Granada - In Full

Finally! Ok, well, I´ve been waiting to see the Alhambra since I learned about it in high school. When the Moops (haha, I mean Moors) took over Spain, it led to much Arabic influence and some incredible architecture, so I was told. Well, I have some pictures that speak for themselves. But first, two NOT of the Alhambra:

An amazing mural graffiti artist who lives in town, Raul has decorated so many walls of buildings with his incredible and powerful art, that there are now tourist-office-sponsored navigational maps to guide people to see all of them. There´s a message in this one, too, in case you can´t read Spanish. It asks, "Who is playing with our children?"
In Sacromonte, the hills above Granada, the gypsies live in caves. The outsides of the caves look like they contain items stolen from around town: cafe table umbrellas, doors, etc. I didn´t want to take a full on picture of someone´s house with them inside it, so I did it covertly. You can kind of see it in the distance there.
Ah, el Generalife: the gardens of the Alhambra. The place was filled with this stuff.
The Fountain of Lions from the famed Arabian Nights fairy tale, albeit without the lions, which are being restored. Rotten luck.
One of many courtyards.
There was too much of this to accurately capture its majesty on film, but suffice it to say that entire walls, in fact, entire rooms had this Arabic calligraphy sprawled out from floor to cathedral-ceiling.
A view of the Alhambra from Plaza de St. Nicolas.


Granada was a great trip, although other than the Alhambra, it was pretty slow, and I think you´d have to actually live there to honestly enjoy it. On to Barcelona!