My weekend in Granada

Hola Todos!

I had no internet yesterday at my house, as my host family is upgrading to wireless—I suppose that’s a good thing, but I wasn’t able to post a blog about Granada as soon as I got home!

Anyways, on Friday morning we left bright and early for Granada. We were aware there was a chance of rain in the forecast, so we were unsure whether or not we’d be able to fit our hike in at the Torcal de Antequera. Unfortunately, we had to postpone it until Sunday because as we grew closer to Granada, the rain became heavier and heavier. So, when we arrived to the hotel, about half of our group bravely took the walking tour around Granada. I found myself in this group, and Mom would be very proud, but I’m pretty sure I might have been the driest person in our group at the end of the day-- thanks to my raincoat and umbrella. We walked around the center of the city for quite some time, and visited la Capilla Real. This is where Isabel and Ferdinand are buried (the king and queen who granted Christopher Columbus the money to go discover the world). Our two program directors felt bad about the rainy day, and decided to treat us to churros and chocolate. If you have never tasted churros and chocolate, I suggest you do some time in your life. Basically, churros and chocolate is fried dough that you dip in gobs and gobs of chocolate a.k.a. DELICIOUS! After our tour, a few of the girls decided to walk around and shop for a little while. I ended up purchasing a nice Spanish-looking dress for only 14 euro. After shopping, we went back to the hotel and took part in our complimentary dinner put on by the hotel. All of us ate like we would never be able to eat again in our lives—the food was delicious and fairly American. After that, we had free time for the evening so I went out with a couple of friends and met up with another friend, Andrew (from Bryant), who is studying abroad in Granada. We had a drink at a Tapas bar, and then he took us to el Botellon. Basically what the Botellon is is a parking lot in Granada where it’s legal to drink outside. I would say roughly 1,000 young people from Granada were there and it was quite the atmosphere. My friends and I just wanted to go for the experience—and lets just say it was quite the experience, I’ve never seen anything like that before!

Churros and Chocolate!

The next morning we visited la Alambra y los Jardines del Generalife. La Alambra was conceived in the past as a palatine fortified town. Between the XII and XV century, it was used as the residence for Nasrid Sultans, high commanders, civil servants of the royal court, and soldiers of elite. This beautiful “town” took 400 years to build and the preservation of it is impeccable. La Alambra overlooks all of Granada and it is quite the view! La Alambra is also home to what our tour guide called an “impossible building.” This impossible building is square on the outside, and circular on the inside—fascinating!

La Alambra-the reflection pool

Tapas!

After we visited La Alambra, a few of my friends and I went to go try tapas for the first time. We found a nice little tapas bar on Calla Nava (home to most of the Tapas bars in Granada), and we decided to order the variety tapas plate—that way there, we were able to try a little bit of everything. The variety included everything from cheese to chicken to tuna to some strange mashed potatoes with what we thought had lobster meat in them. Whatever it was that we ate, we all agreed that it was really good—minus a couple of tapas that I didn’t particularly like. Later on that evening, our group went to see a Flamenco show. The show was absolutely phenomenal and it was such a great way to be able to experience the Spanish culture firsthand and appreciate such an artistic dance. If you are ever able to go to a Flamenco show, keep in mind that it is a lot of stomping—so don’t be startled when they come into the room and are stomping around everywhere, because I was!

Flamenco

On Sunday morning we left to go on our hike at el Torcal de Antequera. Luckily we had nice weather this time, and the hike was very enjoyable. I told all of my friends that whenever I hear about hiking, I always have immediate flashbacks to China when we went hiking (or what I’d like to call, mountain climbing) around Guilin—which wasn’t a very enjoyable experience on account of the 30 degree weather, rain, and muddy rocks. Anyways, we hiked up the mountain for a little while and were able to eat lunch and relax for a bit and then head back down the mountain. The view was absolutely beautiful—I would have stayed there forever if I could have! After our hike, it was on our way back to nice, hot Seville. When we arrived and got off the bus, you immediately knew you were in Seville on account of how hot it was. I’m concerned that it may never get “cold” during the time I’m here, but we’ll see what happens. 

El Torcal de Antequera

It was so nice to actually get back to my host family, and Juani wanted to hear all about my trip when I got home. She was very jealous of the cooler weather in Granada, as she said she stayed in all weekend because

it was so hot! I found out today that her birthday is 3 days after Sam’s on November 30^th, so I will have to remember and perhaps I can bake her a famous Lindsay birthday cake.

Today marks the beginning of yet another week of school. Tomorrow I believe I will be able to meet with my intercambio, so I’m really excited about that! I think that about covers it for my weekend. I hope everyone back home had a lovely weekend—I’m sure the foliage might be starting to kick in pretty soon. I’m so sad I’m going to miss it, PLEASE SEND PICTURES! Love you all.

Besos,

Lindsay