Life in Spain is good, better than in France. It must have something to do with my Spanish being miles better than my French! Not to mention having a very loving family.
I came out of my shell about five months ago. The first year without Peter was very strange because I kept moving all over the place and had no opportunity to feel all the stuff going on inside me. I came back from Miami on March 1st and cried until nearly the end of May. I needed it, but I couldn’t spend all my time crying and longing for someone who would never come back to me.
I had joined a thing called InterNations, Granada branch. People from all over the world meet once a month at some nice venue. I promised myself I would go to the May event and it changed my life. I met loads of people and also a man, but that’s kind of complicated... he suffered a loss seven years ago, but the relationship was a short lived one, she was taken away in a cruel way, much too soon. He was left wondering what could have been, whereas I have 37 years of memories, a legacy. I think he finds emotions very difficult, and being typically English, he’s very reserved. Anyway, that’s only a small part of my life here.
Some of you have seen my posts on Facebook, but I would like to share the good times with all of you.
There’s a splinter group of InterNations that meets every Tuesday at a posh hotel in the centre of Granada. I went to a few reunions, had a really good time, but the organiser announced that she had to give it up due to family health issues. If nobody stepped up to the plate, the meetings would have to stop. Well, I’m the new organiser and enjoying it immensely. People are grateful and the group keeps growing. The first one I hosted had 33 attendees, with more attendees each week. The reunion this week had 61 people!
Then there’s a splinter of the splinter group and we go to a religious themed bar after the meetings for more drinks and tapas. It’s fun!
Enough talk. Here are some photos:
This place is called Carmen de Aben Humeya, where the last InterNations event took place. There are several Cármenes in Granada. They were large houses with big enclosed gardens, and areas for growing veggies. These days they have been turned into restaurants with best possible views of the Alhambra. Most of them are in the Albaicin, an area that used to be dangerous years ago because of the gypsies. It’s a maze of narrow cobbled streets, very hilly. It has changed a lot since the last time I came to Spain, nearly forty years ago. It’s no longer dangerous and it’s always packed with locals and tourists.
This is the hotel where we meet on Tuesdays. We have the use of a large room and the terrace surrounding it. Good drinks and tapas.
Our religious bar. There are images of Jesus and the Virgin all over the place and at midnight the lights go down, they play some lovely music, it’s a time for reflection. It only lasts about five minutes, then it goes back to lively music. The drinks are cheap and the tapas are delicious.
Tapas are small portions of food served with each drink. In Andalucía, we only pay for the drinks, the tapas are free!
That’s it. Life is an endless fiesta. Between the meetings and family gatherings, I don’t have much time left...
I hope you enjoyed this little sample of the nightlife in Granada. We haven’t had any virtual travels in a looong time!
