Irish pubs and shawarma

Our first night in Granada was not exactly the Spanish nightlife experience we expected. While setting out to the bar at one o'clock in the morning is not uncommon here, we happened to arrive during University finals. Granada has a large student population, making it a youthful city, full of energy. While most Spanish students have a very laid back attitude when it comes to school, ie they rarely attend class, the week of finals is their main study time.
So, there we were, four American girls wandering the streets of Granada in search of a bar for food and drinks. We just happened to stumble into the most Americanized bar in the whole city: Hannigans, an Irish pub. This was one of three Irish pubs in Granada, the others were Paddy's, and another Hannigans (which we refered to as Hannigans 2) These bars were popular hang outs for Americans, mostly study abroad students from our program, as well as other programs. One of the guys in our program even got a job working at Hannigan's 2 and hosting open mic night. Open mic night was a blast, especially listening to Esteban's hilarious rap songs, and karaoke was of course a lot of fun too (what else do drunk Americans do at the bar?). Anyways, on this first night, we drank wine and picked at a small dish of nuts, gummy candies, and other unidentifiable crunchy objects that was provided with our drinks--not exactly the tapas we were expecting. The bartender informed us that the only place open for food at this hour was shawarma vendors. So then commenced our first shawarma experience.
You know when you try something the first time to find in unimpressive, but then come to love it the more you have it? This phenomenon perfectly describes my relationship with shawarma. Now, I'm sure most people have tried shawarma at some point in their life, whether it's lamb or chicken, but what one has to understand about shawarma in Europe is that it is generally utilized as drunk food. I would compare it to pizza in the United States. So, Kebob King would soon become my new Backroom (Ann Arbor people know what I mean). Also, depending on where you are, the shawarma varies. In Spain, chicken schawarma is the most common. The chicken is shaved off the greasy, rotating stick of meat, placed into pita bread with garlic sauce, hummus, beets, pickles, lettuce, and aceitunas (olives), then rolled and grilled. It is the most delicious bundle of goodness you will ever devour. Based on her first shawarma experience, Brittany would disagree. Her first shawarma resulted in a sick Brittany; she didn't like the beets. However, in her defense, an entire shawarma is a lot of grease to consume, especially at 2 am. So, the first time I tried shawarma, I thought it was just alright. It was new to me, but that changed and my shawarma obsession quickly developed. Just ask our friends at Kebob King.
So, while you might think a post about shawarma is random and irrelevant, it is just one of the many many things that shaped my Granada experience.