Granada

Where to start? Granada was amazing! It was the perfect blend of a city with a lot of history and many cool sites to see, but it was also very lively and fun! Plus, I went with an excellent group of people who made this weekend a blast!

The bus ride: Toledo is conveniently situated about 45 minutes (by bus) away from Madrid, and from Madrid you can get anywhere! However, in order to get to Granada, we had to take the bus north to Madrid, and then take another bus back south to Granada, a 5-hour ride. Since I usually can't do anything in cars, buses, planes, etc. without getting sick, I usually just listen to music and sleep. So I put on an opera (Carmen - fitting, eh?) which lasted me pretty much the entire ride, but I couldn't sleep, so I just stared out the window the whole time. I expected to see beautiful spanish horses dotting the countryside everywhere in Andalucia, but instead it was just olive trees forever.

So we make it to Granada, and the first thing we notice is that the sun is not out. As we make our way to the hostel, it actually starts raining! Obviously no one brought rain gear (we're in Spain), and even the forecast said sunny and 80s all weekend. So after we check in to the hostel, the first thing that Lauren, Rachel and I do is buy a scarf, 1) to protect our hair from the rain and 2) it was really pretty and I needed a fashion scarf! Then we get our City Passes, a pass that costs €27 and gets you into a bunch of cool places around Granada (Cathedral, Royal Chapel, some monasteries, museums), and the big deal: The Alhambra. It's around 7pm at this time (and raining), so we decide to check out the Cathedral because it was pretty close to the hostel. I don't think any of us were quite prepared for how huge and impressive it was! I think we wandered around and just sat in the cathedral for about an hour.

La Catedral

THEN I get to meet up with my dear friend Paige Schaefer, who is studying in Granada this semester! She shows us around and takes us to a few good tapas bars (patatas asadas!). At some point, part of our group wanders off to some other restaurant, and we have to go wandering through the Albaicín, at night, uphill, to find them. Good thing we did, because we also found the Mirador San Nicolás, a viewpoint where you can see the Alhambra and most of the city. The Alhambra at night was absolutely gorgeous.

PAIGE!

La Alhambra at night

Saturday: We have a lot to do today, so we get up pretty early and a few of us go with Craig to find his mercadillo, which is like a little indoor farmer's market... with a lot of meat and fish. We get some baguette, tea/coffee, my new favorite fruit ciruelas (yellow plums), meat and cheese, all at very cheap prices! Then we go to the Royal Chapel to see where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella are buried (along with Philip the Fair and Juana the Mad). Next we head north to check out the archeological museum, but it's closed... so instead we buy some sweets from a convent (thank you, Craig).

We head back to the cathedral area and wander some more, check out the silk-market, and go to the big plaza for some lunch! Best steal of the day: Lauren, Kelsey and I find a restaurant with a pitcher of sangria with 3 tapas for €10! And these were legit tapas: a plate of paella, meatballs with patatas fritas, and beans with jamón! (At this point I also start freaking out because my camera decided to stop working for about 10 mintues, right before we went to the Alhambra!)

Sangria + tapas = heaven

Next, THE ALMIGHTY ALHAMBRA. The Alhambra is essentially this enormo palace/fortress thing built by Muslim rulers in Spain, and later used by Christian rulers after the Reconquista. We got there around 4pm and literally spent about 4 hours there. There were many gardens; buildings and palaces like the Generalife, the Palacio de Carlos V, a tower (the Alcazaba) looking over the entire city; and the big deal, the Palacio Nazaries. The palace itself was pretty big, with many different rooms and courtyards, and everything was decorated with such detail it was stunning! At each location we would stop and huddle around Lauren and have a little Rick Steves story-time, just to enhance the experience!

Just one of the courtyards in the Palacio Nazaries

After the Alhambra, we are all exhausted, so we stop at a sumermercado to stock up on baguette, meat, cheese and snacks for a cheap dinner in the hostel! Once recovered, we head down the street and find a little plaza with some free music! (Again, thanks Craig) There are a ton of people there, old and young, and we just hop right in and start copying the dances that everyone around us is doing (the teapot dance was by far the best!), including a lot of dance trains! It was so much fun! After dancing until we can dance no more, we head back to the patatas asadas bar, but they're not doing potatoes tonight (sad Lauren), so we just get a beer and call it a night!

Sunday is a little more low-key. Tyler and Craig left a little earlier in the morning, because they were on a different bus. The rest of us head out around 10:30 to find churros con chocolate (I'm always searching), but we end up going with crepes and eggs instead! (Eggs for breakfast is not common here!) Then we check out of the hostel (and Lauren kicks ass when the reception lady accuses us of losing a key), and head to the Science Museum! It was kind of strange, but we got to check out an exhibit about the human body, and an exhibit of super cool art by M.C. Escher.

M.C. Escher "Universos Infinitos"

All in all, a fantastic weekend!

(more pics in the Picasa album and of course on Facebook!)