Happy November, everyone! I'm officially done with midterms, and Ben (my boyfriend) is coming TOMORROW... Needless to say, I am a very very happy girl right now!
Last weekend, I went to Granada with my study abroad group. We have such awesome excursions included in our program, and Granada definitely did not disappoint. It was such an amazing city- more beautiful than I could have ever imagined!
Granada is very hilly, as it's located right at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The hilly terrain makes it a lot different than Sevilla, which also means that it tends to be a bit colder there. Granada also has a stronger Moroccan influence than Sevilla, perhaps because it was the last Moorish city to be conquered during the Spanish "Reconquista" (Reconquest), when the Christians reclaimed the Muslim areas in Spain.
We arrived in Granada on Friday around 1:30. After getting settled in our hotel rooms, we headed to the city center to get some lunch. Granada is known for serving tapas (appetizers) for free with every drink you order. I was expecting this to mean something very small, so I was surprised when plates of meat, sandwiches, sausage, and lots of bread were brought out. Yes, the drinks were a bit more expensive than in Sevilla, but Sevilla is exceptionally cheap. We got most of our drinks, tapas included, for less than three euros. Pretty awesome deal!
We "tapa-hopped" a bit, and ended up having a pretty complete lunch, which also meant a 4 p.m. buzz, but hey, it was vacation!
Alex and me at the second tapas bar with "Alhambra" beer--the beer of choice in Granada
After tapas, we did some exploring and shopping. There were so many cool shops with interesting lamps, ceramics, tapestries, scarves, and other souvenirs. These shops definitely had a different vibe than souvenir shops in Sevilla. Instead of things about toros (bullfighting) and flamenco, Granada had a lot more artistic and Moroccan, as I mentioned before.
We met up with our program directors in the late afternoon, and they brought us to a few sights around the city center, including the main cathedral. Our final stop was for some churros and chocolate- on them! We were served more churros than we could have even imagined eating, incredibly thick chocolate, and coffee. I highly recommend that anyone who comes to Spain tries churros and chocolate. The churros are very different than anything I've had in the U.S.!
We did a bit more walking around before heading back to our hotel, pausing for a picture below the famous Alhambra of course!
At night, we met back up with our group to walk over to watch a flamenco show in a cave! Okay, so it was a man-made cave, but it was pretty amazing!
I was one of the last people in, which meant that I got the last seat right next to the stage! The early late bird gets the worm? I took several selfies with the flamenco drummer who was sitting about two feet away from me. No shame.
We danced the night away at a discoteca that had a view of the Alhambra, which we then woke up and visited the next day!
The Alhambra is a royal palace and fort complex that was originally used by the Muslim royals in Spain. It has since had many additions by the Catholic kings, including extensive and beautiful gardens. It is the most-visited tourist attraction in Spain, and is considered to house the country's most significant Islamic architecture. Although the history in this complex is interesting, the sights were so incredible that I found myself zoning out from the tour to just look around and take pictures. So, here you go- just a small selection of my photos taken there!
Windows
Ceiling
After our trip to the Alhambra, we got some more beer and tapas for lunch while we watched the Barcelona vs. Madrid soccer game in a bar. It's the biggest match-up in Spain, so it was really fun to see the Spaniards' reactions. Then, we walked over to the "tea street." Translated literally to just that, this street was filled with small tea lounges, hookah bars, and shops. We stopped and had some tea and a crepe... it was like a dream come true.
Our tea was called "1001 Nights."
After walking and shopping a bit more, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. We ate quickly, because we were rushing to make our 10 pm ARAB BATH appointment! We went to the Aljibe de San Miguel arab bath, click HERE to see some pictures, because it was absolutely amazing! Three of my friends and I enjoyed an hour and a half of relaxation. There were seven baths that we got to alternate among; six were variations of warm and hot, and one was cold. We also each got a 15-minute massage. It was so relaxing to just sit and close my eyes and reflect on how lucky and content I was both in that moment and overall here in Spain.
The next morning we hopped on the bus and drove an hour and a half to the Torcal de Antequera, a nature reserve in the Sierra del Torcal mountain range in Málaga Province. We went on a short hike and had a bocadillo (sandwich) picnic. It was such a unique place, and worthwhile stop on the way back home to Sevilla.
We got back to Sevilla around 5 pm on Sunday, and so commenced the studying... kind of. My midterms were all pretty easy. Yay for "college"!!
Until next time,
A
