... Ouch!  I saw it, in a flash.  I had come to Andalucia with a mental map, a tourist’s checklist of what was supposed to be there. 

I was on the hunt for the Granada I wanted to find, the “typical” alleys and doors and arches I had come to see.  Instead, these garish flourishes hemmed me in on all sides.  The further I got from the city’s main commercial artery, looking for the "real" Granada, the more I saw of these fascinating, wildly creative odes to post-modernity — expressions of the living soul of 21st century Granada.

Sheepishly, I relented of my toxic insistence on what I had come for, and embraced, instead, what was actually there ....