Granada

This weekend I went to Granada.  It was a really great trip.  Except for the fact that saturday was almost unbearably cold.

Saturday morning I woke up and gave myself barely enough time to throw stuff together and walk out the door.  But it was ok that I didn't really have time to eat breakfast because I don't think that anyone remembered that I was leaving...

Anyway.  Got to the bus.  The bus stopped about half way during the 3 hr trip so that we could get some breakfast/use the bathroom.  I got this really delicious doughnut like thing filled with chocolate.  Really good.

We got to Granada and we stopped at the hotel.  It was really pretty nice.  Emily and I got a room to ourselves.  So we dropped our stuff off and then walked to what was going to be the designated meeting place of the day.  Then we wandered the street looking for a good tapas bar.  The deal in Granada is that if you buy a drink you get a free tapa with it.  So we went into one finally and got a drink and then got this tapa that was some kind of meat with some kind of sauce with lettuce and tomato on top of a slice of bread.  It was pretty good I thought.  Then we looked through some of the shops where they mostly all sold the same things.  It was jewelry and scarves and these skirts and pants and shirts and dresses that all had that sort of arabian look to them.  I did end up buying a couple of scarves.

Then we met up with the group to walk around and see some things.  We went to see some narrow little streets where they used to have some market or something and now have shops like I described above.  We also saw the outside of the cathedral and then went into the capilla real or royal chapel where the catholic kings are buried.  It's where ferdinand and isabella are buried and their daughter juana and her husband whose name I can't remember and I think it was ferdinand and isabella's son miguel who died in childhood, but it could have been juana's.  So that was pretty cool.  There was also a museum part that had crowns and scepters and swords and such from these rulers which was definitely a cool thing to see. You couldn't take pictures in there though. So I just have a picture of the entrance.

Then we walked to this place which was called a corral.  It was where people that were passing through town, selling stuff maybe, could stay the night.  They could keep animals there too I think.  It was cold and the information was in spanish I don't exactly remember everything.  But after that we climbed up this hill through this neighborhood that I'm pretty sure was significant historically, but again it was cold and in spanish.  Anyway, once we got up the hill there was a really good view of the alhambra and we went up there as the sun was setting so it was really pretty.  Emily and I did not stay up there long enough to see it lit up when the sky was dark, but we had had enough of the cold.  And I think we still got some good pictures anyway.

this is at the top of the hill

this was taken as we were walking back down towards the center of town

So after we left the group we went back to the hotel to warm up a bit and consult our map to see if there were any churches nearby.  The flyer about the trip said we would return to sevilla at 4:30 on sunday.  I took that to mean we would get back at 4:30 and would have plenty of time to go to a 7pm mass that night.  However, it actually meant we will be leaving Granada at 4:30 so we needed to try to find a church with a saturday evening or early sunday morning mass.  Luckily we found one not too far away and it did have an 8pm saturday mass.  We got there like a half hour early though so we had lots of time to look around before mass.  It was a really pretty church with lots of cool statues and side chapels.  This is what it looked like all lit up for mass

A fun little thing that happened during mass was that a dog wandered in and walked up the aisle and sniffed around the pews until it apparently, I'm assuming, found it's owner.  So I don't know if the lady had left it outside the church or in the back of the church but whatever the case it managed to find her up front and she had to take it out or something.  I think she might have left because I don't think she came back...

After mass we wanted to stop by this bakery place that had really yummy looking desserts in the window.  I got this delicious souffle, is that how you spell it, cake.  It was a mix of lots of different textures and flavors but it was really good.  We were still hungry after that though so we decided we needed some real dinner.  We went the first little shop we saw and got some ham and cheese paninis to eat while we walked back to the hotel.  Then there was no way we were spending any more time out in the cold so we were in for the evening.

Unfortunately, upon arriving back at the room we realized that none of the lights in the room worked.  And only one of the outlets worked.  So we had the choice of either having one lamp on or having the tv on.  We had hoped to take some nice long hot showers, but that's kind of hard in the dark.  So we settled for doing what we could with the light of our one lamp and then opted to watch some tv as we fell asleep.  We saw the end of some disney movie I've never seen about pigeons.  It's weird watching tv seeing familiar shows in spanish.

This morning we got up feeling pretty well rested and thankful that we did not have to get up any earlier because then the sun would not have been up and we would still not have been able to see in the bathroom.  But I did get to take a nice long hot shower which was a good start to the day.  I was even warm enough to walk around the room barefoot for awhile which is something I definitely cannot do in this house.  After we were showered and ready to go we went downstairs for the breakfast that the hotel provides.  I had some bacon and an orange and some delicious warm rolls with a chocolatey filling.  Then it was time to get our stuff and walk over to the bus.

The bus took us up the famous alhambra which was the palace of the arabian kings until the catholic kings came in and took it over as their own.  Basically it's really big and pretty and I wish I knew more to tell you about all the different things, but it was hard to listen and stick with the group and try to take pictures of all the amazing things around me all at the same time.

pretty fountain in the gardens of generalife

a tree and a legend, it's said that this tree witnessed the wife of the arab king with another man, it could have been any one of 36 men so naturally the king had them all decapitated

some round building I can't remember the name of, it looks kinda like the pantheon though minus the roof

pretty pool and building, if I haven't mentioned it before the deal with all the little pools is that the fountain is the source of the water representing birth, then there is the straight and narrow channel that represents living a good life, and then comes the big pool where earthly life ends and eternal life begins

we ended the trip climbing to the top of the vigil tower in the alcazaba it might be called, I don't remember

I'd say it's got a pretty good view

After the tour we had the option of going to a morrocan restaurant with the group but we decided to just spend our time walking around the town.  We went to a couple of bars with another girl from the group who was dutch but is a tour guide and has visited 55 countries I believe she said.  That's a lot.  We went to two different bars and the first was ok, the tapa was I think some kind of little tuna sandwich.  Not great but not terrible.  Then we went to this bar called la bella y la bestia, which means the beauty and the beast, and had a really good tapa.  It was these little ham and cheese sandwich and some french fries and a pasta salad of some sort.  It was really tasty.  After that we parted ways with the other girl and wandered around the city a little.  We forgot it was sunday though so all the real stores were closed.  So it was just the souvenir shops that were open.  I did buy a couple of things though.

After that we walked to where the bus was going to be picking us up and saw that there was this ice cream shop that had gelato.  It may not be Italy, but it was still really good.  Even in the cold.  After that treat it was time to get back on the bus and head back to sevilla.  We got back at about quarter til 8 and when I walked in the door R was relieved to see me I think because she had thought I said I was going to cadiz which is just a day trip.  So she was thinking I should have been back last night.  Luckily the other girls remembered that I had told them and J that I would be gone over night.  I know I did tell them.  I guess I might have to tell them multiple times about my next trip.  Just to be safe.

Dinner was fine.  A simple broth and noodles and the pollo reina maybe it was called.  Anyway, it was good.  A potato on the side and an orange for dessert, an overall good meal.  Now I am very tired and need to go to bed because I know I am not going to want to get up in the morning.  I'm going to need all of the sleep I can get.