Granada

31 Jan:

Yesterday we left for Granada– it’s about a 3 hour bus ride but the country-side is so pretty! Even the crumbling old buildings and random little towns and farms on the hills are so interesting to look at. I love the vibe of Granada – it has a middle eastern/Arabic kind of style that I really like. There are so many cool little stores with everything from scarves and clothing to tea sets and lanterns. It’s all so fun to wander around and look at – I wish I had a lot of money so I could buy all of the cool stuff I saw! I did pick up a few gifts for people though! Karen, SJ, and I went to the authentic Arab baths Friday afternoon, along with a lot of other API girls, and it was amazing. You change into your bathing suit and go into this room that looks kind of like a basement except it has cool lanterns and candles everywhere. There is a cold pool in the middle with a little fountain and then all around are this different shaped hot pools and you alternate between the different temperature pool – it is supposed to be very cleansing, it opens up all your pores and everything. Then I got a 15 min massage, which was very enjoyable and soothing. Then we got to stay in the pools for longer, as well as having free tea in the little tea room off to the side – it was this delicious Arabic tea that I liked a lot. It was so relaxing, especially when some of the other girls left so not as many people were talking. And it was only 26 euro! I definitely recommend it!

After the baths, we went to a teteria (basically a tea house) and sampled some of the exotic teas – it was so much better than the stuff at the Arab bath, it was so good. They have all different interesting blends of red, black, and green teas along with assorted fruits and spices – the strange combinations were so good. I drank a lot of tea and then I had so much energy because of all the caffeine and sugar! The decorations at the teteria were really cool, too. I feel like Brooke would have enjoyed it a lot – I want to try to find one in the US to go to!

After dinner, we walked all the way across the city, up and down a lot of hills on cobblestone streets (heels weren’t the best choice of footwear!) to an authentic flamenco show, up in the sacromonte caves where the gypsies live. The show was very interesting, I enjoyed it. The dancing is so cool, I don’t know how they move so smoothly and keep such good rhythms with their hands and feet. The beat is very catchy! I really want to learn how to do flamenco and wear a pretty flamenco dress, at least for the fair in april! I am taking a class at school, but we’ll see if I actually learn it – it looks so hard! They even had some of the students get up and try to dance with them – thankfully they didn’t pick me! I was so amazed by the older woman who was dancing and singing – she was amazing and she must have been doing this for many, many years – it looks so strenuous and hard on your body but she was still incredible to watch!

After the show we walked back to the center of Granada and went out with a couple of the girls from the program – we went to a couple of bars and then went to a big discotheque called Granada 10 – there were a lot of people there, a lot from our API group, and it was a lot of fun. I’m still not quite used to how late things start at night here in Europe, never mind how late they are open until!

On Saturday, we visited La Alhambra – unfortunately the warm, sunny weather from Friday changed into cold, rainy weather, which doesn’t make for the funnest tour, however it was still an amazing sight. It really is a whole city inside the palace walls and it has the most gorgeous views of Granada because it’s up on the hill. You can also see the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains, which are beautiful. The palaces themselves are quite impressive – the Alcazar in Sevilla that I mentioned before is based on La Alhambra so we saw a lot of the same amazing style of tile work and wood carvings, along with the arcs that the Arabic/moorish style is known for. Even in the rain it was very beautiful and I obviously took a lot of pictures! I couldn’t imagine people actually living in such a grand, opulent place – I was overwhelmed just visiting it!

Arab bathes

Grenada

La Alhambra