Granada Weekend

Hello again everybody!

This past weekend our program took us to Granada, a smaller city in Andalucia that sits at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mounains. The good thing about this trip was that Granada is an awesome city. The bad thing was that I was sick so I couldn´t enjoy it to the fullest. One of the best things about the trip was that it was put together by UNC Study Abroad, so we didn´t pay for anything - and they spoiled us. We stayed in a 4-star hotel, had breakfast and dinner provided for us (which were some of the best meals I´ve eaten since being in Spain), got into all of the historical sites for free, and got student discounts at the hotel spa.

We left Sevilla around 10:00 in the morning on Friday and arrived in Granada around 2:00. My impression of the city was that it was absolutely beautiful and unlike a lot of the places I´ve seen in Andalucia thus far. Because it sits on the bottom of the mountains, the city was very hilly with narrow cobblestone streets giving way to big, open plazas. Even from the bottom of the hills the views of the mountains were awesome - most were still snowcapped. We checked into our hotel and, since it was siesta time, took a nap. Afterwards Emma, April, and I explored the city for a little while before going back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner our teachers/tour guides took us to a lookout point on the mountain to see La Alhambra at night. Quick background history - La Alhambra is one of Spain´s main attractions and the third most visited site in the world after the Louvre in Paris and the Coliseum in Rome. Granada was the last Muslim stronghold in Spain until Fernando and Isabel conquered it in 1492 and restored Catholicism there, so La Alhambra is the royal palace/military headquarters used under both periods. It´s enormous and at night it was completely lit up, so the view from the lookout point was great. After seeing La Alhambra, I went with April, Vincent, David, and Andy to a Teteria, which is an old Arab tea shop. It was an awesome place - everyone sits on short backless stools or big cushions, drinks tea out of old silver tea pots, and smokes hookah. We hung out there for a little while and then April and I went back to the hotel because we had an early wake-up call and neither of us was feeling very well.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast and then went to two historical sites. We started at La Capilla Real, the site of the tombs of los Reyes Catolicos (the Catholic King and Queen, Fernando and Isabel). They were the most important royals in Spanish history and we´ve learned more about them than anything else in our classes here so I enjoyed the visit a lot. Afterwards we went to the Cathedral (no suprise there - if you don´t enjoy old churches and castles then you won´t enjoy sightseeing in Europe). The Granada Cathedral, unlike most others I´ve seen so far, was built during the Renaissance years instead of Medieval period, so the style was different but I preferred the Renaissance style architecture.

We finished with the visits by noon and then had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. We walked around the city some more and then went to a tapas bar for lunch. They do tapas differently in Granada than in Sevilla - instead of ordering off of a menu, we just ordered drinks at the bar and they brought us a free tapa with it. It was awesome - I paid 2 euro for a glass of sangria and got a free lunch with it.

Unfortunately I really started to feel sick after lunch, so I went back to the hotel to sleep for awhile. When I woke up April had come back to the room and even though I didn´t feel that great I was desperate to get out of the hotel room, so she and I went for a hike to another lookout point to watch the sunset. It was not an easy hike by any means, especially considering we were both sick in the first place, but it was so worth it - the view was incredible and I was able to get some really good pictures.

We went back to the hotel and ate dinner, and then everyone started to get ready to go out. I ended up going out for a little while because I had heard such good things about the nightlife in Granada. I didn´t stay very long and only went to a couple of bars before going back to the hotel to sleep. One of the bars was one of the weirdest/funniest experiences I´ve ever had. Apparently it´s normal in Granada for thirteen year-olds to go to bars, because literally in one of the places we were the only ones over the age of 18. Everyone else was about a foot shorter than us, had braces, and stood in two distict groups, one for girls and one for guys, on opposite sides of the dancefloor. Suddenly I was back at a middle school dance. It was so awkward, but hilarious to watch.

The next day was our visit to La Alhambra. It was a lot of fun and very interesting, but very, very long - we were in there for almost three hours. There were two main parts to the site, the military headquarters and the royal residence. The site itself sits on top of a mountain, so we had great views looking down on the city. Afterwards we stopped just outside of Granada for lunch before heading back home. We got into Sevilla around 8:00 and had plans to watch the Duke/UNC game at Tex Mex Saloon, but 1) they weren´t showing it and 2) we didn´t consider daylight savings time in the US, so we were off on the time by an hour. Emilee was able find a link to stream it online, so I was able to catch the last ten minutes on my laptop. Naturally I went to bed very very happy - ACC Regular Season Champions and a #1 Ranking. We Rule.