¡Viaje a Granada!

Granada this weekend was FANTASTICO! I had a blast...so let me elaborate on what went down.

Friday morning, Amanda and I got up at 7:30 (which makes for about 4 or so hours of sleep, ackkkk!) and showered,ate breakfast, and got all of our bags ready to go by 8:10. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. We wished MariCarmen a happy Dia del Santo because it was her saint's day, so it's kind of like her birthday in a sense. I don't really understand how that works, but we wished her a great day! Then we walked the 25 min to class and after classes ended at 12:35, we walked over to the stadium with our stuff and got on the bus to Granada! We ate our lunch that MariCarmen had packed on the way to the stadium because the bus driver wouldn't let us eat on the bus, afshhhhhh. Most of us tried to eat sneakily anyways. We had a pretty big group, about 50 kids, half from NC state and half from UVA and a few from Michigan State and Princeton, etc. So the bus left at 1:30 pm and we made it to Granada by about 8 pm. The trip actually wasn't that bad considering we watched Harry Potter 3 and 4 the whole way and made a few pit stops. I bought some gummy bears so I was a happy camper, ha. We checked into the hotel and then a bunch of us headed over to the huge Cortes Ingles across the street...it's like a Target type of store that is located within a mall. The home section of the Cortes Ingles was actually located on the first floor of our hotel. So we hung out there for awhile looking at clothes and different things. They had a lot of neat stuff, but I didn't buy anything.

Then we met up again with everyone at 10 pm to explore the city and get tapas for dinner. We found a place around 10:45ish and tried all sorts of food. I tried some vino tinto, which is wine mixed with soda, kinda like sprite I think, and then we ordered some tortillitas con macarrones, which are shrimp tortillas, and also some chicken nuggets. And all of the tapas came with fries or potatoes. Everything was really good, but also very fried, ha. When people say that everyone in Spain eats healthy, I don't know what they're talking about, because the Spaniards sure love fried food. Shockingly, everything was so cheap at this place though and I only ended up paying about 2 euro for dinner. After dinner we walked around for awhile, ended up at a bar, but it wasn't really exciting. A few of us weren't that interested in taking shots so we headed back to the hotel around 1...party in the hotel! haha. Gina, Amanda, and I stayed in the same room, and the hotel was sooo nice(3 estrellas)! I got to sleep in a comfy bed without springs and we actually had room to stretch out and move. And our room had at least 7 different mirrors, ha, and a little balcony. So cool. The next morning, Saturday, when we got up at 9, we made it down to breakfast and they had all sorts of good stuff: tons of fruit, toast, pastries, churros, zumo de naranja, etc. I was impressed and managed to sneak an orange out with me even though we weren't supposed to, haha.

We hopped back on the bus around 10:20 and headed to La Alhambra, which is a palace city. It's name comes from the colour of its walls(al-Hamra in Arabic), which were made from local reddish clay. It was so beautiful. We also went to el Generalife, which is the summer palace with amazing gardens. Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery so I didn't get to take any pics, but I'm going to steal some from friends because they got some great pictures. It was such a neat experience, though it was a long tour and very hot. The gardens were surprisingly cool though. The way the wall bushes were shaped and the many fountains made it very cool and relaxing there. After the tour the bus dropped some of us off at the city center and a bunch of us found a restaurant and had lunch. This was about 2:30ish so we were starving! ha. I got a chicken, pineapple, lettuce sandwich and we all got water and tried to rehydrate after all of that walking in the heat on the tour. In Spain they don't bring you glasses of water, they bring you a jug of water (that you have to buy) and then you pour your own water. We take water for granted so much in the US because here there are no water fountains for you to refill water bottles or anything. You always have to buy water, and it isn't cheap.

After lunch, Gina, Mridula, Alison, Amanda, and I walked around various shops. We got some gelato/sorbet, I tried the mango flavor, which was awesome. And we bought a few things. Mridula and I actually bought the same dress, haha, deciding that we weren't going to wear it at the same time. And I bought a skirt at another shop. It was a very fun, successful day. After asking the locals for directions a few times, we finally made it back to the hotel around 5. We were pretty tired, but Gina and I went for a quick swim in the outdoor hotel pool. We ran into Josh, Dominic, and Carter from our UVA group and tried some of their sangria by the pool, ha. It was actually pretty good. Oh and while we were at the pool we also got to see a middle-aged black man who decided it was a good idea to wear a speedo the same color as his skin. hahahhh, we almost died laughing. I seriously though he was naked at first glance. Not that cute, ha.

So after swimming we had about two hours to relax, shower and get ready to see a Flamenco show in a cave! It was sooo incredible! It was a very narrow long cave and they set up chairs all along the sides and a long dance floor where the dancers would dance up and down the middle. They also grabbed people from the sides to dance with them from time to time. They are so strong and forceful with the way the dance, which I think really reflects the personality of most Spanish people here. It was a very cool experience. After Flamenco the bus dropped us off in the center and we found a pretty nice restaurant where we had dinner. We didn't get our food til probably 11 or 11:30 and I think left around 12. I actually tried pato, which is duck, and it came with a fancy looking fruit concoction. We also got bread with the meal, and Amanda and I split some gazpacho, which is a cold, tomato soup with onions and celery. SO GOOD. Our whole group consisted of about three tables and the waiter put us all on the same bill, so sorting out all of the money was VERY interesting. Apparently we got charged 18 euro for all of the bread baskets that they didn't even ask us if we wanted. That's a lot for bread! And we had to pay for the water too, of course. Because our bill was so high, we got free shots. I took a sip and it was sooo gross, ha. I was not a fan.

After dinner we walked with our UVa group down the streets, but when we passed the Burger King we ran into a bunch of the NC state kids. These kids are crazy and a ton of fun, so a few of us hung back from the UVa group and hung out with them. Some of them headed to a hookah bar, but the rest of us went ahead and went into Granada Diez, a discoteca that we managed to get free entry tickets for from a guy outside of Burger King, ha. This discoteca was SOOOO much fun. I had a blast. Things didn't get too lively til about 2 or 2:30ish, but it was great dancing around with everyone. When Party in the USA came on, we went crazy! All the Spanish guys def thought we were crazy too. They played a lot of Spanish and also American music, so that made it fun. The rest of our original UVA group made it there too so it was fun having everyone there, though it's sad how segregated the two groups ended up being throughout the trip. Sometimes I like hanging out with the NC state kids more, they're all so friendly and welcoming. The UVA kids are nice too, but a little cliquish. I don't really know. But at the club I ended up dancing with this guy named Alberto for awhile and then a guy from Germany, ha. Both of them spoke to me in English, ha, so I don't really know how much Spanish speaking practice I got this weekend. Oh well. It was a blast. We left around 3:30ish because we knew we would have to get up earlyish on Sunday. So we took a cab back and then went to bed. Man, what an awesome day.

On Sunday, we woke up at 9, so we still got 5 hours of sleep. It could have been worse. We went to breakfast, then packed our things and got on the bus for another tour of Granada. This one was of the Albacin, which is the part of Granada that best reflects the city's Moorish cultural heritage. The streets were very narrow and we did a lot of walking but we got to go to a lot of cool shops too. After the tour we had some time to do some shopping and then got some ice cream and got on the bus, ready-to-go at 2:30. The bus ride back was long too, but most of us slept at least half the time so it wasn't so bad. We made it back and MariCarmen had dinner for us :). I was so hungry. And now I have a paper due tomorrow night, ha. Well once I steal some pics from friends, I'll post them on here. But all in all, Granada = ONE CRAZY AWESOME WEEKEND.