Two weekends ago (whoops, a little past due on this one) I went to Granada with my ISA program. Granada is a city in the south of Spain, in Andalucia. It was a decently long bus ride down to Granada, but lucky for me I had Clemen’s famous tortilla de pata bocadillo, good tunes and good friends to make the trip go by a little faster.
We arrived in Granada and met up with my roommate’s friend from school who is studying there. He took us to two different tapas places. Fun fact- in Granda bars and restaurants are required to give you a tapa with your drink. We drank a few cañas (small glasses of draft beer) and ate a delicious variety of tapas.
Later that night ISA took us to a flamenco show. This was so cool and way more interesting than I expected. Flamenco consists of at least three people: one dancer, one singer and one guitar player. Flamenco originated in Andalucia by the gitanos, or gypsies. The dance was mesmerizing… women and men took turns of about 7 minutes each dancing in sharp movements, clapping their hands and keeping a beat with their feet by stomping on the ground. I hope I can see another show before I leave Spain (hint hint Mom and Dad…)
Flamanco show
Flamanco show
The next day we enjoyed a delicious breakfast. One of the many great things about my study abroad program, ISA, is that they always put us up in really nice hotels and we always have really really nice breakfasts. We boarded the bus to visit La Alhambra. La Alhambra is one of Granada’s main attractions, it was actually its own city inside of Granada where the Arabic kings lived. We had a very friendly tour guide who spoke Spanish very clearly and answered any questions we had. We toured the gardens (!!!) which I absolutely loved. It was a beautiful sunny day and the views were unbeatable. Our guide told us that many people have their wedding pictures taken in the gardens.
View of Granada from the gardens
Yours truly with La Alhambra in the back
Next we toured the actual palace. Super, super cool. If I’ve learned anything about myself while abroad it’s that I am much more a fan of castles than churches. There was tons of Arabic influence, hurray for a little bit of diversity in Spain! Most importantly Arabic influence = an abundance of tile = a very happy Lily. I don’t know what it is, but when I was in Lisboa, Morocco and now Granada I always love the tile. I’m hoping that when I someday have my own house I can decorate with an influence of what I’ve liked most about this whole experience.
My love affair with tile.
La Alhambra
Later that day I got fro-yo with friends, took a nap and skyped with my family. The Madrid vs. Barcelona fútbol (soccer) game was on at the bar in our hotel so I always knew when someone scored because our elegant, classy hotel suddenly erupted in cheers. Saturday night my friend, Sarah, told us she had a friend that is from Granada that studied in her hometown during high school that was willing to show us around if we wanted. Chance to have dinner and converse with locals, uh yes please! He and his girlfriend took us to one of their favorite tapas places where we ate mini crepes, mini hamburgers and other goodies.
My girlfriends and I got back to the hotel and soaked up the opportunity of being able to stay in the same place. It’s fun just hanging out, giggling and sharing stories on the bed. Something that we normally can’t do because we all live in homestays and aren’t allowed to have friends over. It reminded me a lot of my high school rowing days when we would take trips to away regattas and hardly sleep the nights before our races.
Sunday morning we all piled back onto the bus and headed back for Salamanca. I slept most of the way, thank you Dramamine. Although I was really homesick this weekend I had a great time in sunny Granada and hope to go back some day.
lilyinspain 