6am

We woke up early today and after Subuh prayer, started packing our things. The train would leave Santa Justa train station at 10.20am.

Yesterday, after all that walking, we decided to explore the city at night but I overslept hahahaha. Spaniards are known for their night life but we did not experienced it in Sevilla because I OVERSLEPT, Jules too. I only woke around 10.30pm. Asked Jules why she did not wake me up earlier, Jules said I was sound asleep that she did not have a heart to wake me up.. my sensitive friend hehehehe..

Anyway, we spent the night watching the tele.. which was hanging above my bed. Well I have to "reposition" myself if I want to watch TV. Anyway, there was nothing interesting on so we were just channel surfing. Spaniards love game show so almost every channel, they have game shows or talk shows. From politics to entertainment to hardcore talk. They even have talk show similar to Jejak Kasih.

After a McD meal dinner (the one we packed after our late lunch yesterday) Lays and chocolate, Jules entertained herself with channel surfing with the remote and I just lazed around on my bed with the instruction.. hehehe surf. stop. surf. stop.

Well, the tv reception was not that good, so we have a better reception channel and then we have one with foggy pictures. Anyway, while channel surfing, we stumbled into the ahem! the XXX-rated channel hahahaha... its err well... aaaa.... not very stimulating hahahahaha. More to disguisting. so channel surfing again.

This time we stopped at this one talk show about prostitution and drugs and the impact to the society and economy.It was very interesting how the issue was presented. They interviewed the public, politicians, prostitutes, drug addicts and even go undercover for fresh perspective. The end product was overall story, the pro and cons about these vices. What I liked about the show was the balanced way it was presented.

While the cops went undercover to buy drugs, they even went to Amsterdam and interviewed joints that sell drugs openly (legalised by the government). The questions whether it was a good move and whether Spain can emulate the move as way to contain drug problems in the country. While drugs may be a problem, another social illness - prostitution - was also given equal attention. The producer even invite prostitutes to give their view and showed viewers on their "expertise" in satisfying their customers who kept using their services. So they have these couple wearing ridiculous masks and performed "lurid" scene with each other but did not go beyond the "foreplay" hehehehe.

Although we may not understand Spanish, the show was "educational" enough especially on journalism aspect where they tried to present balanced reporting without being too judgemental. Right! Well, I guess watching the couple strutting their stuff was kinda "educational" too.

Anyway, after packing and readying ourselves for another two to three hours journey to Granada, we paid off our lodging and hailed a cab to Santa Justa.

Unlike the train from Palencia to Madrid, the train from Sevilla to Granada was not as grand. There was no special compartment for big bags or large backpacks so it was kind of first come first serve basis. We just stuck our bag at the empty space at the end of the coach and put our plastic bags and paper bags on the compartment above the seats.

I saw many Japanese now travelling to Spain, probably the country now made famous by Beckhams with Real Madrid. Hmm.. communication was still a problem when the ticket inspector having difficulties explaining to these Japanese tourists. So they kept going off and on the train clutching their guide books. Well, we don't know where these tourists were heading to and again with communication barrier, we don't think we would be much help to these tourists.

The train stopped at almost every station and the view was spactacular especially when we enter the country side that were abundant with olive trees. This was the first time I saw so many olive trees in vast orchards. So our view was either olive trees, plains and box like houses. Well, it was different from the lush greenery and colourful tulips in Amsterdam and snow capped mountains in Austria and Switzerland.

Spain and especially Andalusia is trully a sunny country where the Brits took the apportunity to soak the sun and tanning their bodies.

There were two coaches in this train that headed to Granada and at almost every train we see different people. The number almost equal between the tourists and the locals. Train is still the best transportation to take between Andalusia provinces. It is still cheap, efficient, fast and connecting the main cities.

Well, my time enjoying the scenic view ended when a family of a mother and three children boarded the train. They looked like Gypsies. The mother, a daughter and two boys between eight and 12 years old. While the daughter sat with the mother and her elder brother,the eldest started his "journey" to the back of the train and to the next coach.

There was no problem with the eldest and his expedition, however the problem started when both brothers sitting in their seats. I don't know whether it was the sunny weather or the beautiful scenery, but these two started tapping their coins on the steel flap table and singing in Spanish. Ok five minutes I can endure but all the way to Granada? Please, somebody please tell these two kids to shut up!

I glanced at the clock, we still have at least 30 minutes more before reaching Granada, I tried to block them off by pretending to sleep, but sleep eluded me. I kept hearing the thunking sound when the coin met with the metal flap table, and their off-tune singing like nails scraching the glass window in a language that I don't understand. Grrrrr.....

3pm

Finally we reached the train station at Avenida de Andaluces off Avenida de la constitución and immediately bought ticket to Malaga. The nearest international airport in Andalusia is Malaga and we figured that we can save time if we buy train tickets to Malaga immediately.

Once the transaction is completed, we hailed a cab to Hostal Vienna. The cab driver was young and yet very helpful to us. This what I like about the Spaniard guys hehehe. So upon reaching the hostal, he helped us carried our bag to the hostal door. Paid the cab ride along with some tips (just a few coins hehehe) we went up to the reception.

The hostal reception was very narrow where it can only accomodate only two people minus the big bags. Visitors have to stand on the steps and deal with the reception that kinda look like a hole in the wall. The reception guy gave us a choice. A room next to a reading area or another one two stories up.. errrr.... we take the one nearest. We don't think that we can lug our big bags up the spiral staircase to the third level. No thank you. Although the room has a glass window separating the room and reading area, at least it has thick curtain for privacy.. well its okay.

The set back in this hostal was that it was quite expensive but at the same time did not have a television. I guess the reason was that with all the activities that we can do in Granada, who needs tv? Well, we do! Another set back was the airconditioning system. We cannot control our own airconditioning as it was controlled by the front office. It was switched off at 11.30pm daily and will be switched on around 7am. Well its either we shivered with cold or we freeze our butt with cold. Well, it was cold!

The beds were put closed together with narrow opening for us to negivated our over-porpotioned bodies in between. The next solution was just to jump on the bed once we take off our shoes, but the good news was that the beds did not creaked. Yea! And there was extra blanket for us. Yea!

The bathroom was okay and basic, but the window was next to a kitchen of another house. So, if we opened the window, we can see the guy next house. So close the window. The bath tub was small but has a raised portion where you can sit down (not squatting) while having a shower. The towels will only be changed in every two days (stingy!) and there was no extra towel to put as carpet to step on when going out from the bath tub. Bah!

So, after zuhr and asar jama' prayer, we explored the old city. We took the tourists map from the front office and decided to do the actual exploring the next day. So, today we just want to see what the souvenir shops have to offer. We went to the Nueva Plaza opposite the hostal and check out the tapas restaurants. Found one muslim shop called Al-Andalus so we decided to check it out.

While the shop sells muslim food with halal sign, it also sell local-made beer called Alhambra Beer. It was disheartening to see this but we decide to buy our borcadellos from this shop for dinner.

We browsed the shops selling souvenirs that were aplenty in the old city. The Muslim influence are more glaring here and we saw that there were many muslims owned these shops. Mostly were Moroccon, Turks and Algiers who came to the city. Not surprising that the number of Muslim population in Granada is rising each year.

Besides a popular tourists destination, Granada is also known as a University town and there are some 60,000 students in this province. We were told that there were quite a number of Muslim students here in Granada and their number is also growing.

Besides visiting the famous Alhambra and tracing the old Muslim quarters in Albayzin, the other reason that we visited Granada is for its new mosque which was recently completed and serve the growing Muslim population in this old city.

As its growing darker by minute, we decided to explore the city and started going up the narrow and steep lanes in Albayzin tomorrow.