Granada

(February 21st, 2010)

We walked into the Hostal Antares in central Granada and were greeted by a man with meaning. Senor hostel owner Javier had a huge smile on his face, big cheery eyes that were magnified by his bifocals, and a habit of chittering about how welcome we were in this city. He was like Mr. Miagi, but spun up into the lively scattered personality of the wizard Merlin. I've never seen someone so delighted to show us the functions of the hallway microwave.

Javier's idol is Jimmy Hendrix. "Peace and freedom for everyone! I love Jimmy Hendrix. His Philosophy, Yeah!" I was anxious just to bump into him during our stay for fear that he would pop out at me like a jack-in-the-box on steroids. "Yeah! Woo! Jimmy Hendrix! Wapow!"

But his intentions were good. Tonight we asked him about going to Morocco, and he gave us some advice and then interrupted himself to say, "Wait! Give me five minutes. FIVE. Hang on--I find for you. I find bus schedule!" Sure enough, four-and-a-half minutes later, we had our own copy of the bus schedule for the next day. We left with his final words of advice ringing in our ears: "Remember: Freedom & Imagination. It's easy!"