Granada y La Alhambra

Ok so this past week and weekend has been amazing…I don’t even know where to begin. So on Thur. we had a group of Russian students who are taking classes at the school where we have our English classes over for food. We decided to do this because I forgot to mention that one of the first weeks we were here they invited us over for Russian pancakes, which are basically crêpes dipped in condensed milk and are unbelievable. We wanted to try to make them something that is a traditional American dish but since we only have stove tops and no ovens we ended up making a variety of things. Actually, one of the girls Alyssa managed to make eggplant parm using only the stove and the microwave, which was pretty impressive. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay for long because I had to go study for an art history test…see Mom I actually do have to “study” while studying abroad in Spain. I did not think the test was that hard so hopefully I did well.
Now lets get to the highlight of the week…my weekend trip to Granada. This has defiantly been my favorite weekend so far. A group of 13 if us decided to travel to Granada, which is in the Andalusia region of Spain. Our main reason for going was to se La Alhambra, which is a Moor Palace but the weekend was so much more then that. I took a bus down Friday night because it was a lot cheaper then flying. It was only 5 hours, which wasn’t horrible and there were movies on the bus and even though they were in Spanish I actually understood them, which I was pretty proud of. We got to our hostel, El Granado, around midnight. The hostel was in a great location and was really clean. Even though it was so late the women who let us in was super nice. We put our stuff down and then decided to walk around and grab something to eat. We ended up going to a pub in the area and just hanging out. The bartenders were really cool and showed us some crazy magic tricks.

Saturday morning we woke up pretty early to go explore Albacin District, which is an Arab neighborhood in Granada. Since Granada is in the south of Spain, which is where the Moors used to live, there is a lot of Arab influence in the culture and architecture. We walked around the neighborhood for most of the morning since there were tons of little markets and streets to go down. The area was near the mountains so there was a lot of climbing but it was totally worth it for the views of the city and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. After walking around we decided it would be a good idea to grab lunch before heading the Alhambra.

View of Granada

A group of us we to a place right by the entrance to grab el menu de dia, or menu of the day that a lot of restaurants offer. It is basically a pre-fixed menu but they are always great. However, we didn’t have time to eat our dessert because we thought we needed to be at the gate of La Alhambra at 2pm so we had to run up this massive hill to get there. By the time we got to the top we were all out of breath and thought we made it in time. However, it turns out that the time on our ticket was for the entrance to the Palace not just the general entrance so we ended up missing our time and having to buy another ticket because we were not coming all the way to Granada without seeing the Palace. Even though it was frustrating it was well worth it because the palace was absolutely amazing. All the details and tile work was unbelievable. After the palace we walked around the fortress and some other areas before leaving. We then went to this Arab teashop were I had the most amazing tea.
Before heading to dinner I went back to the hostel to change my clothes. A group of people went for tapas but some of us wanted a sit down dinner so we went to this place called The Sultan. I had chicken, chickpeas, a couscous, which was amazing. After dinner we went back to the hostel to sit on the roof top deck and then went out to a discotecha, which was actually a renovated old opera house. The next morning we went to see the cathedral in Granada, which is breathtaking, and we even ended up staying for mass. Then we headed next to the Cathedral to the Royal Chapel, where the tombs of Kind Ferdinand and Queen Isabel are located.
So it turns out that Sunday was Saint Cecilia’s Day and since she is the patron saint of the gypsies there was a huge festival going on in Sacramonte, which is another neighborhood in Granada. We went there to check it out and there were tons of food vendors and flamenco dancers. I grabbed a chorizo (sausage) sandwich there and then had to head back to the hostel and grab my bag for the 5-hour bus ride back to Alcala. Even though the weekend was amazing I was glad to be back in Alcala because I needed some rest.

Cathedral

As you all know the Superbowl was Sunday and a group of people decided to go into Madrid to watch it at an Irish pub but since it didn’t start till 12:30 am in Spain I could not handle that after the weekend so a group of us decided to have a Superbowl party Mon night. We made nachos and various dips and just watched all the crazy Superbowl commercials online. It was a lot of fun. Everyone in the group is starting to become really close and I am excited to spend the next couple months with them. Sorry for the long post. Hope I am not boring you too much!