Granada (and Pablo's Festival)

NOTE: See all my pictures from this weekend on Facebook! CLICK HERE

Well, I am back from my adventure in Granada!  This weekend was filled with walking and lots of pretty sights.  So let’s start with Friday :)

Friday morning (at 10 to be specific) we left for Granada.  This is after a whopping 4 hours of sleep because I decided to go to a discoteca Thursday night.  After walking an hour and a half (we might have went the wrong way), Jordan and I met our friends at a bar before heading to the L’umbracle (the discoteca).  At L’umbracle there was quite a bit of dancing, and an overall fun night with friends and two TAs!

Okay, now back to Friday morning.  We stopped twice during our bus ride (once for lunch and a second time for another descanso or rest) and got to Granada around 5:30.  The group (all 50 of us) checked into our hotel, which was about a 10 minute walk from the city center.  My roommate this time was Grace, but everyone from Barcelona (minus Julia) came to Granada as well.  The five of us decided to take a short siesta since none of us had slept much before heading out into town at 7.  We wandered around for a little bit, stopping here and there and looking in some of the shops, before running into another group and deciding to go eat dinner.  For dinner we had tapas, because Granada is known for their tapas!  I don’t remember what the restaurant’s name was, but we ended up ordering three of their “10 tapas sampler plates.”  Each plate came with 10 different tapas, and seeing how there were 10 of us eating we decided this would be perfect!  And the tapas were quite good :) After dinner, we of course had to get ice cream (Granada was really hot!) It was another good decision.

flamenco!

We had to be back at the hotel by 10pm so that we could go to a flamenco show.  The entire group was picked up in 2 mini buses and driven to the Albaycín.  The Albaycín is the largest Moorish city quarter in Spain, and it was around here that the city of Granada was built.  We took a quick tour of the Albaycín before heading to the show, but I’ll tell you more about these Granada streets later.

The flamenco show took place in the Albaycín in an intimate setting.  We were seated in chairs around a narrow room and the flamenco dancers were literally right in front of me.  Jordan, who sat at the other end of the room, right next to the dancers, said she felt like she was a part of the show she was that close.  Funny thing is, at the end she became a part of the show (the dancers picked a few people at the end to flamenco with them)!  The show had two halves, with two different groups of performers for each half.  Each group had a singer, a guitarist, and a few dancers who would take turn dancing by themselves or in pairs.  These dances were really impressive, with lots of quick foot taps and some fancy hand movements.  One lady even danced with a fan, and another with castinets, which are classic in flamenco.

a water fountain!

After the flamenco show, we went back to the hotel and called it a night.  Saturday, wake up was at 9:30.  After breakfast, we had free time until our trip to the Alhambra, so my group went to market.  The market area is called the “Zoco,” and it is filled with narrow stores full of teas, ceramics, pants, leather purses, abanicos, pashimas, postcards and lots of other things.  All of these narrow stores line even narrower streets.  We wandered in and out of these shops, and I got presents for people (and some pretty pictures for myself!).  After wandering through the Zoco for a while, we continued our wandering, heading up towards the Cathedral some.  We did have a bit of fun stopping at one of the public water fountains.  Water was super important to the Muslims, since they came from the desserts of Africa.  So they made sure that water was in full supply.  Nowadays, there are public fountains that are flowing with fresh, cold water at all times.  We stopped at one near our hotel every time we passed it to fill up water bottles and get a drink (it was a solid 30+ degrees Celsius all weekend).  We started walking up the lower part of the Generalife (the gardens of the Alhambra) without realizing it at one point, but came back down before we got too far up since we knew we'd be there later.

Later came, and we had to get back to the hotel to leave for the Alhambra.  After climbing onto the bus, we drove around to the other side of the Alhambra (so that we would come out the side near the city center).  The Alhambra is super strict about entrance times, especially for groups, so it was super important we got their on time.  Everyone from UVA was split into two tour groups, one group that was given a Spanish tour and the other was in English.  I decided to go with the Spanish group (and our guide was great!)  We headed in at 4, but not to the Alhambra right away.  We started with the summer palace and gardens, called the Generalife (pronounced hen-er-al-ee-fe, not general life).  The palace and gardens were originally built during the reign of Muhammad III (1302-1309), but the gardens we saw were started in 1931 (and completed in 1951).  The walkways are still paved in the traditional Granada style though, and of course they were still gorgeous!  See my pictures (here and on Facebook) to try and see how pretty! :)

 

Our entrance time for the Alhambra was 5:30, and we arrived at the entrance with just enough time to take a rest before entering.  The Alhambra was gorgeous!  The intricate details of the walls within the palace are absolutely incredible!  And I absolutely loved all the different patterns of tiles.  My one wish is that I knew Arabic, because everything known about the Alhambra is written on its walls and it would have been cool to read it.  Next time I'll just have to go with Maddy :)

Patio de los Leones

I think my favorite part of la Alhambra was the Patio de los Leones.  We lucked out because the Lions had all been restored within the past 8 months or so.  Had I been a year earlier, I wouldn't have been able to see them. These 12 lions surround a fountain and sit in the center of a courtyard, symbolizing strength, power, and sovereignty.  What's unusual about these lions is that the Muslims never sculpted animal or human figures, and yet here are 12 lions.  The reason they exist is that the lions aren't Muslim, they come from Jewish influence.  You can also see Christian influence in the Patio, or rather in a room right off the patio.  In here are pictures of the great rulers of this part of Spain (at the time when Spain was split into several empires).  These portraits were given by the Christian rulers as a gift at a time when the Muslim and Christian kings got along.  Unfortunately, the pictures were being restored during our visit.

The Salón de los Embajadores is the largest room in the Alhambra.  It is perfectly square with a dome center.  This room was the throne and reception room, and ti was here that Christopher Columbus received Isabel and Ferdinand's support to sail to the New World.  Another room we saw was the Sala de los dos Hermanas.  This is where the wives of the king lived.  The king could officially have 4 wives, but only one could be the queen.  Now, check out some of these patterns and details below!

La Catedral de Granada

Our tour of the Alhambra finished with us walking out of the gardens to the city center.  We then had some free time, so of course I went for ice cream! :) We didn't want to eat dinner since the bus was taking us to get tapas later, but we were hungry.  After dinner, it was back to the Zoco area for some last minute gifts and then chilling on the Cathedral steps.  We went back to the hotel to hang out and rest our feet form a full day of walking.  At 10pm, the bus took us to the Plaza de los Toros for tapas.  I know what you're thinking, a bull ring to eat food?  Yup!  All around the outside of the ring (built into the walls) are tapa places.  We went to the first one we saw and ordered drinks and tapas (a tapa comes with your drink, then you can order more).  The best part of this meal might have been that our two chaperones ate with us :)  That turned out to be really good, because the menu wasn't all that clear about the ordering tapas with drinks procedure and such.

Plaza de los Toros

After eating, my group wasn't ready to turn in quite yet and it was still too early to go to a discoteca, so we took a loop around the bull ring.  Best idea, because we found a little exercise park (although there wasn't much "exercise."  There were finger stairs and some hand pedals, with a few other half broken things).  We finished our loop after playing for a little bit, only to run into another group on a playground.  I promise we all are college kids and not five year olds.  From the playground, someone convinced us to go into his bar.  There are these collector people all over the place, trying to convince you to come inside because they have the best deals, hoping you'll accept the deal (typically a free something or another) and then buy more drinks.  We went in, only to find that every other person there was about 40 years old.  We left kinda quickly (sorry to those over 40 reading this, I'm not trying to offend you, but I also didn't want to be there).  The guy at the next bar quickly saw us and came in for the kill.  We said why not and went on in.  I ended up leaving after not too long with some people, and the rest followed soon after, because we rather quickly determined that it was either a gay bar, or tonight was gay couples night (men showed up in tutus).

Albaycín

 Sunday morning wake up call was at 8:30, with check out at 9:45 and we were on our way to the Albaycín by 10.  The Albaycín is a district of Granada, and this district is the largest Moorish quarter left in Spain.  Declared as a UNESCO world heritage sight (along with the Alhambra and Generalife), all the buildings are in the old style, along narrow streets with small, white walled houses.  The houses at one point had more than 40,000 inhabitants before

Albaycín

the moors were forced to leave or convert.  I loved this part of the city.  The walls were crisp and clean and some were covered in flowers, the narrow streets provided shade from the sun, and the cobblestone streets were perfect for reflexology (okay, not really, they just made your feet hurt and you worry about twisting an ankle), but I still loved it!

There were two places in the Albaycín that stood out.  First was the Puerta Nueva (built in the 12th century), also known as the Puerta de las Pesas.  This is attached to the Plaza Larga and is where the weights of goods sold in the Plaza were monitored.  Thieves would also be punished on the wall right next to the Puerta (fingers would be chopped off and hung here... at least I think that's what the guide said.  The tour was in Spanish again and I was busy taking pictures).  The other place was the Church of San Salvador, although what I liked more was the view

La Alhambra (from the Albaycín)

from up here.  From here, you can marvel at the Alhambra and Generalife with the Sierra Nevada backdrop.  We were there before flamenco the first night, so I got to snap a few pictures of the Alhambra all lit up, but returning in daytime was gorgeous, too!  The Church of San Salvador also has a bell tower, that  for one euro I got to climb up to the top.  And the view from up high was amazing!  You could see everything, the Alhambra, the Albaycín, and Granada.

Our tour finished in downtown Granada, with the Cathedral, the statue of Isabel and Christopher Columbus, the Capilla Real (where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried... I didn't get to go inside though) and a few other touristy sights.  After the tour was over, we had exactly 1 hour and 30 minutes until the bus left for Valencia. On our list of things to do, grab lunch, get ice cream, and some people wanted to grab super last minute gifts from the Zoco.  We also wanted to say buy to our friend at the Africa store (he was a part of our crú/croo/creu which developed over the weekend).  We became friends with Mr. Africa because Jordan and I talked to him while in the shop Friday, then we ran into him later Friday walking down the street, and we waved every time we passed his store Saturday.  Unfortunately we didn't see him Sunday :(  With that off our list, we decided to forego the lunch and get ice cream first.  A few people quick ran into the Zoco while

I scream, you scream, Michelle Obama screams for
ice cream!

the rest of us headed to Los Italianos - aka the best ice cream in Granada and where Michelle Obama got ice cream when she was here.  It really was the best ice cream in Granada.  I had straciatella and chocolate (who's surprised...) and it was great!  The others came and grabbed their ice cream, leaving us with just under an hour to get lunch.  We had such a yummy lunch on Saturday (and it was cheap too) that we headed back their to grab lunch to go (it was also on the way to the hotel).  I had eaten falafel and hummus Saturday, so Sunday went for a Schwarma (the place was called Schwarma King).  I couldn't tell you what a Schwarma is, except that mine had chicken and was delicious.  You should try one!  We also got a picture with the Schwarma King (aka our waiter both days) and added him to our crú/croo/creu.

We got back to the hotel with time to spare, so some sat and ate lunch before heading onto the bus.  We stopped twice during the ride home (I ate lunch at the first stop) and arrived in Valencia at 8:30, an hour early!  Then it was home to eat dinner, upload pictures and head to bed!  Oh, and did I mention that we watched 5 Harry Potter movies on the bus this weekend?  Yup, it happened!

Pablo's ready to dance!

So, now you're probably wondering what exciting thing I did today after this crazy weekend!  Well, Pablo had an end of the year celebration today with his school.  And this is a celebration unlike any in the U.S.  Each class performed two dances or skits (one in English, the other in Spanish).  Pablo was absolutely adorable and did awesome!! :)  His class danced to a Bollywood song and a song about the rainbow (did you know in Spain blue and purple are switched).

After his show, everyone came over!  When I say everyone, I mean all of Pablo's extended family - Natalia's brother and his family, her sister, her dad, and José's parents.  Pablo was super excited, and it was fun chatting.  Maggie (another UVA student) came, too, because she's living with Natalia's brother's family, so I talked to her (in Spanish of course).  And, while everyone was here, I tried horchata for the first time.  Horchata is a typical drink from Valencia, made with something called chufa.  It's in the same family as a potato, but isn't one.  I think I liked it, but I don't really know.  I drank two cups of it, so I can't say I didn't like it, but after those cups I'm still not sure what I think.  All I know is that it was sweet and not like anything I had tasted before.

Everyone left not too long ago, and Natalia and I had a quick dinner after cleaning up and putting Pablo to bed.  Now it's time for my bed time.  Only 4 days left in Spain, so I gotta be well rested to live them up!

La Alhambra