Granada

Written on 2/28/10 about 2/19/10 Where to begin? Well, as you probably know on this date I was sick with a cold that I had already had for about 5 days, we had not seen the sun or experienced warmth in over a week and I was up to my ears in things to do and stressed to the gills. Anyway, on the morning of the 19th Gina and I, and the other 60 some odd students met our bus near the school at 8:30 AM for our trip to Granada. I was a mess but still had to laugh at the immediate drama of a group being late for the bus (in all fairness they forgot a wallet and I am sure they felt horrible), cell phones being passed around and actual running taking place not only for them to make it but to find them because they got lost. This was our first real trip out of the city and it hadn’t started raining yet. As we drove out of the city we went passed the big commercial areas with furniture stores, Carrefour, track housing and so on. Once we were out of the suburbs there were beautiful hills of green, flooded fields and villages, all of which seem to have a castle or palace like structure standing proudly in their midst. It is absolutely gorgeous. We stopped midway (an hour and a half in to the trip) for bathrooms, coffee, food and so on. It was a good thing because a girl who partied to hard the night before had passed out and woken up in time to throw up all over herself in the back of the bus. This really is a sign of what most students do when they are abroad. “I haven’t slept yet” is one of the most commonly heard quotes in this group. Everyone looks great! Anyway, fields of olive trees, rolling hills and looming dark rain clouds characterized the second half of our trip. Once we got into Granada we were once again in a city with rebajas (sales) and tons and tons of shopping, but there are giant mountains nearby, the Sierra Nevadas. Our first stop was the Royal Chapel. Our bus driver could only drop us off in a certain area (really not fun having to drive a bus in a city with traffic and streets like this) so we walked to the Chapel in slight rain. Not only is there gold, silver and priceless paintings all over the place in this chapel this is where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried (though not buried because I saw their caskets). Isabel had a crown with pomegranate designs because Granada was known for and means pomegranate. Granada was their favorite place and although they never lived there it was dear to their hearts. We then met our bus driver and went to the Mirador San Nicolas to get a sweeping look at the city and the little structure on the other side of the gorge, the Alhambra. It was amazing to see the white houses, snow capped mountains and the magnificent Alhambra in one shot. I have a ton of pictures you can look at. Then we walked down through the Albycin past the Arabic Tea Houses, tapas bars and tourist shops to meet the bus so we could grab our bags and head to the hostels. We got our keys to our rooms at the San Joaquin Pension. I used my laptop and then a small group of us went to walk around. We hit up a café and had delectable pastries and then walked up and down the Albycin shopping on our way back down. We headed back to the hostel for some need rest (not sleep, because if any of us had slept we would not have woken up until the next morning). By this time I was really sick and had lost my voice, but we still made it out for dinner. Most bars in Granada offer a free tapa with your first drink, so we decided to try it out. The four of us ordered a wine concoction or another and got a huge plate of food for free. Granted, I think the wine cost at least .50 Euros more, but it is still a deal. We then made our way to an Arabic tea house where we had yummy tea, good food and poor service. It was worth it though. We all had hummus and part of orange. I had seafood paella. It was good but Montse’s is better. Then we went to another tea house and promptly home after we finished our drinks. After a good 8 hours of sleep Gina, Resha and I rushed to get churros con chocolate for breakfast and coffee of course before meeting the group at 9 to catch the bus. Running out of time we threw our churros in a plastic bag and our chocolate in a small cup that Resha had from the coffee machine and off we went to munch churros for 15 minutes while waiting for the bus. It was a glorious day! No clouds and warmth! The best we had seen on the whole trip and they had told us Granada was going to be colder than Sevilla, not this day. Que suerte. We went to the Alhambra after filing onto the bus and having two of our group have to chase the bus down. They were boys this time and one had been robbed by a French chic the night before. In his lust he forgot his wits and she took his wallet! Ha, I’d feel really bad if he and his friend weren’t continuously getting themselves into these situations, but boys, alcohol and pretty girls can be a lethal combination.