Granada, and the end of the Earthwatch team

The last day of the Earthwatch expedition was spent driving to Granada. The team had one last dinner together at a restaurant the scientists were familiar with. After this, people started to go separate ways. The younguns wanted to go clubbing. Several people, me included, wanted to find some good flamenco music. Under Luis' guidance, this we found.

Several of the team members had early departures the next morning, and decided to stay up all night. This is not such a bad idea in Spain, considering that dinner started around 10, and probably didn't end until 11:30. Of course, several of us decided to keep them company. This meant trekking to a place that was apparently a late bar frequented by the flamenco musicians after their gigs end. It closed somewhere around 3 or 4, I wasn't paying close attention. We ended up back at the hotel around 5, which worked for the early leavers, who needed to pack up and head out around 6. I ended up with about 2 hours sleep.

This decision cost at least me a chance to see the inside of the Alhambra, since getting going the next morning didn't work too good.

This I am pragmatic about. I missed out on one thing, but had a great time with a great bunch of people. Jair, Terrence, Gary, Bri, Luis, we had a grand time. I expect to be back in Spain, and I will get to the Alhambra.

As I said, the next morning was, well, poorly executed. Bri and Alicia and I had planned to meet to go to the Alhambra, but we weren't moving too fast, and missed out on morning tickets. I eventually said my goodbyes to all handy people, and wandered off into the city by myself, because I wanted to see more of it before catching a train to Sevilla in the late afternoon. The area I went into is called El Albaicin, and is the old quarter on the hillside opposite the Alhambra.

I wandered around, enjoying views that presented themselves, being generally depressed about being alone again, and digesting the experiences I'd had in the previous weeks.

The most significant thing I found was that I've been to closed in the high-tech world for the last too-many years. This is not really a surprising observation, but it was driven home in a particularly potent way, given the activities at hand and the diversity of folks involved.

The train ride to Sevilla from Granada is a particularly nice one -- very rural, picturesque desert scenes, and so forth.