After the night bus adventures from Lisbon, I was surprisingly a bit sleepy when I got to Granada. I wandered around the city until I could check into my hostel, which was right in the middle of the Alacazin, the historically Moorish part of town, full of tea and shwarma shops, and narrow, winding, steep hills. After a much needed nap, I oriented myself in the city, and wandered up to the hostel roof to witness a nice sunset and meet some people doing the same. It seemed all of the 25+ crowd was there, escaping the hordes of 18 year old students visiting the city and staying in the hostel, who also were unfortunately my dorm mates for the night. At this point, having had a few sleepless dorm nights, and coming off an overnight bus, I strategized by going to bed around 11pm, just when everyone was going out. That way, I would asleep long before they came back and made a bunch of noise and started snoring. With earplugs, it definitely worked and I woke up feeling rested and ready for my day visiting the Alahambra, the site Granada is famous for, and which I had bought tickets months back.

My ticket for the Palace was for 4:00pm, so I wandered up around 2:30pm (it’s on a hill). By 7:30pm I was back at the hostel, tired from walking for 5 hours (in flip flops no less, as I’m into that stage of my trip where I wear them everywhere, and it was way too hot at 34 degrees for hiking boots). I headed up to the rooftop to be with my 25+ crowd. At some point I started talking to a German girl, who turned out was also in my dorm, in amongst the hordes of young students. I hadn’t noticed her the night before because I went to bed so early. In the middle of the conversation, she started itching. Yup, bed bugs. And wait, wasn’t she in my dorm? Yup. In my bunk apparently. I had the top. Shit. That explains the couple of bites I woke up with but hadn’t thought much of, as there was only a couple, and my two previous experiences with bed bugs were nearly 10 years ago.

At this point there was really nothing I could do about it, as it was midnight, so I figured I’d get through the night with a couple of bites and change beds in the morning. Unfortunately, because she had switched rooms, I was the only person in the bunk, the only remaining fodder for the creatures. The moment I crawled out of my sleepsheet due to heat, I was attacked. I climbed back into my sleepsheet and sweated it out, until the early morning, when the bugs when back to bed (they’re mainly nocturnal) and the night cooled off. I got up at 10am and asked to move rooms. The receptionist saw my bites and apologized, and at least offered to do my laundry free of charge. Unfortunately, when my laundry came back, it was sans towel. My quick dry towel! I enquired constantly but never saw it again. Farewell, towel!

Later in the day the German girl and I discovered another victim of room 5b, and we were glad to see the room empty and being fumigated. We now all had a bed bug bond, so we spent the rest of the day on the rooftop, applying aloe vera, eating shawarma (very cheap and plentiful in Granada due to its’ Moorish roots) and drinking wine to ease the pain. Actually, the advice of taking antihistamines was brilliant advice and eased the itching completely and I slept very well my last night in Granada. When I think back to Granada, I’ll remember the Alahambra, sure, but also, my third time getting bed bugs.