Day 7: December 31 … a New Year’s Eve to remember

Still backtracking a bit, as it has taken me some time to upload videos and photos.

After a full morning and afternoon spent at the Alhambra, we returned to the hotel and napped.  We left the hotel at 10 pm and found streets strangely deserted and most every eating establishment closed.  This was proof enough that New Year’s Eve, at least the early part it, was an evening spent with family at home.  We walked the eerily quiet avenues and winding alleyways in search of food.  We gave up any hope of having a suitable sit-down meal and settled on a restaurant serving take-away kebabs and pizzas to people (mostly foreigners) lined up at the window.  After a 30-minute wait, we hastily ate our kebabs in sub-freezing temperatures on a street bench ... our unforgettable and last meal of 2014.  To be honest, they were very tasty.

click on photo to enlarge

click on photo to enlarge

Our objective, and apparently that of everybody else, was to be in one of the main plazas for the fireworks display at midnight.  Suddenly, by 11 pm, people started to descend ... everybody moving in increasing numbers toward the plaza.  What struck us the most is that people dressed up as if they were going to a formal event ... entire families, well-healed.

With the taste of kebab still on our lips, we pushed our way into the centre of the plaza, a mass of people that spilled into the side streets and alleyways.

click on photo to enlarge

Then, the countdown began.  The following video tells the rest of the story.  It was another moment of magic.  Note that after the clock struck 12 ... a second countdown begins ... 1, 2, 3 ... to 12 ... at each count, it is customary to eat a grape, one per month, for good fortune.  In the video you'll see locals eating the traditional grape at each count.

click here to view video of our New Year's Eve celebration in Granada

Following the fireworks display that unfolded over our heads, the ashes falling into our eyes, a band performed Beatles classics on the centre stage.  As I wrote in an earlier blog, I still remember the audience singing along with the band … “We all live in a yellow submarine …”

click here to view video of audience singing along

If this is what it’s like to live in a yellow submarine, I want more of it.