Yesterday Dominic of Berlin and I rented a car in Granada. It was Dominic´s idea to see a natural hot springs and he had no license with him. So when he told me it would only cost 10 E more than taking the bus back to Sevilla, I said, okay, I´m in. We picked up the car and I managed to manouvre the one way cobblestone streets of the Albaycin to pick up our suitcases, while he navigated. It was much more comfortable than the day we arrived, hauling our suitcases by hand up steep cobblestone with steps. We went off to Alhama de Granada, a town between Granada and Malaga, in a hilly country with rock outcroppings. We arrived in Alhama in the middle of siesta time but I managed to get a bar to make me a bocadillo (big sandwich). (We were late starting cause of problems reserving online. While Dominic did the reservations that morning, I did one last luxurious splurge of having Egyptian tea and walnut pie in an Arabic teahouse, and read the paper).
We found the hot springs without a problem. It was inside a gated area, but there was access left open for pedestrians, and a constant stream of people indeed came and went the whole time we were there. We peed in the bushes and found some kind of semi-cover to change behind and then joined the random collection of locals and strangers in the pools. We stayed for several hours, during which time we lay in a shallow, gravel bottomed pool, and then got inside a concrete bottomed, deeper one with spring water coming down into it through a kind of chute. There were a lot of Latinos, locals of the town there, and one Spanish woman and her 10 year old son. They were the most interesting, the woman being a country girl from a 13 sibling family, and used to teasing, joking and chatting away with everyone in a loud voice. She had come to this spring as a 14 year old to do the washing for her many brothers. She said in those days (she was only 42 but looked a lot older than me) girls were women by that time and had a lot of responsibility, not like now, when they ¨put on makeup and leave the town¨. She played with her son, pretending he was a boat and making him float around, and generally hugging and fussing over him like a little prince. This is the first time I´ve seen that Mediterranean mother-son total spoiling first hand. She told us also that her siblings had all done a special homage, which she called a ¨menage¨ for their mother on TV. She even told me the date in 2007 and that I could find it on the internet. Then she asked me to take pictures of her and her son, and send them in the mail, and made me memorize their address, ¨Marie-Angeles Jimenez Maya, Calle Angustias 3, Alhama de Granada¨. I am just not sure I have the energy to go print them out and mail them to her. At some point, maybe!
Anyways, after soaking thoroughly for hours, we got on our way and had an uneventful drive in the evening back to Sevilla. The whole way I was inspired by Dominic´s goal setting. He helped me look at what I really want to do and told me I had to be very excited about what I´m doing with my life... to have a good reason to get out of bed every day. I actually felt like I´d come from a therapy session... complete with making new rules for my life. That was extremely positive, but I have to say I am slightly less certain about what I am currently doing right in this moment.
Well, off to collect the car from expensive parking lot which I did not forsee having to use, and return it. And then meet friends here, in what feels like ¨home¨ in Spain.
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