Granada

We went to Granada this weekend as a group - a trip that my program had organized. It was really great, lots of interesting things to see and do. And the best part was we got to stay in a hotel! Granda is about a 3/4 hour drive from Sevilla so we left here on Saturday morning and got there around 1:30. We checked in to the hotel and then wandered around the city for a while to find a place to eat our bocadillas (sandwiches) that our families had made for us and then to explore what was there. We stumbled across a vitamineria, which is a little shop that makes fresh fruit juice and smoothies. I got juice with pomegranate, pineapple, and orange. We pretty much just wandered around until about 4pm, when we went back to the hotel to rest a little before meeting up with the group at 4:30. Unfortunately, we were running about 4 minutes late and the group left without us and 3 other people! Luckily, we had done some exploring before so we were able to find them, but it was a bit stressful. So much for the Spanish stereotype of always being late, I guess i learned my lesson - even though almost all of my classes have started at least 10 minutes late, haha. Anyway, Granada was one of the most important Arab villages that was taken by the Reyes Catolicos in 1492. First, we went to the Capilla Real, which is the Church where the Reyes Catolicos, or Ferdinand and Isabella. are buried with their daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. I thought that we were just going to see their tombs which we did - huge marble statues right next to the altar - but then we went down some stairs and all of a sudden we saw 5 coffins. It was pretty unreal, since the Reyes Catolicos died almost 500 years ago. We looked around a little museum in the Capilla Real which had things like clothing and a crown from Ferdinand and Isabella and then we walked up to the Arab village, from which you can see an absolutely beautiful view of la Alhambra, which is the palace in Granada. We walked down the mountain after viewing la Alhambra at sunset and stopped at an ancient Arab pastry shop. We all got different things and shared, some were good and some were not so great... but basically they use a lot of nuts, in their dessert and not that much sugar. I think it's really that we just use so much sugar in the US that things here don't taste very sweet even though they are. Anyway, after a little while, we found our way back to the hotel where we were served a private dinner and a lot of wine. We hung out for a while in one room in the hotel and then ended up going to an Erasmus party, which is the program that organizes study abroad for Europe (at least I think I'm describing it correctly). Anyway, it was really interesting because there were so many different people there, and everyone's common language was Spanish! Although some of the people spoke better English than Spanish, which was interesting. It ended up being a fun night!

We woke up really early on Sunday morning and we at the Alhambra for a tour by 9:15. La Alhambra is the palace in Granada that is a mixture of Arab and Christian buildings. Basically, the Arabs had built this huge palace and when the Reyes Catolicos took over, they and their son-in-law (Carlos I) added a lot of other buildings, but the ancient Arab palace is still completely intact and it is incredible. The two women that run our program here in Spain know absolutely everything, and one of them led our 5 hour marathon tour through la Alhambra. We were able to see a lot, including the ancient Arab palace, the palace built by Carlos I, and a beautiful view of the entire city of Granada from the tallest tower in la Alhambra. Basically, it was awesome. I'll definitely post pictures here when I get my computer back (should be in a week! thanks Mom and Dad!). We went from la Alhambra back to the hotel for lunch, and then back to Sevilla to sleep, because by that time, we were exhausted. It was a fantastic weekend, and it is so incredible that we have learned so much about these places in our orientation classes so far and now we are able to go out and see them.