The Road Trip Saga: Granada

Hey guys! What a month it's been! A couple of midterm exams, a presentation or two and this road trip has been and gone. Santa Semana just finished also. Santa Semana is the Easter Week of Spain, which I think could be a bigger celebration that what I have experienced in Ireland. I hope you all, Erasmus or otherwise are getting ready for the final exams and remember, live the last few weeks of Erasmus to the absolute max! 

But what Road Trip did I mean? I'm talking about the 5/6 Day Road Trip I just completed with my friends down the South of Spain on the Costa del Sol in three incredible cities! That road trip of course! It's been hard to not upload all the picture I took of the incredible places on The Poor Student Traveller facebook page, which if you haven't, be sure to give a like! https://www.facebook.com/ThePoorStudentTraveller/
So on to the road trip itself! I'm excited to share the experience with you all! I guess lets begin with the set-up for the trip and the first destination!

The Set-Up

Around a month or so before we actually departed Madrid to go anywhere, my friends and I were discussing the possibility of doing something on Easter Week. Most of us were not really interested in heading home just for a few days when we have an amazing country that we haven't discovered much of. So with the concept of at least traveling on Easter Week, my friends Max (who has been mentioned in one or two posts before), Erika, Lotta, Jan and I met up in Madrid one evening to discuss the possibilities and the different things we would need for a road trip. We discussed everything, Locations, transport, people and what we would do and see at these places.
One of the biggest factors for the trip had to be BEACH! Living in Madrid and with the temperatures reaching around 24->30 degrees celsius, as much as I like the city, it sucks being here without a body of water or no beach to chill at. After a lengthy discussion, we finally came to the conclusion that the places we wanted to visit were: Granada, Malaga and Sevilla. We would rent cars, depending on the amount of people going and rent AirBnB apartments! After this discussion, up until the week before the trip was spent getting numbers on how many were going and making sure all accommodation and transportation was sorted out! After that... We were ready to go!

Granada

To begin with the first destination, Max, my friend Teemu and I left Madrid at around 10:30 after an hour spent in the office of Hertz/Thrifty, the company we were renting on of the cars from. At the Thrifty office, we were there with the attendant of the office discussing the different prices and different insurance packages we could get with the car we were renting. In total, the whole car altogether cost close to 473€. Within this mount included theft and damage insurance, which we took due to the fact that it was Santa Semana, as well as the car itself. Initially. we were supposed to be getting a Seat Ibiza, but were upgraded to a Skoda Superback. A car perfect for our trip, with enough room, The almost 500€ price was maybe 100 or 150 euro over what we estimated but with an upgraded car, it wasn't the worst price. 

From there it took around 4 hours to get to Granada. We carried water, peanuts, bananas, croissants and chips with us for the journey, you know, essential road trip snacks. Not satisfying our growing hunger, we stopped at a little roadside restaurant about one 45 minutes to an hour outside of Madrid where we sat, had a coffee to refresh ourselves and ate some bocadillos before hitting the road. The drive was quite nice with Max and Teemu. The car was rocking from a mixture of Big Sean, Drake, 21 Savage, Black Eyed Peas and my

favourite... JVG from Finland!

We arrived in the city of Granada at around 3:30 or 4pm, with the sun still shining and it was still quite warm. As we came into the city of Granada, the first thing we could see was the Sierra Nevada mountains, The snow covered peaks could be seen and it made for a spectacular view as we drove and made our way into the city. We drove around the city of Granada for about 20 minutes both trying to find our Airbnb location and also a good parking spot that would be close enough to our apartment and easily accessible. Eventually, we managed to find a spot just off the Camino de Ronda, the street in Granada with a phenomenal view of the Sierra Nevada peaks. Our parking spot was a 3 to 5 minute walk away from our Airbnb. We parked up, took our bags and made our way to the Airbnb where the remainder of our road trip group, Jan, Erika, Lotta and Laura were waiting for us to arrive. 

The other group took their car promptly from Centurion Car rental from the San Fernando area of Madrid which is quite close to the airport and is adjacent to the AC Hotel in that area. They took a Fiat 500L, which provided both room and comfort for even five people as well as luggage.

We got to the apartment. The apartment we rented from Airbnb was only 44€/night. As we stayed only one night, it was perfect. The apartment consisted of 4 bedrooms and 7 beds, enough for the seven of us, comfortably. The apartment was also fitted with two terraces, one with a perfect view of the Alhambra, 2 bathrooms and an appropriately sized kitchen. It was perfect!

After gathering our surroundings, we left the apartment in search of a place to eat and also get a good look at the city. As it was Semana Santa, it made it quite difficult to move around the streets as the pilgrims and devotees, some dressed in their Santa Semana costumes, filled the streets. We found ourselves at a restaurant not too far away from the Cathedral of Granada. The place was called Meson de Mar. Here, my friends Max, Teemu and I ordered the grilled chicken breast with fries. Lotta and Laura ordered the potato, prawn and asparagus. Out of all the places we ate at during the whole 5 day trip, I think the general consensus leads to believe that the Meson de Mar was not the best restaurant we visited on the trip. The portions were really small and the service was not that good, they forgot our requests quite often. I didn't even take a

picture of the food, it was quite disappointing. And you know how important food is for me...
After dinner, we made our way through the small streets of Granada, going through the crowds of celebrations until we came out on one of the main streets and almost immediately, we made the first pitstop at Massimo Dutti, the clothing retailer where Max was eager to find and buy a new shirt. After a comical 15/2o minutes at the store, we left empty handed with Max not finding what he wanted. We then moved forward towards the base of the climb towards the Alhambra where we looked in awe and also mild fright at the procession of people in the Santa Semana festivities. We watched and waited for two Finnish friends to meet us. The two friends, Olli and Frans met us and then decided to guide us up the climb to the Alhambra viewpoint. The walk up was really cool. We passed through the really interesting Arabic market area which had really cool smells and the products all looked really interesting. 
We kept climbing and eventually came to the viewpoint with our beers. We all took our touristy pictures, had our beers and had nice chats as the sun hit our faces. After maybe 20 or 30 minutes just chilling at this viewpoint, we

wondered about going higher to get an even better view of the Alhambra as the sunset. We climbed and climbed higher until we came to a nice resting area. This place was so beautiful with the Alhambra being lit up by the sun on its back. From my friends, you could feel the relaxation and from myself also. It was peaceful. 
Our stomachs were mostly the reason for leaving the high viewpoint of the Alhambra. We were getting hungry, and not surprising after the lunch we had 😂. Olli and Frans, our Finnish friends, suggested and accompanied us to a restaurant. Back down to the main streets of Granada, the two boys led us to the restaurant, "7Gatos" or "7Cats". The place had a good atmosphere, and had our reservation ready for us. We freshened up and took our seats. A big push came from Olli and Frans to take the burrito, their recommendation. A majority of the group ordered the burrito, I ordered the cheddar calzone (I hadn't had a calzone since my time in Italy). Max and Frans ordered the hamburgers. We got our beers. The Alhambra beer in Granada is really nice, I would recommend trying it! We were given mini burritos on a bed of couscous as an appetizer before our food, and my god... if it was an indicator for the food to come, then we were in for a treat because they were delicious. I just couldn't stop eating the couscous.
We got our food in what felt like no time at all. The burritos all looked really really tasty. I was internally jealous but I received my cheddar calzone which looked just so good. We all chowed down and conversed about Granada, what we did in the day etc. The drinks went down well and so did the food. I don't think there wasn't an empty plate! We finished up, paid and left. The plan for then was to just chill for the night, after a long day.
We went to an alimentacion, bought some drinks, went back to our apartment and just had a really nice and relaxing evening.
The next morning, after a little lie in, we packed up our cars, left the Airbnb and went for breakfast. The place we went was on the climb up to the Alhambra. The girls already left before us so

they were already there. The place where we ate was called "4Gatos". No idea about the fascination with cats in Andalusia, but oh well! 4Gatos was so good. It was a small-ish place but the food was really really good! I ordered the granola with banana and some toast and coffee. Max and Teemu ordered the Omega 3 salmon toast and Jan ordered the muesli with cinnemon.  The food was so delicious with fresh orange juice and really good coffee, but also at a reasonable price. If anyone is going to Granada, I recommend eating in 4Gatos!
After breakfast, we were back down and into the cars, picked up Olli and Frans to bring to Malaga with us and away we were onto the next city!

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Next will be the post about Malaga! Stay tuned for that!

Thanks to Erika for use of some of her Granada pictures! 
Be sure to follow on Instagram: erikaojala 
And to Max for his advice also. Check him on insta: immonenmax
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And be sure to check up with my 'gram!: Dave_Keane