So today turned out to be a sh*t show. I was travelling by train and bus from Merida to Granada … and somewhere between Merida and Sevilla (where I transferred to a bus), I either lost or had my U.S. passport stolen. Now normally I could go to the U.S. Embassy and obtain an emergency passport, but my U.S. passport has my VISA for Algeria in it. No passport, no travel to Algeria next Sunday.
Now I have no idea what happened to it. I had the passport when I left the hotel and walked 10 minutes to the train station. I bought a latte and pastry, took out my wallet out of my shoulder bag and am certain my passport was in my shoulder bag at the time.
I then crossed the tracks, got on the train and was storing my luggage when some other person’s luggage fell on my arm resulting in a huge cut on my hand. I set my one bag and shoulder bagdown on my seat as I was bleeding all over the place. The conductor went to get a first aide kit and when he returned he bandaged me up. (My arm and hand look like I have been in a war.)
Anyway, part way through the 3 hour train trip to Sevilla, we were stopped at a station and had to change to a bus because of some mechanical issue with the tracks ahead. I hauled everything off the train and onto the bus.
Once at the Sevilla train station I grabbed a cab and went to the Sevilla bus station for my trip from Sevilla to Granada and while buying a bottle of water noticed my passport was missing. I spoke to the cab company and they put out an alert to check the cab for my passport, but nothing. I went back to the train station and fortunately, the bus was still there. I checked the bus and nothing. I even went into the train station and spoke to the train company who called the conductor of the train I had been on to check the area where I had been sitting and nothing. I have ZERO idea what happened to my passport.
I eventually called the U.S. Embassy in Madrid and they can issue me a new, temporary passport that will allow me to fly back to the U.S. next month, but I can only obtain the passport in person between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Fortunately, I am taking the train from Granada to Valencia on Wednesday via Madrid and arrive in Madrid at 9:44 and the embassy is only 15 minutes away so I will have plenty of time to have the new temporary passport issued.
The big problem is the Algerian visa. I spoke to my tour company in Algiers and they suggested I go to the Algerian Embassy in Madrid, explain what has happened, show them the picture of my VISA (which I fortunately have) and hope that they will issue a new visa for my Canadian passport, which I still have with me. Now unfortunately, I will not have time to do both the U.S. Embassy and the Algerian Embassy on Wednesday because I have no idea how long I am going to be at the U.S. Embassy waiting for my new passport. The Algerian Embassy is only open from 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. so that means there is a possibility I wouldn’t make the opening hours at the Algerian Embassy on Wednesday, so I have to make two trips to Madrid. (And the U.S. Embassy is closed on Monday for Columbus Day making two trips necessary anyways.) Fortunately, I have nothing planned on Monday (I was just going to go on a hop on hop off train ride around Granada) so I am now catching a plane to Madrid on Sunday night so that I can be in Madrid as soon as the Algerian Embassy opens on Monday. (Unfortunately, it is a Spanish holiday on Sunday so the trains were fully booked.)
Anyway, through all this turmoil and absolute gut punch of a day, I somehow managed to make my bus from Sevilla to Granada despite all my running around in Sevilla trying to track down my passport. I arrived around 4:00 just as a thunderstorm was rolling in.
At 7:30, I met up with Juan Miguel, the Food Lovers guide as well as seven other folks for a tapas tour around old town Granada. First up was a little gourmet shop where the proprietor told us about the various kinds of jamon they have in Grenada. And while I was aware of jamon serrano and the four grades of jamon ibericco, I did not know that Grenada had its own “white” jamon, which was quite tasty, but not quite up to the jamon ibericco black.
Now the proprietor was quite the character and had each of us try our hand at carving a thin slice of jamon. There is a very particular way to not only hold the knife, but to cut the ham with a gentle sawing motion. I managed to give it a go and was to too bad.
After the demonstration, we were served the Grenada jamon with a local sheep’s cheese and some homemade wine. All very, very good, but as usual, my favourite was the cheese, which had a sharp, tangy bite to it.
From here, we walked about five minutes to the next stop, Rosario Verelas, a tapas bar where we sat at a reserved table and were first served white vermouth. And I have to say this was far better than the red vermouth they keep serving me on these food tours, but still not a big fan.
Anyway, the first dish we were served was Salmorejo, the Cordoba style of gazpacho with ham, egg and tuna and this was without a doubt the hands down best Salmorejo I have had in Spain. Delicious.
The second dish required the server to come to the table and cook the sardines that made up the next course. Specifically, we were served a small piece of bread covered in tomato sauce and topped with a fresh, toasted sardine. Yum.
at Rosario Verelas
The final dish was beef carpaccio topped with thin slices of cheese and truffles. The idea was to spread the cheese and truffles over the thin beef, then roll the beef into itself and enjoy. This was really good as well. In fact, this place, was in my opinion, the hands down best spot of the night.
We then moved on to a place that specializes in all things fish and shellfish, La Esquinita de Javi. Here, we had some Merida white wine (excellent and tasted similar to what I had been drinking while in Merida), along with fried cod, Russian salad (so named because the salad is white not because it has anything to do with Russia and is basically potato salad with pieces of prawns in it) and shishito peppers.
While we were eating the three dishes, a bowl of baby clams was brought out along with a plate of cuttlefish cooked in olive oil. I thought all of this was pretty good, but the baby clams were the star.
Our final stop was La Vinoteca Tapas and Bar, which was fortunately only about a 5 minute walk from my hotel. Here, we were served kava (the Spanish version of champagne that comes from the Barcelona region of the country) along with some cheese and crackers before having a piece of absolutely fabulous cheesecake with chocolate sauce. The cheesecake was really light and fluffy and not at all heavy. Perfection.
So that ended my disastrous day and enjoyable (at least as much as I could enjoy) evening. Tomorrow, I have to get a police report for my stolen/lost passport, then I am going on a tour of the Grenada Cathedral before joining 2 ½ hour walking tour of the Albaicín and Sacromonte areas of Grenada (the old Muslim and Gypsy quarters of Grenada – my hotel is in the old Gypsy quarter).
