Come Walk With Me

Do you want to take a walk with me?  I thought we'd walk down to the city center today.  Maybe take some pictures.  Want to go??  It's nice out.  Plus, you don't have shit to do.

What should we take pictures of, just anything and everything?  How about this old thing here?  You know, it's interesting, friend.  We're only a block away from the apartment and I walk by this house everyday but I don't think I've ever looked closely at this....man.....monster....thing.....in relief......how interesting....he looks a bit.......like he is....throwing up.  I'm sure it's symbolic  Should we take notes?

There's a lesson here, don't you think?  That when you slow down and look up you start to notice things that weren't there before.  No, sorry, that's not right.  You start to notice things that were always there but not there for you because you were rushing around and looking down at your feet.

Though in all fairness, it is absolutely the right thing to do to look down at your feet while you walk through Granada because there is an awful lot of this happening.  Yes, I am posting a picture of poop.  Because listen, love, that there is not the worst of it.  The worst are the ones left right in the middle of the street that you're walking down with your kids who are far too excited to tell you about the "weird" way people say "shh" in Spain and then they step in it.  I've asked my friends back home if it would be ok for me to hang a little sign outside my door like they do in NYC that says something like "If they poop, please scoop!"  I don't know if the poetry of that would translate into Spanish, but I think it's worth a shot.  I would even be willing to provide the bags!  My friends insist that is passive aggressive American bullshit and while I'm in Spain I am to do as the Spaniards do and walk in dog shit.  I am not allowed to start a dog shit revolution. Oh my god, where were we?

So we're walking, and we're looking up, and we're noticing things, and we have no destination in mind (which makes me a little anxious, what about you?)  But we're going to go with it.  We're going to pretend like we're easy-going people today and just be easy-going.  How fun to have nowhere to be and nowhere to go.  Hey, we're walking pretty fast for two people who are going nowhere.  Do you think we should slow down a bit?  This isn't New York City, this is Spain, where the whole point of living is to take a break.  And anyway, I'd hate to get to Nowhere too quickly and then have nothing to do.

Well, I'm still looking down because I'm nervous about brown piles, but at least there are nice things to look at down here.  Look at this pebble-flower arranged in the street/alley/walkway/sidewalk.  Wouldn't it be cool if the sidewalks in NYC had pebble-flowers arranged in them?  Or is NYC too jaded for flower sidewalks?

Oh my goodness, check it out.  See that plant behind you just growing out of that old wall?  (first of all, wtf, how does that happen?)  But second of all, don't you LOVE IT!!!!!  More of that in NYC, too, please!!!!

Let's head down this way.  Oh, wait.  Those crescent moon shapes.  Those are symbolic of something or other but I can't remember what.  But I read about it.  Let's make a mental note to look that up when we get home, too.

More plants growing on top of walls.  But these ahead are a little different.  These, I'm pretty sure, are growing in the garden yard right over that wall.  They top and crest the walls they are behind and that's why we see so many along the way. 

 

I'm going to push my glasses up my nose a bit and tell you that homes with gardens in Granada are called "carmens," which is why we are seeing ceramic plaques outside so many front doors that say "Carmen de la la la."

It's actually not because a woman named Carmen lives there and she decided to put her name above her front door, though that's a good guess.  There is, after all, a high likelihood that a woman named Carmen does live there since most women in Spain seem to be named Carmen.  But the word comes from the Arabic "karm" which means vine.

And speaking of vine, here's one in my favorite color.  But this one looks like someone just planted it in a crack in the street.  Genius.  And it's making it's way up a rusty pipe and a cable wire.  How European.  And beautiful, clever, and visionary.  You're right, this could have just been Mother Nature blowing seeds around, but she is also beautiful, clever, and visionary.  I wonder if I could plant a vine like this somewhere on 13th St.

Pomegranate!  Have I told you yet that Granada means "pomegranate?"  Shall we see how many depictions of pomegranates we can find on our walk today?

I don't know, it's just cute.

Pomegranate!!  Where?  There!

Oooooh!  Light reflecting off the fountain water.  Cool!  Spanish woman smoking a cig and checking her makeup also cool.  Let’s go around to the other side of the fountain and snap a pic.

Hey, stop getting distracted by funny signs!

And by cute Japanese women taking selfies, what is wrong with you!  

Wait, the sunlight over here is different.  One more picture of the fountain. 

Ok, I’m going to tell you something and I don’t care if you think I’m weird.  I think the old people in Granada are really cute.  They’re kind of on the short side so they remind me of my Grandma Seikaly. I might be done taking pictures of beautiful architecture for the moment.  I might zero in on some cute old people.  (Hurry!  They're all heading home for siesta!)

Nice.  But this picture here is not of an old person.  What is it?  Oh, I see now.  Yes, I see the sign.  Mercado.  One of the five Spanish words you know because it relates to shopping.  And that other word has something to do with artists.  And the word above it, that ends in “ia” which Michael told me means the place is selling something.  All of this means we have to put our Walk to Nowhere on hold for a minute because we just got Somewhere and it's amazing.  I mean, look at all the shit in there!  I think I see sparkly things.  Come on, it'll be fun.  You'll get to practice your Spanish.  Let’s go buy some presents!!