Getting through customs in Spain

I'm finally in Spain! I got here on Thursday, but I already feel like I've been out of the country for about a million years.

When I arrived I was already in a bleary half-awake state, due to not having slept for about 36 hours, and having to go through immigration and customs and find my hotel all in Spanish seemed like a near impossible task. Luckily for me, though, immigration and customs involved minimal effort in Spain.

The immigration officer at the airport just glanced at my passport—I don’t even have a stamp. And when I finally found my luggage, all it had to do was go through a couple of metal detectors (and the person manning them wasn't even looking, he was chatting with another airport employee.) I'd say I agree with the stereotype that the Spanish people are easygoing.

Since I got to Granada, the city where I'm staying, that impression has been reinforced. I've met lots of people who are genuinely friendly and want to help me and my American friends with our Spanish. I don't get the feeling I'm hated for being American, which is something I was kind of worried about.

Granada is a fairly small city-- today I walked across the whole thing-- but it also generates a good amount of tourism because of the Alhambra, an incredible Moorish palace that rises over the city. Granada was the last stronghold of the Moors in medieval Spain, and the Muslim rulers of Granada lived in the Alhambra until 1492, when they were run out of the country by Ferdinand and Isabella.

So now the city has all kinds of incredible Moorish architecture, including the Alhambra and an entire neighborhood called the Albaicin, the old Moorish quarter. Apparently it still looks more or less the way it did in the 15th century, which is a lot of whitewashed houses and tiny winding streets. Today I got to explore them, and it was incredible.

Another thing I've learned is that the siesta tradition is still very much alive here. We take a siesta every day after lunch, and if you walk through the streets anytime from around 2 to 5 p.m., almost everything is closed and deserted. But at around 6:30, the streets come alive. People come out of their homes and walk around, have drinks, or just hang out on the streets and talk and people-watch.  It's definitely not like any American city I've ever seen.

Tomorrow we're going on a hike in a Spanish national park and stopping on a few Mediterranean beaches. I can't wait.

Until next time!