Jan 30

This is going to be a pretty huge entry… since we were always on the move and rarely had internet, I didn’t write any posts for the actual trip.

Please bear with me. I’m going to write and entry for each city of the trip.

The last post was a week ago, when we first arrived in Granada. The next morning we got up and were greeted by the best breakfast that we had seen since arriving in Spain: this one actually had more than bread!!

After breakfast we split off into our individual groups and roamed the city. We were supposed to have gone on a guided tour with Maika, Gustavo and Kristyna but they decided that since so many people were sick and that it was cold and icy, that they wouldn’t make everyone walk around in the cold.

We walked around in short sleeves all day and saw some amazing things. Most incredibly of all was the Mirador de San Nicolas. I’ve got to say a big thank you to Señor because they only reason that we found the Mirador was because I made sure that the first thing that we did in Granada was find la Oficina de Turismo. From the Mirador we were able to see the profile of the Alhambra and it was incredible. It was just too bad it was so overcast.

In the afternoon we actually got to go the Alhambra, by that point though it had turned from overcast to rainy… The Alhambra was beautiful but we all realized right then that this wasn’t a sightseeing tour.. we took more notes than we thought possible and had very little time for pictures or just wandering around. We still got to see the sights but not with the time that we would have liked.

Tuesday we got up for an early start so that we could see just a few more things before we were off for Sevilla. We started off at La Cartuja which was a monastery just outside of town. It was absolutely beautiful even if we did have to sit in freezing cold pews for over an hour taking notes about the building’s architecture. The worst part about it was that we weren’t allowed to take pictures. Though some people did, I though it was just a little too disrespectful to break the rules in a church..

The Catedral de Granada was a different story.. we were allowed to take pictures, but the timing or our visit was just poorly planned. We again say in pews for probably only 30 minutes taking notes and then got up to walk around as a group while Gustavo showed us some things around the Cathedral all the time telling us that he would give us a chance for pictures after his lecture. About ¼ of the way around the Catedral the lights went out and a security guard came over and told us that they were closing for lunch. SO we left, I snapped a quick picture on my way out, but it was so blurry that I just deleted it. We grabbed lunch at a little Pub where a lot of the group actually ended up and then went back to the hotel to catch the bus to Sevilla.

I forgot to mention… Monday night we went our to a little café for a Flamenco show. We’ll have to find one in Barca though because even though the guitarist was incredible, the dancer’s smell in the little café over-powered her flashy moves and stinging claps.

Word of the Day(s): vista- view
The view of the Alhambra from the mirador was, for me, the most impressive part of it. From inside its walls you didn’t really get the same feeling of its sheer size.