Hola mis amigos!
Happy Monday! Well it’s back to work now for me, and I actually am motivated to get stuff done and do well. I haven’t done a lot of real “work” this semester, and I think it’s about time I fulfill my role as a student who is studying abroad, as opposed to vacationing abroad. This may be a little late (the week after midterms end), but better late than never, right?
Anyway, I got home last night from a wonderful weekend trip to Granada with Victoria. Granada is the most visited city in Spain, so of course, I had to make sure I saw it. The biggest attraction is La Alhambra, which is a giant palace that was built by the Muslim Arabs in southern Spain, and then taken over by Ferdinand and Isabella when they reconquered Spain in 1492 and expelled all the Muslims. As you can imagine, there is a lot of history in Granada!
For this trip, we took a 5-hour bus ride leaving Madrid on Friday morning at 9:30. The bus system is easy to use and much less expensive than taking the AVE speed trains, although busses are considerably slower. But for college students, price is the bottom line sometimes. The scenery on the way to Granada was beautiful—lots of hills, valleys, and orchards. When we finally arrived in Granada, we got directions to our hostel. We took the city bus to the cathedral and then wandered through the streets, discovered many plazas, and finally found our hostel. Thank goodness Victoria’s señora gave her a map of Granada because it would have been significantly more difficult without that tool! Granada was apparently busy this weekend because we had to book at two different hostels for the two nights because there was nothing available for the second night. But we stayed at the Funky Backpackers Hostel, which had been recommended by some of our friends, for Friday night. It was very different from the hostel Madeline and I had in Dublin, but this one was also good. Our room of 6 girls had its own bathroom and a mini kitchen area with dishes and a fridge. After checking in and dropping off our bags, we decided to do a little exploring.
Plaza in front of the cathedral
Plaza right by our hostel
Me in front of Funky Backpackers... the sign says "funky" :)
Using the handy map Victoria had, we wandered through the city. We first stopped at the cathedral steps to rest and enjoy the sunshine for a bit. Then we headed to Plaza Nueva and got some ice cream. The map makes the city look a lot bigger than it really is, so we actually ended up walking all over Granada. We found the spot to catch a bus to La Alhambra and then found our second hostel where we would stay Saturday night. Most of the time, we came to an intersection and just picked a street to follow. It was awesome because we were rewarded with so many amazing views. There wasn’t a wrong direction to go, even when we got a little “lost”! Around 6, we decided to head back to the hostel to rest and freshen up a bit before the tapas tour at 8:30. Our hostel offered several free tours, and one of them was a tapas tour, so we decided that would be a good way to get some dinner and maybe meet some people.
The cathedral
River
Me in a plaza in front of La Alhambra (up on the hill)
Amazing view of La Alhambra, with the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background and palm trees up close!
When we went downstairs for the tour, several of the other girls from our room were going on it, as well as some Spanish guys (I don’t actually know if they are Spanish, but they were speaking Spanish, so I’m just assuming). Our tour guide was a native from Granada. He took us to the first place and then set us free. It was very interesting—totally different from the tapas tour that I did with Dad, Maggie, and Michael in Sevilla. Our guide for this tour hung out with his friend and all of the Spanish guys and did not talk to or advise the rest of us. But that’s okay. We got “tinto de verano” which is like sangria, and then little tapas. Victoria got pork with pineapple, which was excellent, and I ordered chicken in Thai sauce, which was good but spicy. The tour was somewhat boring though, since it was taking so long and we were tired. So, we decided to go to the second place and then go home. The next bar was a little better—I had a glass of white wine, and the tapas consisted of some pasta and a Panini-like sandwich. Pretty yummy. After that, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed.
On Saturday, we had to wake up very early (6 AM) to go to La Alhambra. We did not buy tickets in advance because our trip was organized a little last minute, so we had to get to the ticket office early to make sure we could get in. We got up to La Alhambra at 7:10, and the ticket office doesn’t open til 8, which we knew, but it was not very fun waiting in line. It was basically still night because it was so dark and cold. Both Victoria and I wore dresses and just a sweater, so we were unpleasantly chilled. But we persevered and finally got our tickets. Then we warmed up a bit with some coffee and donuts. At 8:30, we went into La Alhambra. The site has a limited number of guests per day, and a strict schedule of when people can be in different places. We were assigned to visit the Palacios Nazaries (the main palaces) at 9 AM, so we first walked directly to the Palacios entrance. The entire complex is beautiful. The construction is amazing and offers wonderful views of the city. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn that much about La Alhambra because I was not on a guided tour, but it was still awesome to see everything and take pictures. And if I am so inclined, I can research La Alhambra very easily thanks to the Internet! I definitely enjoyed seeing La Alhambra and would highly recommend it to anyone who is planning to visit Spain.
Awesome views of Granada
Me in Puerta del Vino or "Wine Gate"
In Generalife
Spectacular
Me on a balcony :)
A view of the cathedral from La Alhambra
This is the view we had from our room at White Nest Hostel--looking right at La Alhambra!
After our half-day visit to La Alhambra, we walked back to our hostel, got our bags, and then found a little convenience store and picked up lunch. We had sandwiches, an orange, and potato chips. Cheap, easy, and good. :) Then we walked to our second home for the weekend, White Nest Hostel. When we got to the hostel, we checked in and only spoke Spanish; we were very proud of ourselves for that! In this hostel, we had our own room, which was very nice because we were exhausted from the early morning and walking all over La Alhambra, so we had a nice siesta for a few hours. We decided to save money again and went to a supermarket to get food for dinner. The hostel has a little kitchen that is available for anyone to use, so we made pasta and had some super sweet strawberries. It was a good dinner and fun night.
Sunday morning we slept in until 9 and then got ready for the day. We checked out of the hostel and then went on a free walking tour of Granada. Our guide, Aric, is from Australia and is living in Granada to work on his music (he plays guitar). He said he works several jobs (does 2 different tours of Granada, teaches guitar lessons, tutors people learning English) but really likes it. That seems like a life that is far too unstable for me, but if he’s happy, that’s great. The majority of the tour was close to or exactly the way Victoria and I walked on Friday, which was cool. Apparently, we did a good job finding the best things in the city! One thing we did not do on our own but got to do with the tour was walk in an aqueduct. Aric showed us the river, which is water from the Sierra Nevada mountains, so it was freezing. But we took off our shoes and socks and walked in the river, climbing into the aqueduct. It was really cool and something I never expected to be doing that day! At the end of the tour, we had tapas with the group. Then we retrieved our bags from the hostel and went to the bus station for our 3 PM bus back to Madrid.
The trip home was uneventful, and I spent the rest of Sunday getting some work done. I have been sick for the last few days with a cold/cough, and today is probably the worst it’s been. Needless to say, I have felt better and definitely been in better moods than I am today, but I am actively trying to be a “happy” person. It’s a struggle when I don’t feel great though...
I would like to give a special Happy Birthday message to my favorite 13-year-old in the world—EMMA!!!!! :) Love you so much and can’t wait to see you!
Hasta pronto, mis amigos.
Elizabeth
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