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Granada8 Jun 2004
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Granadian Rooftops
A window on the world. From the Alhambra
The Alhambra
| I wrote this in my e-mail Journal: Granada was in full party mode when I arrived as they were celebrating Corpus Christie. This entails street partys and processions as well as an all week party which takes place a little out of town at a huge fairground. Of course this needed to be sampled although I can't stay up partying all night like the Spanish, and their children! Granada also has the beautiful Alhambra which sits on a hill just outside the town centre. It is an extraordinary building and fully deserves its reputation. It is such a great shame that the huge numbers of tourists 'bussed in from the coastal resorts' spoil its impact. Trying to get a photo with no one in it is a real trial of patience. Granada is famous for many things but it is also infamous for the death of playright Federico García Lorca at the hands of Nationalists at the outset of the Spanish Civil war. A subject banned under Franco. Oh, and they also burned his books. The Ryhthm of Spanish Life: There is a definite Rhythm to life in Spain which centres around the Siesta and the night time entertainment. The Spanish go to work at a normal hour and then everything runs smoothly until about one. At this time everything and everyone shuts down until 5 or 6PM in the evening. This means that a working day is at least 12 hours with four hours in the middle. In the evening everyone seems to come out for a stroll and I mean everyone, rich, poor, whole families. I don't think that they are shopping they are just coming out to meet and greet and if there's a bit of shopping too well OK then. Then it's back home to prepare to go out properly. When I was in Madrid we did not go out until after midnight and some people in the hostel were waiting until as late as 1:30AM for things to really get going! Once you start to live with this and adjust to getting half your sleep in the afternoon you realise that this is a very civilised way to go about things and that it reinforces a sense of community and participation as well as avoiding the hottest part of the day. Comment on this story |
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