Granada

Wow I have not been keeping up with my blog!  Sorry fam and friends!  We had midterms this past week and it was the first stressful/not fun week I have had since being here.  I had 4 midterms in two days and it was absolute craziness.  I probably shouldn't have gone to Paris the weekend before, but you only live once, right?

So in this entry I'm going to tell you about our trip to Granada.  This trip was planned and paid for by my program so the travel was completely stress-free and easy.  It was about a two hour bus ride.  When we got there, we had a buffet lunch at the hotel.  This was pretty much the first time we have ever gotten to pick what food we wanted to eat in Spain!  It was nice for a change.

After lunch we visited la Alhambra (which is Granada's biggest attraction).  It is a massive palace and fortress.  It was so beautiful.  It is up on the top of hill, so the views of the city below were incredible.  On the left is a picture of me inside the palace.  I recommend going there for sure if any of you ever have the chance to come to Spain!

After that we had free time and we were able to explore the city on our own.  We went and got some café con leche (coffee with milk- the typical midday drink in Spain). Afterwards me and a group of girls decided to go shopping because Granada is known for their little, family-owned stores.  Everything was so cheap and looked like it was straight out of Art Gecko in Madison.  I bought a some scarves, a super cool mirror, and some mosaic plates.  Hopefully they make it home to the U.S. alright!



 Here is a picture of Granada, with the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background....

That night our program leaders gave each of us ten euros to spend on tapas (appetizers).  With every drink that you order in a bar in Granada, it is required to give the customer a free tapa.  The tapas were absolutely AMAZING!  My favorite was zucchini that was fried and dipped in some sort of sweet sauce.  It somehow tasted like French toast! Sooooooo good.

After that, everyone in the group went to a discoteca.  We were all out until 5:00 AM- early to come home in Spain!  Even the program leaders came out with us!  So funny!  We were not very happy campers when we had to wake up at 7:30 though.

The next day we went on a tour of one of famous neighborhoods in Granada.  We stopped at a monastery that sells baked goods through a weird door thing.  The nuns aren't allowed to show their faces to their customers and are forbidden to ever leave the monastery.  I could not imagine!  Me and my friends bought some muffins and they were so delicious.

Here is a picture of my friend Katie with the muffin door....

Oh, by the way, here is a picture of my future house...

After walking around the neighborhood for a bit, we visited la Capilla Real, which is the church where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried!  They were buried there because this was the last city that they had to conquer.  That was really cool to see, since we learned so much about them in Western Civ in high school. 

I absolutely LOVED Granada.  It was such a typical Spanish city, filled with culture.  I would love to go back someday.  Tomorrow I'm going to Córdoba!  So excited.  I still need to blog about Paris though too, so more to come soon!