In Granada we stayed in Pension Vista Nevada, which is a very basic, budget hotel at about 30-45 mins (on foot) from the old town. In the evening we went to see the old town. The long street with all the restaurants and souvenir shops next to Alhambra was terrible. So we decided to check out Albaicin and found it to be very quiet: we had expected lots of bars and there was hardly anything. Maybe we were too early or had taken the wrong streets.
But then we bumped into Sala Vimaambi and the bar close by. Such nice places! We had a fantastic cheese cake in the bar and saw a great flamenco performance by Raíz y Duende.
My friend had tried to purchase Alhambra tickets online a week earlier, but everything was sold out. So we got up very early to try to get them in the direct sale. And were unsuccesful. My advice therefore for anybody reading this: book early. We walked around the parts for which you didn’t need a ticket, and then went to walk around Granada, where we saw Raíz y Duende performing once more, on a square.
As our flight would leave very early the next day, we took a bus to Malaga. Here we slept in Residencia Universitaria Santa Paula, which I recommend: very spacious, in the middle of the center, and very cheap. We discovered that we like Malaga better than Granada. We found Granada a bit small and way too touristy, whereas Malaga is a cool, modern city with a nice center and lots of great restaurants.
End of this holiday. But there are many more stages on the GR7, so we might come back (and make sure we book the Alhambra tickets way ahead, next time).