The Spain trip - what we did, where we stayed and how we commuted (2)

On 28th, we left Seville and began our road trip "across" Spain. We had not pre-booked anything and decided to go with the flow and rent a large car from the cheapest place available. Guess what car we rented.. AN AUDI ! :D *evil laughter*

We started from Seville around 9AM and drove down to Cadiz.

Cadiz is a beautiful place - there is nothing much to do apart from take pics at a fort sort of thing facing the waterfront. Now, because it was not raining, we made it a point to take pics without our jackets (mind you, it was still cold). And it so happened that all of us were in shades of black or white :D

We had food at a very sad restaurant in Cadiz. We basically walked along the promenade and did not find any place that we liked. We started walking back to where we had parked the car and went through a street which had these small cafes - and as we were famished and needed caffeine, we decided to plonk ourselves there.

Life Pro Tip : If you do not like potatoes and are a vegetarian; my deepest sympathies are with you, my friend.

After recharging ourselves, we started to drive towards Gibraltar (that was the route we had planned. Seville - Cadiz - Gibraltar - Granada).

Goofing' around in Cadiz. They form a signal :P

Gibraltar - funny story I tell you. Nandhini Ganesan told us that she has been to Gibraltar in the past and that we definitely need to see the place. So we packed our bags and started to drive down there. En route, we noticed that one side of the road had a LONG LONG LONG queue of cars waiting (on the right side lane) - and they were on the way to Gibraltar. Having no clue why they were waiting like that, we took the middle lane and continued driving. What fools, right ? There is an empty lane to go.

Little did we know that we were on the "no customs declaration" lane. We saw it a little further ahead and wondered - what customs rubbish ? We are within Schengen territory, absolutely no issues at all. Then Madhuri's T Mobile internet told us that we are crossing borders. Wait, what ??? Crossing borders ??? We then saw a notice board telling us that we are entering British Overseas Territory and need to have a valid visa. OMG OMG OMG ! We didn't have any visa for London; we could not take any u-turn because there was no place to take one. Accepting our fate we proceeded. I mean, what is the worst that could happen ? we would be asked to leave and exit the country. Sheesh !!

Life Pro Tip : Make sure you check routes before you decide to take them.

LPT2 : In the future, DO NOT trust a friend who claims to have been to Gibraltar but does not remember that you need a bloody visa to the place.

Thankfully, we were able to enter thanks to our Schengen. We got our passports stamped with an entry into Gibraltar which was valid for a day. Cool right ? Got to visit 2 countries while in Spain :|

Anyhoo, we roamed about at the lighthouse at the tip of Europe, and then proceeded to drive to Granada. We managed to book a house over there to stay, as our flight to Barcelona was from there the next day. It was a quaint little place, kind of in the heart of the city, near this college - due to which the eateries were mindblowingly yummy. We decided to grab dinner at this place closely; where I had the most delicious drink of my life. I had Mead - a sweet version and .. oh. my. God. It tasted exactly like juice and was sooooooooo tasty ! The food was also quite good - a Lebanese sort of place. Had a felafel wrap, while the others tried different stuff.

We almost passed out at the house after we returned. The lady was very nice, and the funniest bit is that she spoke 0 English, while we spoke 0 Spanish (Even though Nandhini went for Spanish classes and passed some exam - so she claims). We actually used Google translate on her phone to communicate :D
The next day, we had some time to kill. We checked out of the house, paid some 250 odd Euros to the lady and proceeded to explore Granada. The place is gorgeous ... We went to this place called Alhambra - it's an old structure that exists within city limits and has some beautiful architecture. This place took us around 2 hours, post which we went to the city, had lunch and then proceeded to go to the airport where we needed to return the car. While going back we noticed those orange trees! And decided that we were going to pluck an orange - each of us :)
We did so, but then some men started shouting at us and I freaked out thinking we did something illegal. Turns out they were telling us not to eat those oranges as they are bad ... Guess that explains why the trees were full of them and no one was plucking and eating/selling them.

The Veuling flight to Barcelona was uneventful, and peaceful (thank God for that). I sat with Madhuri (those hands I held every now and then during slight turbulence).

Life Pro Tip : Do your web check in before reaching the airport. This gives you time to do some window shopping, chill, have a drink and relax before boarding.

We landed in Barcelona around 830PM - and it was still quite bright :)
We had booked a hostel called The Hipstel. It cost us around 19 bucks per head and is in the main road of Barcelona - Passage De Garcia.

Life Pro Tip : While booking hostels, you will need to make a choice between high rating - location - good pics.