Granada Oh Na Na

Solo Traveling

Vocabulary:
Puente= when you have a long weekend because of a holiday, example you have Thursday and Friday off because it’s a festive day. That weekend there’s a “Puente”.

In Europe prices for flights make you go crazy with excitement, because there so cheap!

It’s so inexpensive to travel in Europe. I’ve seen roundtrips from 30-100 Euros to Rome, Paris, Portugal and London. It’s mind-blowing! Obviously, I want to travel everywhere, but before going to explore outside of Spain I had one destination in Spain that I wanted to experience. GRANADA.

If you meet people that have been to Granada or lived in Granada, they will not think twice before recommending you to go, so I decided to make this my first trip.

Unfortunately, everybody I knew or had met had already been to Granada. That sort of sucked, but at the same time that was not goanna stop me or my travel plans. Traveling solo, was also one thing on my bucket list, it might sound lonely and scary, but I’m not afraid to travel by myself. When solo traveling one is so open to meeting new people that it opens a new door of opportunities.

When one puente came my way, I booked a blah blah car and was off to Granada.

As I arrived in Granada and was walking to my hostel, I was secretly hoping to make friends and meet new people. I mean that’s what I love about hostels, you meet new people and share memories and experiences. I was prepared and had plans for my 4 days in Granada, but at the same time I hoped to meet someone and maybe share an experience with or do something different.  

I arrive at The Oasis Hostel in Granada STARVING! I have been in a car for almost 5 hours and need food in my system. I finish the check in and I see the lobby and it’s packed with people. I think to myself “lucky them, they all came in a group and are conquering Granada. Sweet”.

The hostel had paella for €5 and I was on that paella like a kid opening a Christmas present. 5 minutes into me eating the paella a guy approaches me and starts a conversation. Jaz, a Californian that decided to quit his job and travel around Europe. He told me he met a big group in the lobby and that he could introduce me to everybody.

Little did I know one hour later I would be drinking wine and making friends with people around my age from New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Canada, US, Germany, Chile, etc. 

 It was nice having a cultural exchange and learning about their countries, their culture and why they decided to travel. The funny thing is they were all solo travels, except for one couple, but everybody in that group met the day before or that same day in the lobby.

All the story’s shared were amazing from Jaz who quit his job to travel, to Amy from New Zealand who graduated and took 6 months to travel all over the world, to Alvin from Canada who was on a quest to find the best coffee and learn how it’s prepared in different countries to open his own international coffee shop in Canada. There were so many stories and reasons behind everybody’s travels. It was inspiring.  I was the only one who actually lived in Spain and was on a short weekend trip. Most of them were traveling for months.

Needless to say, I spent my 4 day’s in Granada hanging out with this group and experiencing everything from the Alhambra to free walking tours to amazing tapas. Amy and Jaz were my go-to people, they were really funny and loved arguing and making jokes about one another as if they hated each other or were lifelong friends (or lovers) or just belonged in a David Dobrik vlog.

One funny thing we did around the streets of Granada, Amy, Jaz and I was singing Havana by Camilla Cabello at midnight walking around the streets and changing Havana for Granada. It went a little something like this…

“Granada oh na-na,
half of my heart is in Granada oh na-na,
he took me back to East Atlanta na-na-na
Oh, but my heart is in Granada
There’s something about these tapas
Granada oh na-na.”

This solo trip ended up being one of the best trips I’ve had so far. It surpassed all my expectations by helping me meet new people, experiencing new cultures and learning funny slag from different countries, because when you’re a New Zealander and you say “I like your deck” it sounds like a completely different thing, right Amy?