perhaps I will run out of money, come back to Granada, move into a cave like the one below, clean it and then get evicted by the gypsies who own it when the work is done, this, I am told, is what happens. I could enjoy a cave like this, do you think it has internet access?
The weather here has changed a bit and rain and thunder come down. The hardest part of travel is to leave friends behind and as I move along, I too, find this difficult. Here in Granada, as in Barcelona, I have made friends that I don’t want to leave. It’s the same in Hawaii, Salt Lake City, and everywhere I have found new and wonderful people. When I find them, I don’t want to leave.
Tomorrow though I will head to La Linea and Gibraltar and then on to Morocco. Before I leave Spain though, I should note a few things. In The Pillars of Hercules, Paul Thereaux noted that the Mediterranean coast cities are filled with dog shit. It’s an offensive description, but no one here will deny it is true. Three out of five of us today stepped in dog shit at different points. Susana said that here they say that when you step in shit, it is good luck and people go to buy lottery tickets. We agreed however that we don’t need shit.
Also two innovations that I can’t believe don’t exist in the USA. First of all, when you wash the dishes here, there is no dish rack, the rack is actually the cupboard where you keep the dishes, right above the sink. Also, here there are variable flush toilets that allow to use less water for #1 and more water for #2.
Fucking brilliant.
Let go of all that routine that arises from you trying to control your own dead end. The best thing about living is new experience and you can have as many as you want for free. Once you step away from your societal imposed responsibilities, you find that the world opens up and gives you more joy than you’ll ever find trying to buy your future security at the expense of the present.