The Red Fortress

Just got back to Madrid from our awesome 3 days in Granada. Beautiful city. Got a lot of good pictures and ate a lot of good food. We stayed at a surprisingly nice hostel run by a couple who knew so much about the city that we could barely read our map under the circles and descriptions of good cheap restaurants and cool places to see. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the first full day when we walked around the city, starting with some interesting graffiti (note: there was also a shitload of stupid graffiti, stupid kids tag EVERYTHING):

For all my Phi Pools

A tea stand we found where Allison and Maya bought way too much tea. See if you can spot the special blend

Great shot of one of the alleys

Granada was really colorful

View of the Alhambra. More (lots more) on that in a sec

Allison and Maya

Video of the lookout point for the Alhambra. I wish it could capture what it was like a little better, the view was amazing. The Alhambra is the fortress in the middle, you can see a big snowy mountain on the left and a good portion of Granada to the right:

What? It was a long, hot hike up to the lookout point and I needed a beer, dammit

The next day was when we actually went to the Alhambra. It was absolutely stunning, and I took way too many pictures to upload them all here, so I'll show you my favorites. I with these pictures could come anywhere close to capturing how beautiful it was, but I did try. The first pictures are from the main grounds:

Large hedge pathways, no maze though

Cool staircase. The railings are grooved and water runs down them. There is an incredible number of water elements in the Alhambra

Vine growing up a wall. Nothing spectacular, but I really like this picture

Walkway to the Nasrid Palace, the main building with the most intricate tile and carving work

All of the following pictures were taken inside the Nasrid Palace, which was absolutely amazing. I can't really hope to accurately describe it in pictures, but I took a lot of shots of the incredibly detailed and expansive carvings and designs. Nearly every single surface was covered in one or the other.


Here is a video of one of the rooms where I attempt to show the insane amount of detail in the walls, ceilings, pillars and floors. ...while trying to avoid tourists

Cousins

And so concludes my visit to the Alhambra, Granada, and Spain as a whole. Maya and Allison left the next morning for Morocco, which should be incredible. I came back to Madrid to stay the night, and tomorrow I finally catch my flight to Vienna. Thanks Spain, it's been awesome.



P.S. I'm very disappointed in Spanish pickpockets, I still have my decoy wallet