"solo estamos de paso...otro mundo es posible"

I walked up the winding streets of the Albycin today to a charming little park overlooking a spectacular view of the Alhambra and Sierra Nevada. A man and a woman were deep in their own world, playing/writing music. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. It was not just their voices that were breathtaking, I don't know quite what it was. It was not their physical appearance nor their alluring voices that impressed me, affected me. Inhibition. Radiance. If the verb "to be" were to take a physical form, this was it. Ser o estar. Hay que vivir.

New home!

I'm officially staying in Granada for a month! I have a room in a flat in one of my favorite neighborhoods. Sharing a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and roof terrace with Auxi (35) and Fernando (78). Nice to have a cozy bed and some privacy. Auxi is possibly one of the sweetest women I have ever met...reminds me of Lucy. Yesterday she walked me all around the neighborhood showing me the best bars and markets. Last night she brought a hair dryer into my room "para calentar la cama." I remember so clearly the first time Rodrigo started blow drying my side of the bed in Chile and being very confused as to why he was making such a fuss. Apparently blow drying your bed is completely normal in more countries than one. Auxi and her boyfriend only speak Spanish which has been wonderful for me. Enrique and I set up their wifi router last night which involved a lot of vocabulary I wasn't familiar with. It was also extremely frustrating because he was doing it completely wrong and it was taking forever. I wasn't about to tell a Spanish hombre to just let me do it...machismo still runs deep. Oh well, I would have probably somehow broken it anyway.
Granada is such an interesting city. I went for a run this morning up by the Alhambra through this endless, beautiful garden... that I soon realized was a maze. At the center is what can only be described as home to the Lost Boys from Peter Pan. A river with a stone bridge and some sort of castle ruins...
Every time I leave the apartment I'm gone for hours. Just when I think I've found my way around the city I find another side street with another fountain and new bars and architecture. Curiosity always gets the best of me and I find myself 100% lost every other minute. I do a lot of walking and a lot of eating.
Churros: fried dough dipped in chocolate. ahhhhhhhh.
Today I stopped at a bookstore and bought The House of the Spirits and hiked up into the hills of the Sacramonte and attempted to understand it in Spanish...thank goodness I've read it before.
Hiked into the Sierra Nevada on Saturday with a mutual friend of Anna and Katie's who is here in Granada. The landscape was spectacular. Love blue snowy mountains. The trail we took was filled with obstacles like bridges, caves, wild bulls, and cliffs. Wish I had my rock climbing equipment...and could remember how to tie those very important knots...GREGORY WHERE WERE YOU!?!?
Side note: I need to get a large dog when I get home for running, hiking, snuggling.

Very content...just hanging out here for the rest of the week. Lots of writing, painting, vino on the roof. Anna might come stay with me this coming weekend and if not I will go explore Ronda or Malaga...beach sounds pretty nice right about now.
Miss you all xoxo
View from the roof:

Last night I went out to the bars alone for the first time in my life. It was only 10pm (still early) so I walked along Elviro Street looking for a good bar. They were all busy so I picked the one with the most attractive men and the best looking tapas, obviously. I felt very out of place and rather foolish, to say the least, sitting at the bar by myself.
I started talking to a woman from Madrid and all of a sudden she had introduced me to most of the people in the room. I spent the next couple of hours discussing politics with a guy from Morocco and listening to a 55 year-old bisexual woman's philosophy on "el sexo." I may have missed a few vocabulary words but it was certainly an experience. Not necessarily the crowd I thought I would be sharing drinks with but these were the sweetest, most open people I have ever met. The guy from Morocco got emotional explaining to me how Granada is one of few places in the world where people from all over; all ages, classes, cultures and orientations, can live and work together without judgement. It was a very sincere and powerful statement. That statement is like porn for an international studies major.

Totally geeked out at the Alhambra for four hours today...here are some mediocre pics that don't do it justice:

Crisis averted

Just treated myself to paella, calamari, and chocolate covered pastries and wine. No more cranky Sophie. Going hiking this afternoon...xox