Granada, Finally

Okay. Granada.

Thank goodness that my teachers make me write two separate essays about each of our trips (really?) so that I can actually remember what we did in Granada. Two weeks ago is a long time ago. So much has happened between now and then that I could have easily forgotten it all. Between my essays and my pictures, I think I can still give a pretty good account of what happened.

To begin:

Our trip to Granada was the last school planned trip of the semester, which means it was also the last time I had to get on that bus for a 6 and some hour drive. Even the thought of the smell of that bus gets to me. It didn't help that during every stop, the bus driver would spray the place down with some kind of chemical cleaner that would try to kill you every time you got back on the bus.

Eight in the morning meeting time in the Plaza Cervantes. I decided that I was leaving early in order to get a window seat on the bus no matter what, but no worries. We left at a decent time and so many people skipped this trip (mostly because it was during Bowling Green's spring break and many people had friends coming to visit them) that I got my very own seat. It was amazing. I curled up in a little ball and slept and slept. I was probably awake for a total of 1/2 an hour on a 6 hour bus ride. 

Our first stop was this little town in Castilla-La Mancha that claimed some kind of fame for something about Don Quijote. I caught a glimpse of some old-fashioned windmills up on a hill, but I was too disoriented to hear the history behind the little town. They kicked us out of the bus and into the cold where I stood in the sun until we were allowed to get back on the bus.

Our next stop was at a rest-stop where we all ate our bocadillos (sandwiches). A couple of the guys thought that they would be manly and try to climb the mountain and that was kind of entertaining. I just sat in the sun. It was amazing. Although I realized that I had forgotten my sunglasses just as I was walking away from the bus, jumped back on to grab them and turned around to realize that the doors had shut on me and I was basically locked on the bus. I called to get the drivers attention as he was walking away. When he opened the door for me, I think he may have been cussing me out (because he's Spanish), but I didn't understand him enough to be sure.

We arrived in Granada and headed straight for La Alhambra. Granada is in the south of Spain, about an hour away from the Mediterranean, so it was fantastic weather. La Alhambra was the last stronghold of the Muslims before the re-conquest by Ferdinand and Isabella when they kicked out all the Muslims in 1492. At La Alhambra, there is a Nazarian (the last reign of Muslims in Granada were called the Nararis) palace that was constructed in 14th century. This place was gorgeous. They had a ton of water and fountains and the like because water was apparently the symbol of purity. And this place had amazing views. 

Stairway at La Alhambra with water flowing down the railings. I thought it was a fantastic picture and a very unique "fountain".

View of Granada from La Alhambra. Apparently gypsies live in caves in that mountain. And rebel teenagers hellbent on disappointing their parents.

Pond in La Alhambra with a bit of a view in the background. I loved the reflection of the building. That's moorish architecture with the arches and patterns.

Also at La Alhambra are the Gardens of the Generalife (and I forget what that means right now). There was a summer home for the Muslim leaders here. But the gardens are just beautiful themselves. In Granada, or just outside of it, is the tallest mountain on the peninsula: Mulhacen. The view of the palm trees in the garden with a background of the snow-covered Mulhacen was an amazingly gorgeous scene. Lastly, we visited La Alcazaba. This is a fortress and is pretty much in ruins. It was fun to climb on though, and we got some great views of Granada and the landscape from the top of the tower. 

There it is. A palm tree and a snow-covered mountain. Beautiful.

Part of the Palace. This is the place that you usually see when people bring up pictures of La Alhambra. You can see why. Gorgeous. Cute little fountains too.

I felt like we wandered around La Alhambra forever. I eventually got sick of taking pictures. It's a hard balance to enjoy something by actually looking at it while you are there and enjoying something through your camera lens in order to have a picture of it for later. When we finally left La Alhambra, we made our way to the hotel. The bus stopped in the middle of the street and we all had to jump off, grab our stuff and run inside. Unfortunately, in my rush, I cracked my head on the luggage compartment of the bus and had to feel unwell for quite a bit after that. I used my break before dinner to hang out with a few people. It was one of the graduate student's birthday, so I went with her friend to the Corte Ingles to pick out a children's book in Spanish that she will be able to use in her classroom. Then we wandered all over the hotel finding the people in our group to sign it. It was cute. I also used this time to allow a girl who began beauty school to cut my hair. She just took off a few inches, but it's still past my chin. I really contemplated getting it all chopped off, really short boy cut hair, which I've always wanted to do, but have never had the cuts, but I thought about how if it looked terrible, everyone would remember me as that girl that got that really terrible haircut. And then someone else mentioned that I'll be graduating soon and I wouldn't want to chance a horrible haircut before graduation pictures. The haircut turned out nicely and I went to dinner. Some people noticed, but most didn't. Everyone said it looked nice though, like you have to when someone gets a haircut.

Dinner was amazing. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet. I loaded two full plates because free food means that you have to stuff yourself past full. It was pretty fantastic. I can't remember everything I ate right now, but I do recall piling on three forms of potatoes. After dinner, we all went out for the grad student's birthday. I had my customary tequila, but I didn't actually drink very much. Alcohol is expensive and it's difficult to order drinks when your spanish isn't great. 

Hour and a half shower because hot showers at 3 in the morning are amazing, then bed. We had a breakfast buffet, which was not nearly as good as dinner buffet, but tolerable. Then we were off to Salobreña, a costal town on the Mediterranean where the Spaniards go on vacation, but the tourists don't. For some reason, we all decided that it would be a good idea to climb a mountain to reach this moorish castle. The climb about killed me especially because I wasn't feeling so great after very little sleep and an hour in that horrible bus. But the view was amazing. The Spanish have a word that means a view of the sea from a mountain: (fondo) acantilado. Acantilado also means cliff, but if you use it with fondo (background), it means a view of the sea from a mountain, basically. And it was gorgeous. I'm going to go with - it was worth the horrible horrible climb to the top, but only barely. Our climb down wasn't nearly as bad, naturally, and we made our way to the coastline. 

My shorter hair, but it's blowing in the wind so it looks bad. This is me and that's the coast. Simple enough, yet gorgeous in every way...

We then found out that we had around five or six hours to do whatever we wanted. I went to a chinos and bought myself a hat. I think it's a fantastic hat, but I might be the only one to think so. I needed to cover my head from the sun either way. I went with two grad students to find some lunch. We finally settled on this place on the sea, like right on the beach with a dock that hangs over the water. We ate inside out of the sun. I got to try gazpacho (cold tomato soup) for the first time in my life - AMAZING - and I ate some paella, which was only so so. The thing I hate about paella is that it's supposed to be naturally colored yellow due to the saffron (I think it's saffron), but because saffron is expensive, they color it yellow with food dye, and because a lot of it is food you handle, your hands get dyed yellow, which makes me very uncomfortable about my insides being dyed yellow too.

Then I sat on the beach. I love the beach, more than any other region. I basked in the sun and tried my hardest to not get burned, which I managed successfully. In fact, I don't believe that I even tanned. I took a break from the beach (it was too cold to swim, in my opinion) to get some raspberry sherbet.

Back on the bus, blugh!, we went back to the hotel to hang out for a bit until dinner. After dinner, the girl who cut my hair straightened it for me. It looked fantastic. I seriously contemplated buying a straightener, but considering that I wouldn't be able to bring it home with the voltage differences and stuff, I decided against it.

We then packed onto tiny buses to visit Albaicín and Sacromonte, old Muslim districts within Granada. There are Arab and Muslim public baths in the area and many churches that were built on top of the places where there used to be Muslim mezquitas (done after the re-conquest of Granada by the catholics). There is also the view of Saint Nicholas, which provided a fantastic view of La Alhambra lit up at night, a view that my camera just couldn't handle. I couldn't figure out how to set it for night pictures...

La Alhambra, lit up at night from the View of Saint Nicholas. Rough picture, but it was beautiful. I wish I could have gotten the full effect with the camera, but alas...

Then we went to see a Flamenco show. Everyone thought it was absolutely amazing. I thought it was okay. I have very sensitive ears and they were all clapping in this really intense rhythm that hurt my ears. Mostly, I thought the dancing looked angry and very painful. They stomped and stomped and stomped and those women had thighs like a redwood. I had absolutely no desire to learn, though I was one of the only ones. It was interesting and the dresses were beautiful. It wouldn't have looked nearly so angry if they would have flashed a smile or something. Two groups was enough. But it was a fantastic look at a different culture.

Flamenco dancers. Enough said.

After the Flamenco show, I went out with a few people from the group and our group advisors. Everyone was pretty exhausted (the beach 

will do that do you) and no one stayed out very long, except... me and two other people. It was the last night of the last trip of the semester. We were not going to waste it sleeping! We danced like crazy and then decided to head out. I will never miss smelling like smoke. If Wood county has one thing right, it's the public places smoking ban. Well, still not ready to go home, we wandered around Granada for awhile. We decided to chronicle our night by taking millions of photos. We ran across a couple of chairs that someone had thrown away and we used them as props for our picture-taking. It was a fantastic night.

Around 4:30 in the morning, we decided that we were hungry. Not knowing Granada and not knowing where a good place to eat would be located, we stopped 6 different groups of people who pointed us in various directions until we found a guy that mentioned Donar Kebab. We weren't quite sure of the directions, but finally we found people eating Kebabs and we just followed one person after another all of the way to the door of the shop. It was the first time I had eaten a Donar Kebab and it was fantastic. It was like Taco Bell, open when you need it and very cheap, but it tasted a million times better. 

We then made our way back to the hotel for a good two hours of sleep. Sunday morning, we went to la Capilla Real, a part of the cathedral of Granada. The bodies of Isabel and Ferdinand are located here and we got to see their tomb. The alter was kind of creepy with scenes of John the Baptist getting his head chopped off and the other John being boiled alive. We wandered around Granada for a bit more before we got on the bus for our trip home. 

Rather boring trip back. I slept most of the time again. We stopped and

 ate tortilla bocadillos and I had a Fanta límon. I'm not quite sure why they don't sell Fanta as fountain drinks in the states, but I really think that they should. Really. I love Fanta límon, although it is lacking caffeine, an essential for a college student.

Well, that took for absolutely ever. And uploading these pictures is going to take longer. I'll be sure to try to get my trip to Valencia posted soon, but I do have a million things to do. School is rough right now.