Backpacker's Lesson #1: Always charge your camera...

...and then put it away. (More on that in a bit.)

I spent this weekend in Granada with a few newly-found friends. Friday night was an adventure in itself--a five hour bus ride, figuring out what bus got us closest to our hostel, and then trying to FIND our hostel in the maze of narrow, twisted streets. I was certainly thankful when we walked in the door. I was ready to throw my stuff down and find some GRUB!!! I grabbed some leftover paella from the hostel's kitchen after someone offered it to me. We left the hostel in search of some (more) good food. We wound up getting some tortilla (a potato omelette) and ratatouille, with our bottle of wine--thank goodness for tapas! I ate well, to say the least.

Speaking of the hostel (Oasis Hostel), it was so much nicer than I had expected. The lobby was nice with a seating area so you could sit and talk with other travelers. The kitchen was very clean, with nice dishes, and a free breakfast--you cooked it yourself, but still, it was good. Our room held six people, so the five of us were sharing with
another American. We never really saw him, except when we came back to go to sleep. We had an ensuite bathroom with another, larger bathroom outside the room that we shared with one other room. The beds were VERY comfortable, and our balcony had a great view. But the best part? The rooftop terrace. Yes, I said ROOFTOP TERRACE. It had sweeping views of Granada in three directions (one of which is right here). At 20 euros a night, I think it would be possible to find something cheaper, but I feel like I got my money's worth.

I really discovered the appeal of "hosteling," too. Everyone there was around my age, in their early- to mid-twenties. So you automatically have something in common with everyone there. And in the common spaces--like the rooftop terrace, for instance--you have the opportunity to share where you've been and what you've done with the people around you. I had some very nice conversations with people from Canada and Pennsylvania. And you can really just be yourself because chances are that you'll never see them again. It's really a very cool experience. If you have the opportunity to hostel, don't shy away. Accept it in a heartbeat.

I think that Spain is a place for making those one-time connections that we all secretly love. Saturday night, my friends and I found a bar with some discounted drinks, so we went in to dance and have a copa (a drink). While we were dancing, a guy at the bar started clapping along to the song, so I joined in, added a little rhythmic beat on top of it. He thought it was really funny, so every once in a while, he'd start up again, look at me, and I'd join for a minute. When we got our drinks, we stood next to him, so we started talking about Granada and various other things. We probably talked for ten minutes or so, about nothing important. Then on our five hour trip back to Madrid, I sat next to a girl from Spain with an interesting history--she'd been to Pennsylvania for 2 months in high school, some time in Romania spent a year studying in Germany, and two years studying in Madrid. She and I talked for at least a couple hours about the changes that are coming to Spain (remember the Arab Spring? Spaniards feel about the same.). We talked about her dog (that was sitting in the cargo hold), learning how to drive automatic/stick shift cars, and how Spanish people don't like the movie Knight and Day because it takes Spanish culture from various regions of Spain and pushes them together into one city. And I really got to practice my Spanish!

As you will see, Granada is an incredibly beautiful place. So I used my (point-and-shoot) camera a lot. The last time I charged it was for my weekend trip to Toledo, so I thought I'd be fine for a couple more days. To save a little weight (and space) in my backpack, I left my charger and converter in the apartment. By Saturday afternoon, my camera was flashing at me, "Low Battery, Low Battery" every time I turned it on. I went into conserve power mode. And by about 3:30 on Sunday, Mr. Canon refused to turn on. Thanks, world. Lesson learned.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

Granada's Cathedral--so bright inside!

Dried fruits and so many kinds of tea!

Inside the Alhambra

I literally could have spent the entire day here.

The walls were full of this type of engraving. Beautiful.

Some paella in the plaza. Quite delicious.

But I found that the moments that I'll remember most fondly aren't the ornate, Arabic engravings at the Alhambra, or the books of Gregorian Chant at the cathedral--the things I can hold forever on a tiny memory card. They're the moments when my camera was safe and secure in my pocket. They're the many moments spent with friends at the top of the torres (towers), basking in the sun, the wind bringing sounds of the street musicians below. They're the moments where we stopped for lunch, making turkey sandwiches on a fresh baguette, saying nothing--needing to say nothing because we were all thinking the same thing, "The world is a wondrous place, and this is truly living."

Don't misunderstand me. I love my pictures, and I'm glad I have so many to look back on. But sometimes (or most of the time, maybe), the pictures aren't what matter. What matters is the experience, finding the true heart of where you are. And in Granada, with my camera-gone-kaput, that was almost too easy.

Lesson learned.