The difference between appreciating things and…

actually enjoying them comes down, I’ve found, to weather.

This is amazing – I tell myself, gritting my teeth, as I wander through Granada’s famed Alhambra complex. I exaggerate – I did enjoy it, in a frozen sort of way. Granada’s Sierra Nevada range still has a thick layer of snow on the peaks, and the city is ‘enjoying’ some sorely needed rain – apparently it’s been in drought for two years. That said, there’s nothing like traipsing about among the monuments getting wet all day and then kicking back at a cheap hotel where the heating doesn’t work…whinge whinge here, anyway here is Granada, Spain.

Apparently a guy called Washington Irving only discovered the ruins of the Alhambra a couple of hundred years ago – until then this fabulous place sat mouldering like Anghkor Wat, forgotten by all but the squirrels. Interesting factoid; the Moors were very fond of ponds and fountains, and so the Nazaries Palaces are home to a large and contented frog population.

I had expected Granada to be much like Cordoba but hillier – in fact the stone in each Spanish city is different and this lends an entirely different character. In Cordoba it’s golden (a bit like Sydney sandstone) but in Granada it’s grey.

I left Granada in a blablacar (the long distance equivalent of Uber) with three young Spanish guys who for the first half an hour didn’t say a word. I realised after a while that one of them had a cockatiel in a carry case he was murmuring to, so we got talking about that, and the endearing habits of los gattos (cats) and Spain’s latest Eurovision hit (I let on that I thought Eurovision was shit, which was a mistake, as this was an LGBTI-friendly vehicle). Now in Cadiz, in the flat of a friendly artist who designs lingerie for a living (all mine went to the op shop long ago, sadly).

And finally, some remarks on Google. Which guides my every step, as in…’turn left at Calle de Catolica…3 minutes to your destination….turn right towards Ave de WherethefuckamI…five minutes to your destination….turn right again on Calle LookslikeIhavegonewrongsomewhere…ten minutes to your destination….right again on Ohshitnotthisagain…..and here we are back on Calle de Catolica!’

I’m gradually getting better at it.