So as I keep writing this post I'm realizing it's a little confusing to follow and may not make sense. I'm going to post it anyways because I wrote it but it's not that well written and for that I apologize!
With my roommate gone for the weekend I've taken to walking around and exploring on my own more. Last Thursday I had a placement exam to see if I could take an Arabic Language course while I'm here in Granada and no one else in my program was going so it was up to me to find the place. I had gotten tenative directions from one of the ISA staff but even she wasn't exactly sure where this building was. She explained that this was the first year that they weren't holding the exam in the Center of Modern Languages where I have class everyday. So it was my job to do a bit of exploring....
Granada is an amazing city to just wander through. For me it's been incredibly easy to navigate. Virginia, my language partner, likes to question me every now and then to see if I know where we are in the city after walking a while. She always seems super amazed when I get it right but for me for the most part it's really easy to find a quicker path than to backtrack through where we already walked.
The reason I think this city is so easy to navigate is because it has some pretty important land marks and characteristics that help you to navigate.
Basically if you feel yourself starting to walk up hill and there are lots of stairs in your site you are heading towards the hills and that means the Albaycin neighborhood. That's the easiest to figure out. If you want to head towards the center and you find yourself going uphill most likely you're going the wrong way.
To find the center is also pretty easy too. You walk downhill and find a main road. The center is like a major intersection of all the main roads in Granada so find one of them and head in the right direction and you'll get there. One of the bigger main roads is Gran Via Colon or something of the sort and it's a pretty distinct road. The street lamps are these weird cube like structures that almost look like ice cubes stuck together to make a really big ice cube if that makes sense. If you see those you basically know you're on Gran Via. It's also pretty simple to see straight down this road so if you're not sure at which end you're currently standing if you look down one way you can see the buildings that you wish to head towards and you'll be able to follow the road there.
Also for some reason it's pretty simple for me to tell which neighborhood or area I'm in by the buildings that I'm surrounded by and just the vibe in general of the people walking around me. For example where my class is it's very hipster and there's a lot of younger people walking around that aren't just speaking Spanish--my school building is like the center for international students. The center is more full of modern looking buildings and the granite you walk on is nicer. Plus it's where you'll find the most heladerías. Where I live is a lot of businesses but none that are super commercial and they're all basically businesses that a full time resident would need--like a paint store for example. It's really not touristy and you basically only see locals walking around.
Basically Granada isn't a very complex city EXCEPT for the backstreets. I can't tell you the amount of times that I've known I'm heading in the right direction but there's a street that ends and I can't continue to go straight and I have to sort of go on a round about street in order to get to the other side of the line of houses that are blocking my straight path. It's a little frustrating but sometimes it just adds to the walk and makes it a little more fun. But there are definitely sometimes when I wish the path was way more direct but I think it's because the streets are sometimes so windy that you can't see a road is about to end until you at that end point. It almost seems to come out of nowhere.
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