Tapa-less bars

I love tapas, I love bars, and I love free shit. Whoever came up with the slogan, "there is no free lunch," must not have ever visited Andalusia. In Granada, when you sit down at a bar and order a drink, it is delivered to you with a complimentary tapas dish. A tapa is an ambiguous Spanish term used to describe an appetizer. I say ambiguous because a tapa could be anything; it might be some bread and cheese, it might be a plate of olives, it might be a sandwich, anything. The only thing that is standard with these little culinary delights, is that they improve in stages for every drink you order in succession. Its kind of similar to the degrees of Free Masonry- the more you buy in, the more that will be revealed. One such establishment, La Bella y La Bistea (Beauty and the Beast), is very forthcoming with their tapas, and I frequent this place a lot. For 2 euro ($3.60) you get a cold beer, 2 ham and cheese sandwiches, french fries, and pasta salad. For the second beer, two pork barbeque rolls and tater tots. By the fifth beer you have to turn them away. This is the kind of heaven that Kelsey dreams about.

So when will America wake up to this awesome trend? All of you should feel deceived because a tapas bar is not a place for bachelorette parties, or somewhere for women to dress up, share drinks, and gossip over some spinach and artichoke dip or spring rolls. Meritage and Cazbah are not tapas bars. If we remain willfully ignorant of this trend any longer, then we are just like the Chinese who continue to deviantly eat rice with chopsticks even though they know we got the fork and spoon.

Maybe I am wrong, and tapas bars are the last vestige of a complimentary society that doesn't believe every enterprise has to be capitalistic. If that is the case, then I hope you get the chance to come to Granada sometime in your life.

Salud,

Hunter

Video tour of Granada

Here are some videos about Granada. Hopefully, this will give you somewhat of an idea about where I am living for the next four weeks. Enjoy.

This one is narrated in Spanish, but the scenes are awesome.



This one is in English and very informational.

Madrid

(apologies for the late response. I just got free access today.)

If you ever decide to travel out of the country I suggest not planning anything to do on the day of your arrival. When Pat and I arrived in Madrid on Thursday morning (June 5th) we were going on 30 straight hours and needed a break; except I was too excited to take a siesta. Instead, I forced some city explorations and we needed up just getting pissed about things. Friday was much better. We decided against extending our stay in a hostel in an effort to save money. So we stored our bags at the train station and headed out town. We visited The Prado museum, Spain's Royal Palace, and Madrid's Cathedral before dining out on Plaza Mayor. There, a stage was set up for some sort of traditional dance recital- they rolled out the red carpet and cameras followed Spain's high-rollers dressed in gowns and tuxedos. Afterwards, hit up the town and ended up hanging with two Guineans (West Africa) who didn't speak English. We communicated through charades and my broken Spanish and singing Bob Marley songs together. Good times.

At around 4 am, we headed to the train station (opened at five). Along the way I decided to jump out of the bushes and frighten Patrick. I ended up missing my landing and twisting my ankle. And so my inebriated bad luck has continued. To add injury to insult, I get seated next to a lady and her one-month old crying machine for the 5 hour trip to Granada (the train stopped for an hour in Aqumonte? while the engineer did some repairs). I am not sure how to describe my feeling at that time other than saying it was probably similar to Bennett's feelings after tumble-rolling down a hill in Germany and suffering a concussion.

The Trip

Patrick and I will be flying out of Greenville on Wednesday, June 4th and should arrive in Madrid early on Thursday morning. We have until Sunday to get to Granada, so we intend on making a side trip from Madrid to Seville or Cordoba on Friday afternoon. From there our paths will diverge.

Patrick's Trip: June 4 - June 26
Bascially, Patrick has no set agenda for his trek other than having to be in Munich by June 26th for his flight back to The States. Hopefully, he will stick around Granada for a few days and won't be too far away for a weekend excursion. Although Patrick hasn't made any solid confirmations he has talked about stopping in Barcelona, Nice (France), Florence, Rome, Salzburg/Vienna, and Munich, so expect something similar to that path.

My Travels: June 4 - August 4
I have to be in Granada by Sunday, June 8th to check into my apartment. Classes at Universidad de Granada (www.ugr.es) begin on Monday morning. Each week I have four hours of class on Mondays - Thursdays, and then we are free for the weekend to do any traveling we find necessary. As luck may have it, we have Friday, July 4th off; however that is only because it is a reading day before our final exam on July 5th.
After my exam on July 5th, I am catching a flight to Den Haag (the "Hague"), Netherlands for two more weeks of class scheduled for July 7 - July 18. From there, I leave for Freiburg, Germany for another two weeks of classes scheduled for July 21- August 2. And at long last I shall finally, and officially become a law school graduate.

The Idea

I was trying to think of the best way for Patrick and I to stay in touch with friends and family this summer while we are studying in Europe without having to constantly remind everyone that we we're "having a blast." I explained this to my buddy, Chop, and he suggested that I should try a blog. Then, I remembered that my cousins Kimi and Chasen had blogs for similar trips, so I said, "what the hell. Let's give it a shot." Now, we will be able to share stories, random thoughts and photos, AND you can check up on us whenever you feel like it; or not.

In case you were wondering how this thing works: Patrick or myself will add content to this site, and anyone will be able to "post" reply comments to our photos and blog-messages. Thus, together we build this website. I hope that you enjoy, and I fully expect Bennett to have his own blog within fifteen days. In fact, shouldn't we force Bennett to have his own blog? Think about it.

I will be explaining the details of our trips in my next post.

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend; and if you see a veteran or someone on active duty, remind them how thankful we are for their services.