Claire and Taylor's European Odyssey

So leaving Portugal....we were up early and took the first boat back to the mainland, then a taxi to the bus station (not repeating that walk again with the packs!) in the hopes of catching the ten o'clock bus to Seville, then another one to Granada....BUT upon arriving at the bus depot at 845 we discovered that the bus to Seville was full...end of story. So how the hell do we get out of Portugal? WELL, the overly helpful lady at the counter (sigh) told us that we could take a city bus to the Portugese border, take a boat across the river to Spain and after that she had no idea. Begin adventure number 3,000,001....we took the city bus, then the little boat across the river with the other immigrants, and man were we glad to be back in Spain...the people were SO helpful! We walked a few km to the bus station, where we found that scedules mean nothing...this is a second world country, a local guy reminded us! Our only option, apparently, was to take the next bus that headed east, getting us an hour further down the road to Huelva (yet still a mighty long way from Granada). Upon arriving we discovered that we had just missed a bus to Seville, so missioned to the train station to attempt train travel...the next train to Seville was at 630pm (it was about 2pm at this point), but we couldn't get to Granada. We had to make it to Granada cuz we had to pay for the night either way!
SO, back to the bus station we went, with our lead weights on our backs, and caught the next bus to Seville. Two hours later, arrival in Seville. From there we thought we were on the home stretch and went to get a bus to Granada only to discover that busses to Granada leave from the other bus station...on the other side of town. Fabulous.
We took a city bus this time, arrived and had to wait two and half hours for the next bus to Granada at 8pm. Hello home stretch. The bus took three hours, then we had to take a city bus to the hostel, and arrived about midnight. Let's just say if all had gone according to plan, we would have arrived in the early afternoon, and saved a lot of money. We slept WELL.

After such a long day, we were happy to wake up in a cute little apartment with sunbeams flooding in through the open blinds. Sigh. Unfortunately we had to change rooms our second night, but the place was still awesome. You can't go wrong with a name like Funky Hostel. Rooftop patio, free breakfast, sunset views, free internet...

Our first day we spent walking around the Alhambra, an ancient muslim fortress. In 35 degree weather, we did an audio tour of the whole place, which took us about 4 hours, including plenty of water stops, and pauses to pet the kittens in the gardens...It was a beautiful place...a day very well spent.

View of Granada from the palace:

Now we are banking on you reading our previous blogs...now remember Claire and Steph from Montreal that we met in San Sebastien....??? No, didn't think so. Anyways, we ran into them again at our hostel in Granada and they were staying in the same room as us along with Claire's twin brother, Louis, who was visiting for a week. They invited us to join them on a tour of the Sierra Nevada mountains the next day for €10 each. Sweet deal, we couldn't pass that up!
So the next day, the three of them, the two of us, and another couple from Montreal (Steph 2 and JP) all headed off with Pepe (our Spanish host for the day) in his trusty van up into the mountains. The roads were super windy, and most of us were feeling pretty ill by the end, but the views were FABULOUS!!! We arrived in a small mountain village about 2 hours later, had a little stroll and a bite to eat, then headed back to Granada for our bathing suits. He then took us to these Roman Baths situated on the edge of a seemingly random desert lake. The views were stunning and we had a great time. The whole trip took about 10 hours. Thanks Pepe.

We had a great time in Granada, it was one of our favourite places thus far. Next stop Ronda. Will update again soon. Thanks for your comments!