España Mañana...: Granada

Our trip to Granada was INCREDIBLE. Carolina, Rory, Jenna, Crystal, Allan, and I traveled with 48 other residents of Villaviciosa to Granada for the weekend. The fee covered our bus transportation, a one night stay in a four-star hotel, three out of four of our meals, and guided tours throughout the city. So fun!

We left on Saturday morning, March 3, around 7:00am. Surprisingly, and unfortunately, I had a hard time sleeping on the bus.

Around 9:45, we stopped in the-middle-of-no-where on the-side-of-the-highway in Spain. It was a great way to break up the discomfort of the 5-6 hour bus ride. I felt a lot better after I had two coffees, an orange juice, and toast with tomato spread for breakfast. My favorite part of the restaurant was the clock:

The second leg of the trip seemed to go a lot quicker. I played A LOT of solitaire on my ipod, haha.

We arrived at Granada around 12:30p. It is a BEAUTIFUL city that lives off of the tourism industry and the student population. It is home to the third largest university in the country, La Universidad de Granada.

Our hotel was called Hotel Carmen, right in the heart of down town Granada, across from a Corte Ingles (department store).

We had some time to kill before lunch was served, at 2:00pm.

Meals at the hotel were served as an all-you-can-eat buffet—so delicious! Needless to say, I pretty much pigged out all weekend =)

After that, we spent the afternoon walking around in town, before we had our first guided tour that afternoon. It was a gorgeous day, and we were lucky enough to stumble upon a playground…

My FAVORITE toy was a carousel-spring-moon-bounce-type thing. So fun! I felt like I was flying in circles =P

We had our first walking tour on Saturday afternoon. I found myself wishing later that I had paid better attention on the tour, because now I have quite an expansive collection of ancient buildings and gardens, most of which I don’t know the names or significance of, haha.

The tour went until about 6:30p, at which point we had free time in the evening before leaving for a FLAMENCO SHOW at 10:00p. During our free time, we stopped at some souvenir shops, and, as per character, I burned a whole through my wallet. The coolest stop, though, was a shoe and accessories store that was having a great sale; all six of us bought something!

We headed back to the hotel around 7:30p to freshen up before dinner, and get ready to go out to the Flamenco show. For dinner, we stopped at a Tapas Bar, and then at a Haagen Dazs for dessert ;)

We walked passed La Alhabra in the evening, on our way to Flamenco.

I took a picture of the waiter doing my job—it reminded me of Rams Head! Haha

The Flamenco dancing was incredible. So intricate, and orchestrated, and perfected! At first, it looked similar to tap, to me, but then I quickly realized how wrong I was. It’s kind of a mix of Irish step (because of the clog shoes), tap (because of the form and quick rhythms), and belly dancing (because of the upper-body control). Naturally, my favorite was the male performer. The accompaniment was a flautist, two guitarists, and two vocalists. The flautist was especially impressive, as the music was intensely syncopated. I loved it!

Once back at the hotel, around 1:00am, I suggested that we venture to the roof of the hotel, just to see what we could find. What we found was a door, standing open, leading to the roof, where we found a spacious terrace, a pool, and a bar for the summers. SO COOL. Jenna and Crystal joined me… and the others missed out on a relaxing hour of star-gazing over the city of Granada.

That is a picture of me, sitting on the bar, on the roof, of a four-star hotel, in Granada, Spain, Europe, underneath the same stars as my family sees, in good ol’ SP, MD. UNREAL.

Around 2:00a on Sunday, it was finally my bed time. But only for a few hours…
because by 8:00am, I was awake again, stuffing my face at the breakfast buffet, and later, the lunch buffet, in between the hour-breaks of taking a tour of La Alambra, Granada.

View of Granada from the bus:

Cathedral of Granada:

Vista de La Alambra y la Sierra Nevada:

View from the historical neighborhood, Albaicin:

Tour Guide:

Gardens of Generalife:

Castle Patio:

The biggest room in La Alambra, the Room of Ambassadors:

Rory chasing pigeons:

The Patio of Lions:

View of Granada:

Interior of Carlos V’s Palace:

All of us:

The tour was really exciting, and well-organized. I especially liked the blue-tooth-looking ear pieces that we were given to listen—what a good idea! All you had to do was tune into the right channel, and the tour guide talked into a little microphone. It made it a lot easier to wander off, but it was also a lot easier to pay attention (as long as you were tuned in, literally and mentally!)