Our third day in Granada - El Albaicín, Sacromonte and the View of the Alhambra

We started our third day by wandering around the neighborhood where we were staying. Our street was right in the center of the city. Around the house there were a couple of tobacconists and a small convenience store or kiosk where we bought our water. Walking just a minute or two out of the street, the massive basilica, the city's main cathedral suddenly appeared before us.

In the shops around the cathedral, Eastern sweets caught our eye. They looked so much like the confectioners and baklava shops in Istanbul. Since Granada didn't belong to the Spaniards back in the day, the cultures here blended together, creating a very unusual and fascinating texture.

While walking in the center, we bought ingredients to make Sangria, but we forgot to buy oranges. Actually if we had just bought some from the store, it would have done the job—after all, we weren't going to eat them, just toss them into the Sangria. On top of that we bought 2 kilos of ice. Bringing it home from El Corte Inglés was a real adventure. It was a total distance of about 1.2–1.3 kilometers, but as we neared the house, water from the melting ice was dripping right through the bag. It turned out to be quite a challenging quest 😁

When we reached the Basilica Square an absurdly strong wind was blowing for some reason. The square was beautiful, but because the structures couldn't fit into the frame, their grandeur didn't quite translate in the photos. The terracotta tones of the buildings were fantastic.

The abundance of water in Granada is delightful. A pool or a fountain pops up everywhere you look. We even saw people filling bottle after bottle from the water flowing off the basilica's wall. We also tried the city's tap water and really liked it.

Having shops every few steps in the center made sightseeing a bit tricky because we wanted to stop every single meter to check things out. Still the prices here were very affordable compared to Valencia, where we had gone before. In Valencia everything and the apartments we stayed in was three times more expensive. Plus I thought Granada was much cleaner, with no sketchy characters on the streets.

We walked toward the front of that beautiful church visible from our window. As soon as we steped just two or three minutes away from the main avenue, the crowds vanished abruptly. The dark, crooked stone buildings looked even older than the central basilica. We walked through streets filled with orange and lime trees, with water bursting out from between the stones. I think the most surprising thing about Granada was walking just 20 meters past graffiti filled side streets and coming out into a sparkling, entirely different atmosphere.

Then we set off toward El Albaicín, the Arab Quarter. The street our house was on connected directly to this neighborhood anyway. The music rising from the streets of the Arab Quarter fit the mood perfectly. The roads were paved with cute small cobblestones. Nestled side by side in the alleys were Catholic churches, fountains and souvenir shops. On the way, we passed a café named 4 Gatos or Four Cats. Even though I have no idea how I remembered that "gata" means cat in Spanish, I guessed the café's name right.

As we climbed toward the viewpoint, the stairs got steeper and tougher and they hadn't put up any benches to rest on. We scrambled up over actual huge stones, stumbling along the way. But it was worth it. As we climbed higher, the view opened up and even the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background started to become visible.

Then we reached the mirador, the viewpoint. From here the Alhambra Palace stood before us in all its grandeur. And once we saw the famous Baden-Württemberg sticker on the street walls, the mission of the trip was officially complete.

Continuing from there, we moved on to the Sacromonte area, known as the Gypsy quarter. The thing about this place was the white cave houses carved into the mountainside. They were holding flamenco shows inside these caves, but without air conditioning, it was extremely hot and stuffy inside. Since we don't really like enclosed, airless spaces, we passed on these shows. Besides the free flamenco show we had watched by the river in Córdoba earlier was so good that the paid show we went to afterward couldn't even compare.

Sacromonte had a complete village vibe. Surrounded by mountains, you could hear the river below and the cicadas chirping. Just a moment ago we were in a European city with Spanish architecture, then we transitioned into an Arab quarter and then we climbed up to a Gypsy village on a mountain peak. It felt like we were constantly teleporting somewhere else in Granada.

On the way down we walked along the atmospheric path with stone walls right by the river. After walking 100 meters while listening to the mountain stream flowing through the trees, we found ourselves right back in the central square with the fountains.

With that we completed Granada's main spots and viewpoints. The third day was etched into our memories as a wonderful trip where we enjoyed the city and encountered a unique surprise around every corner.