Granada!

Hola!! I have a lot to update since I last posted...so here goes!! As I mentioned, this past weekend I went to Granada with my program, and I had SO much fun! We left Saturday at 8:30 am (I guess CIEE wants me to never sleep in or something) on two big buses for Granada. I slept for part of the bus ride but people were being quite loud so unfortunately I couldn't sleep that much. But it wasn't the end of the world because the ride there was really pretty! We got there around 12:30ish and checked into our hotel (I was roommates with my friends Franny and Chrisy so I was happy). The hotel was pretty nice! We had just enough time for a 20 minute power nap before lunch time, which was a buffet in the hotel dining room. Our food for every meal was buffets in the hotel...and I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty good! They had some very good paella.

But anyways, after lunch we set out exploring Granada. The same tour guide that I had at the Cathedral and La Giralda was on this trip, so we made sure to stay with him the whole time- he was great! We first went to this little neighborhood called Albaicín that was built by the Muslims (Granada has a large Muslim influence) and had the skinniest little streets! It was very cool. We walked around and saw more of the city and stopped at some amazing views to take pictures, like these:
Franny, me, and Chrisy overlooking Granada. The mountains in the background are the Sierra Nevada. They are gorgeous!!!


Another amazing view!!! Here you can see all of La Alhambra, the most famous site in Granada. It is a HUGE Muslim palace (well, lots of palaces) and fortress with tons of gardens. I'll get to the part where I visit it later in this post, haha.

A closer up view of part of La Alhambra. So beautiful!

Anyways, at the same place where those amazing pictures were taken, it also happened to be this huge hippy market. There were all these major hippies just chillin with their dogs and their crafts that they were selling. The best part was that at one point a police car was coming by, and all the hippies SCURRIED to pack up their stuff as fast as they could and start walking away...it was such a funny sight! And they were SO fast! It was like you blinked and all the sudden all the hippie paraphanalia had disappeared. Only to reappear again just as quickly once the police left, obviously.

After that we walked towards the downtown part of Granada, which was also very cool. There was one street that had tons of little shops with Arabic crafts like lamps, hookahs, scarves, shoes, etc. It was really cool! Then we went to La Capilla Real (Royal Chapel) which was a gorgeous church where Los Reyes Católicos (Isabel de Castilla and Fernando de Aragón) are buried. They are probably the two most important figures in the history of Spain because their marriage brought Spain together as a powerful nation (and I just learned all about them in my class, obviously) so it was really cool to see. After the church we went to a tetería (a tea shop), which there are tons of in Granada. We were very glad to get somewhere inside because it was FREEZING the whole day (it even snowed for like 2 minutes), and the tea shop was so cool! We got a pot of tea and some dulces arabes (arabic treats) for free, so that was definitely fun.

Our tea and dulces at the tetería!

After tea, we walked around the downtown area a little more and explored. I really liked it, but it was so cold and eventually time to go back to our hotel and shower before dinner. At night, Franny, Chrisy and I went out in the downtown Granada area. We went to a bar that my friend Julie (!!) had recommended called La Bella y La Bestia (Beauty and the Beast) where we got beer and tapas for 2 euro each. And the tapas were delicious! Then we went to the big discoteca in Granada called Granada 10. It was so fun! Seeing all the crazy españoles dancing was really funny, and we had a really good time there.

Unfortunately, the next morning we had to wake up VERY early, which was not so great but we powered through it. We got up at 7, packed up, had breakfast, and then left for La Alhambra at 8:30 (once again, my group was the earliest group to go, of course). Although it was extremely early and pretty chilly, the sun was out so it was a beautiful day to see La Alhambra, which was absolutely incredible. I had been there before when I went on that trip to Europe after 8th grade, but I really didn't remember how amazing it actually is. There are so many different palaces and parts to it, and all throughout them the architecture and detail is just incredible. There are also tons of beautiful gardens, which we didn't really get to get the full picture of since it is winter...but oh well. They were still amazing!

Here is one of the most famous parts of La Alhambra...the reflecting pond (as you can see from the reflection). It is hard to capture how pretty it is in a picture but you can get an idea.

An amazing view of Granada from La Alhambra (which is set in a mountain).

Here's a dorky girl posing in one of the beautiful garden areas!

I have a few more pictures I'll upload on here tomorrow when I have better internet again because I want to show you more of inside La Alhambra and how pretty it is! But continuing on, after La Alhambra we did a little more walking around, but were veryyy tired so then we went back to the hotel and just hung out until it was time for lunch and then time to get on the buses and go back. Overall, I had an amazing first traveling experience! Granada is a great place; I wish we had gone when the weather was a little nicer but considering the whole trip was free I really can't complain.

My first day of classes was today but I'll update you all on that tomorrow after I have had all of my classes once. Hope everyone is doing well back at home. I miss everyone!!

Love, Jess