I’d recently written a guest post for fellow travel blogger at Europe A La Carte – a great site for all things related to Europe. I’d decided to write about my home away from home – Granada, Southern Spain. Here’s a sneak peek of my post.
A tranquil city in Southern Spain, Granada exudes a mystical sense of beauty that not many overcrowded Spanish cities can compare to. In contrast with the tourist-dominated beaches along the coast, Granada is so elegantly poised with Arabic-influenced architecture, gypsies-inhabited caves and thick Iberian culture.
As the last city to be returned to the Christian conquistadors after several hundred centuries of Muslim ruling, Granada still bears evidence to its Arabic influence to this day. The Alhambra Palace was built during the Moorish reign in the 15th century, and still stands proud and majestic on the hills of Granada.
Other signs of Arabic influence can be seen in the Albayzín, one of the oldest areas in Granada. Perched on the hilltop across a canal from the Alhambra, it consists of steep cobblestoned paths and quaint authentic white-washed houses known as el Carmen. Read more…
Arabic teahouses and Moroccan shops line the narrow street that leads up to the hilltop. The perfect way to relax after a day, is to smoke some Arabic waterpipe (Spanish name is Cachimba) in the dimly-lit aromatic teahouses (teterias).
In the city center right next to the Cathedral, the Alcaicería stands out, like a typically Arabic souk (bazaar) that attracts many tourists and locals alike. Read more…
——————————————————————————————————————————————-Read the entire blog post at Europe a la Carte blog. It’s a multi-authored blog all about anywhere in Europe – from the sunny beaches of Greece to the cold snowcapped winters of Lapland.
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Related Posts:
- Our second home- Granada, Spain
- WildJunket’s favourite spots to spend Valentine’s
- 3 Kings’ Day in Granada
- Teaching English in Spain
- From the perspective of a guiri in Spain
Thanks for the nice article… I like your way of writing!