Friday afternoon, Scott and I went walking down to once again explore a bit more of southeast Granada, and find the discoteca that we were unable to find last week. With a bit more direction, we successfully found it’s location under an hour - a bit improvement over last time! After triumphing that, we once again headed over to the huge Walmart/Mall center… also known as Carrefour. We shopped around, buying myself a cd of my new favorite Spanish band, Amaral. I highly recommend logging into Youtube and watching one of their videos. They’re awesome!
After venturing to Carrefour, we then headed to the Center of Modern Languages to check our messages and such, and then we both headed our separate ways for the night- Scott was a bit tired from the week, and wanted to go to bed, but I headed home to get dressed for the evening!
Friday night me, my roommate Stephanie, my classmate Robert and his girlfriend from England, (after watching the futbol game of the night…Hurrah Holland!) went out to explore Granada’s nightlife! Much akin to New York, Granada is the place that never sleeps- resturants, cafes, tapas bars, everything is up and running, and the city is packed! We all met at about 10:00 PM and got to immerse ourselves in a typical Spanish Friday night- walking around, enjoying the cool night breeze… until the discoteca opens, of course.
A discoteca is pretty much what we would call a club in the United States, but here it has almost a reverent tone for it- you mention the ‘D’ word to a Spaniard, and they’ll instantly tell you where their favorite one is to be found. We went to a discoteca called Camboria, that was way out in the Sacromonte. The cool thing about this dance club was that, like most of the buildings in the Sacromonte quarter, the underground part was a cave! The dancing was to be found aboveground, as we were early to visit at 2 AM in the morning.
However, my most favorite part was that offered an unmatchable view of the Alhambra at night. I was very unhappy I didn’t bring my camera, but the view was spectacular. We danced, we laughed, and we had a lot of fun hanging out in the cool night breeze of Southern Spain. Stephanie and I retired early at 4 AM, where more people were showing up at that time, but for us, it was super late! We took a taxi home and slipped back into bed after a fun filled night out in Granada.
The next day we took the opportunity to sleep in, as a long night out on Granada had us beyond exhausted! We didn’t wake up until 2 in the afternoon, and our host family had gone to visit relatives, so we took the opportunity to go visit a Chinese restaurant a block away for lunch. Chinese food is a bit different here in Spain than in the United States, and me and Stephanie figured, (as Stephanie is bilingual in both Spanish/Chinese, and studied abroad there) that the more east you get, the more authentic the food becomes. It was interesting in not Spanish food for a change, but still nothing like back home. 6 Euros was all it cost, so not a bad deal either!
After eating out, we then walked down to the nearby mall, that is very close to our home. It’s definitely not Boca Raton Town center, but I liked it’s small shops atmosphere, without finding an Express, Claire’s, or Auntie Em’s in sight. We walked up and down the three levels of the mall, mostly window browsing as we went during siesta time. After touring the different shops and eyeing the mall’s discoteca and movie theater, we then walked down to a nearby cyber café and surfed the ‘net for about an hour. Soon dinner time rolled around, and we headed home to grab a quick cena.
After dinner, we were wide awaked and wanting to walk around a bit, so we called up Scott and suggested simply just walking around Granada. We then all met up at the post office, and walked to each of our houses so we knew how to get there. Then, we finally found a park bench and sat and talked about ourselves for about 2 hours, ranging from topics such as favorite books to childhood video games. At about 1 AM we called it a night, and headed home for bed. For the next day was our trip to the world famous, Granada representative… the Moorish castle of the Alhambra!
http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/
(Link to all of the pictures on my photobucket, again not in order due to computer mixing them up, but reading along with this entry will help you along!)
The morning of the Alhambra started off with a late get up at 9 AM, which I didn´t mind at all. Me and Stephanie munched on a quick breakfast, and met Inma at Correos at 11:20 AM. From Correos, we then walked way down the main street from correos, and after a bit of walking, turned up an inclined road to a large, gated opening. We walked through the large doors, and found ourselves in the most beautiful forest park! Trees were everywhere that the eye could see, and even in the wooden depths we saw ruins of ancient Moorish castles. But as we walked further and further through the forest, we saw ahead of us a great, red castle-like building peering out from the trees... the entrance to the great Alhambra.
In the shade in front of the Alhambra, we met up with the University Tour group, and Inma bid us farewell from there. We then waited a mere 5 minutes until a large group of students showed up on the city bus, and grouped all together, we followed our profesora up to the large entrance, and entered inside the famous castle.
We then walked through shaded tunnels, Moorish inscriptions littering all the entryways and passages. It was difficult not to imagine living in this building day to day- what had me most concerned was the fairly new addition of a railing... how did the Moors not fall down those twisting, narrow staircases? Definately a question on my mind.
We then walked out to a large courtyard of sorts, where the profesora explained the military faction of the Alhambra lived in this part. Lots of ridges of stone, perhaps where a soldier might rest or practice amongst others, or prepare himself to do battle with the soon to be conquering Christians.
We then walked up a large bastille, climbing dozens of stairs to reach the top.. the view was magnificient. All of Granada was sprawled below, and everywhere you turned the city´s rich history and modern day buidings all came together in a stunning display. Looking out farther than the city below, you could stare for hours at the looming Sierra Nevadas, or simply gaze to the large Moorish wall nearby, protecting Granada from ancient invaders. I was blown away by the sight, and lots of pictures in my photobucket albulm reflect that!
After viewing from on high, we walked down and back towards the center of the Alhambra, to then tour the more recent additions to the Alhambra, of the construction Ferdinand, Isabella, and other Spanish royals added on to the already great palace. A room for visits was the first on the tour, followed by grand ceilings with latin words inscribed in stone. However, not all of the Moorish rooms had been redone, more often than not, they were simply refurbished and kept the same. However, a more modern refurbishing was seen when we walked to the court of the Lions, a famous room in the Alhambra. Disappointingly, the lion statues were nowhere to be seen, instead a large plastic tent. Apparently the lions were taken out to be restored, and they won´t be back until 2010. Well... now I know when to plan my return trip!
After visiting the Catholic refurbishing and the Moorish center, we walked outside of the Alhambra´s interior to view a magnificient stretch of miles of gardens. Our profesora informed us that the Moors´s heaven consisted of gardens and green everywhere. Also in heaven was to be found four rivers, the two of which were milk and water, the other two wine and honey. This was reflected in the many fountains we saw, where little canals from 4 directions lead straight into the fountain. It is easy to see why the Alhambra has been called ´Heaven on Earth´- to the anicent Moorish rulers, the Alhambra was a reflection of paradise! We toured the gardens for the last hour, and towards the end, we were up high enough to take pictures of the stretch of the palace. Make sure to visit my photobucket and see!
After visiting the Alhambra, me and Stephanie walked through the large city park before the Alhambra’s entrance, and enjoyed sandwiches our host mom prepared for us. After a quick dining, we walked back to the city and browsed some souvenir shops that littered the cobblestone streets. After peering into all the nearby ones we could find, we headed back home to take an afternoon siesta after the long winding walk through the Alhambra!
After taking a siesta for the afternoon, I was re-energized to go out an explore some more. Even though there wasn’t a bullfight going on, I really wanted to go see Granada’s bullring, and also explore the western part of Granada, as I’ve been pretty east-centered from my homestay and school. So I grabbed my new purse, my fan, and my trusted map, and off I went!
I walked along the long road of calle Ronda, and enjoyed seeing a part of Granada unfamiliar from my daily day to day walks. I saw all different shop windows, despite the fact practically all of them were closed for Sunday. It was definitely not as hot out as early morning, so the light breeze gave my fan a vacation in my purse. After navigating down several streets, I then toured some outdoor shops alongside the busy road. It was really neat in the fact that all of the shops were centered around different countries. Wares from Africa, India, Jamaica, Russia, and others were to be found, so I saw all sorts of neat items from around the world- that was definitely a highlight!
After browsing, I finally walked all the way up to the Plaza de Toros. My camera was full of Alhambra pictures, so I couldn’t snap any, but the first thing that came to mind when I saw the bullring was "Is this a Roman colloseum?" I could definitely see how bullfighting descended from Roman gladiators, as it was very Roman-esque. It was closed, but different resturants and bars were operating out of it, so I walked around and enjoyed seeing all their activity. One gated doorway was slightly ajar, so I saw a bit of inside the ring. I definitely hope July has a bullfight, because for some strange reason, I think it would be awesome to watch!
After circling the bullring, I then took the main road to the center of the city, where I stopped in a popular ice cream store, and ordered myself a tasty combination of pineapple and chocolate ice cream. Yum yum! After munching the tasty cold treat, I headed home for an 8:45 dinner of pork with salad and tasty slices of bread. At 9:30 PM I got a call from my folks, where I was able to wish my dad a happy Father’s Day, and catch up on their life and mine. After enjoying an hour long conversation, I went to prepare myself for Monday morning, and write up on my blog! But, with the internet working slow, I was unable to both post my pictures and write up, so I only got my photobucket up and running. Que mala suerte!
Yesterday afternoon us Abroadco students went on a mission to locate the Bus station in Granada. We did find it after a lot of walking and exploring, but we didn´t get lost! The bus station was big enough that we could see it a road down, and venturing inside, we purchased tickets for Friday. The reason? This weekend we are going to Morocco! I am totally excited!
We will be leaving Friday afternoon to bus over to the city of Malaga, where Scott’s sister and her husband live, and it will be all of us Abroadco kids, one of Scott’s friends from class, Scott’s sister and a friend of theirs who’s been living several months in Morocco. We’ll ferry over Saturday morning, spend all of Saturday in Morocco as well as Sunday, and then bus back to Granada that Sunday evening! I am totally psyched, but of course, next week’s blog will cover all of that.
Today’s morning was class again, and always practicing lots of different things! I love class for all the interesting topics we cover, as well as the learning style helps me remember a lot more! Every day we learn something completely different, and more often than not, a question about something in everyday life, (example: the word Vale, which interprets to ‘ok’ or ‘right’ in English) will become a topic of class discussion. Always interesting! Tonight at 8 we are going with Inma to explore a bit in the Albacin quarter of Granada, and it should be as awesome as all the tours I´ve been on so far!
So with that being said, I’ll leave off here, until my next post of my adventurous outings!
Hasta luego!
2 comments:
aren't you not supposed to go to morocco? lol
Natalie to 20 again and have the adventure of a lifetime. I love your writings and pics. Love,Ms. Dangerfield
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