Mountains and Miles

We arrived in Granada around 4:00 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, and our first thought was that we missed the hopping streets of Málaga. What we didn’t realize was that it was actually 104°F (40°C) and there wasn’t a soul to be found in the streets because everyone was undoubtedly enjoying their afternoon siesta, unlike us wandering the streets looking at closed shops and restaurants. After settling into our new shared flat, where we grounded ourselves for one whole month (more to come on that experience in a future post), we ventured into the streets nearby and found ourselves at our first tapas bar in Granada. After an exhausting day of traveling in the heat, we ordered a couple of cervezas on the patio. Within minutes of receiving our drinks we also got a free tapa!

After plenty of anticipation, we finally checked off location #9 of our Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travel book which was given to us as a gift when we began to plan our trip. Visiting a “top ten” in the entire world was an experience like no other for us. The Alhambra has a lot of great history which I will summarize below; however, the experience is much more interesting visually which is why I’ll begin by letting the pictures tell the story. Disclaimer - This is the first time since leaving that I regret not having my SLR, but choices had to be made... Although the Alhambra's three palaces are certainly its' most impressive feature and hence, tourist draw, it was more than just that. It was a city fortified by an alcazaba similar to that of the one we  toured in Malaga . Construction began in the 9th century and continued for hundreds of years with many updates and modifications along the way. Throughout the visit, I couldn't help but notice the Christians and Moors clashi

After stuffing ourselves with amazing tapas, sleeping on the beach, and visiting Málaga's attractions such as the Museo Casa Natal de Picasso (the birthplace museum of Picasso), we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to visit the best preserved alcazaba in Spain. The Alcazaba of Málaga is one of two Moorish fortresses in the city, and was only a 5 minute walk from our apartment. While several parts of the Alcazaba have been restored over time, I still felt like Lara Croft as I winded my way through the stone passageways and experienced what it would have been like to walk these grounds many centuries ago. The view from atop the castle walls produced some of the most amazing sights of the city, including looking up at the second Moorish fortress - the Castillo de Gibralfaro. There was a rather advanced water system that worked largely on gravity since the feeders all seemed to be located towards the top of the fortress. Considering the time period in which it was built, we

Less than one hour after touching down in the beautiful city of Malaga at around 9pm, we found ourselves hauling our backpacks through streets packed with people just beginning to eat dinner and entertaining themselves by staring at the two confused tourists looking for an Airbnb.

Now that I no longer have the wonderful privilege of closing the books at work (sorry finance friends!), I will be re-directing a portion of my time at month-end to closing our own travel expense budget. I should clarify by defining “travel expense budget” as all of our expenses . Since we sold our home and fired our criminal-like wireless service providers, we have little to worry about or pay for back in the States. July was a short month for us, traveling only from the 24th to the 31st. These dates also coincided perfectly with all of our expenses from Ireland.

It’s been a quick 8 days since we left Michigan and although we’re already feeling the weight of exhaustion trying to slow us down, we couldn’t be more happy with our stint in Ireland. We rented a car at Dublin Airport and headed west on the wrong side of the road to County Kerry where we spent a lot of time just exploring. We circled the Ring of Kerry, drove north on the Gap of Dunloe, and did a figure eight on the Dingle Peninsula. A big surprise came on day two when we ran into a former co-worker who was also in Ireland! (After a quick check of my social media accounts, I confirmed with a fair amount of certainty that she was the only other person I knew on the island, and of the approximate 7,200 pubs in Ireland, we somehow went to the same one at the same time).