Well, I had a fabulous weekend in Granada, Spain. It did rain a little but nothing too obnoxious. We went to see the Alhambra, of course. And we also got to see the actual mausoleum with Ferdinand and Isabella's caskets, creepy, but cool.
So here is a breakdown...
Friday... after a 5+ hour bus ride through windy mountain roads, we arrived in Granada, we were kinda just told to go find our own lunch, so we just started walking in hopes of finding something yummy. We found a decent looking pizzaria but the people there ended up being huge jerks and not serving us because we spoke English, which sucked. But we pressed on and walked down a little further down and found a wonderfully cheap and delicious lunch at a cute little cafeteria. We headed back to the hotel and got a walking tour of the city. We learned quite a lot about its mixed religious history of Islam, Jewish, and Christian. And believe it or not, there were many centuries here where they all lived next to one another without any problems.
Video of the countryside
Did you know that over 85% of the worlds olive oil comes from the Andalucia province of Spain, where Granda is located? Yeah suck on that Italy.
The street signs here can be confusing... for example, they can be quite tiny. Sandy is grumpily pointing this out.
Saturday... Alhambra day! We got to tour Granada's main attraction the Alhambra, it was so beautiful! My aunt had sent me pictures, and I had been told how cool it was, but you really have to be there to see it. Even though it is winter everything is still green, and there isn't one moment where you cannot hear water running. The only problems I had were that there were so many people there (and got in my pictures) and that it wasn't springtime. After the Alhambra we went out in search of a traditional Spanish lunch, and ended up at a great little restaurant and had the Menu del dia. I actually had paella again, and I am learning not to hate it. Overall it was amazing.
Later that night we were taken to these caves on the hillside where gypsies used to live, but this one had been turned into a restaurant. And although it may be a cave, the outside still looked normal and the only way you could tell it was a cave was inside. The dancers were cool, however I expected it to be a little more hard core Spanish, but I guess that is just what I've seen in movies or something.
Flamenco in Action
Sunday... We saw where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were buried. Then after lunch we headed back into Madrid.
Anyway, I had a great time, I was very touristy and I got so many souvenirs! Including my name written in Arabic! and my overall impression of Granada is that it is an amazing beautiful city with an amazing rich past that influences its architecture and food, but the people there are a bit grumpy and it is OVERRUN with American students. I heard more English this weekend than I have heard anywhere else, it was creepy.
Here are all my pictures for my Granda trip! Enjoy.
Slideshow
Chau for now.
