Mohamed tackled the roads again and drove us to Granada, where we checked into our hotel. It used to be a palace, and was very airy with a nice view of Alhambra Palace.
As we walked downtown, I felt that Granada was the most European of the Andalusian cities thus far. I also noticed how nice the streets were with flowers hanging from street lamps.
Lunch was a refreshing salad and a tasty paella with shrimp and squid ink.
I was eager to hike up to the vantage point directly opposite the Alhambra Palace called Albayzin (a UNESCO world heritage site all by itself), and thought the views were fantastic. I ate a small dessert afterwards as extra reward. The custard was nice and cold; unfortunately, it didn't really taste like anything besides sugar.
Mohamed applied his awesome research skills again, and found a local restaurant that clearly was not geared towards tourists. In fact, there was no menu, and I don't think any of the staff spoke English (Mohamed did all of the ordering in Spanish). The seafood was the best I have ever eaten.
On the way home, I stepped into a small store to buy water and unintentionally had a short conversation in Arabic: I went to pay for a large bottle of water, and I thought I heard the guy at the counter say "wahid" (which means "one" in Arabic). Instinctively, I responded "andi wahid" ("I have one"), and his eyebrows shot upwards. I was just as surprised because there's no reason he would assume I could speak Arabic (I'm clearly Asian, and we're in Spain). As I fished around my coin pocket, I said "le, andi itneen" ("no, I have two") because I had run out of one-Euro coins. We all laughed as I took my exit. Funny how things work!
