Weekend in Granada.

Since we missed out on Cien this Wednesday due to our test, we decided to make up for it this this Thursday. Thursday nice we all met up at Cien earlier in the evening. We sat around and talked and had a drink and turned in a little early since we had to catch the bus to Granada at 7am the next morning.

Friday morning we woke up extreme early and made it on time to the bus. It was so hard waking up and making our way to the train station, but well worth it! This trip was defiantly one of my favorites so far. The drive was about 3 hour long and we had one stop on our way. We stopped at this Spanish "bus stop" which had a little gift shop, a bar with coffee, and tons of snacks. Everyone loaded up with some snacks for the rest of the drive and I had a much needed coffee to wake me up for the rest of the trip.

When we got to Granada we went straight to the Granada Cathedral. It was a pretty long walk to get to the Cathedral but A good one. The street we walked down had tons of cafes and shopping that we knew we would have to make a trip back too! I did a little window shopping on our walk and spotted an awesome owl backpack that I just had to have! I didn't have time to get it right then but I most defiantly snuck away from the group on our way back to the bus to make the purchase!

Also along our walk we saw amazing statutes of Columbus, King Ferdinand, and Queen Isabella. The history of Granada is pretty fascinating if you have the time to read a little about it. Granada was the last of the Muslim cities in Spain to be conquered by the Catholics in 1492, so there is tons of history in Granada between the Christians, Muslims, and Jews. It is very interesting. My favorite part about the Cathedral had to be the decorations on the alter. There were no picture allowed here, or else i would have show y'all. The alter was decorated with the many different staged of the life of Jesus. I could have sat and looked at it for hours. It was absolutely breath-taking. Historically, the cathedral was especially interesting because it was King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle's church. The designed part of the church but did not live to see it finished. One of the most interesting parts is that their tombs where actually located in the Cathedral and we actually got to see their tombs. This is a separate room in the cathedral where they are buried and have all sorts of artifacts and paintings.

You walk into this room where there is a massive gate with tons of detail on it. Inside the gate you see these huge marble statues of people as if they are laying down in their bed. There is a bed with Ferdenand and Isabella on it and then their children on the other side. Ferdenand is from the rein of Castilla-Leon and Isabella is from Aragon. Those are two very powerful reins that joined, but Isabella’s had a little bit more power so when they carved these marble statues, Isabella’s head makes the pillow dent down lower to represent a  heavier crown than Ferdenand. These were huge statues with decorative objects all around them. To the left of these marble statues, there is one of the most famous paintings in Spain of Jesus being carried down from the cross. I can’t remember what the painting was called, but there are a couple different replicas throughout Spain. It is seriously breathtaking. I was captivated by this painting for probably about 20 mins. It was just one of those piece of art that just really hits the heart hard. It's crazy how a work of art can really strike up such emotion.

The other most captivating piece in the Cathedral was this beautiful, giant work of art on the wall. It was a huge statue/mural that displayed many different parts of the life of Jesus. It showed scene such as the Nativity scene, to John the Baptist having his head cut off, to Jesus carrying the cross. I could have sat and looked at the mural all day. As much as I enjoyed the painting, this was by far the single most amazing/intriguing thing I have had the chance to see on this trip so far. It captivated the life of Jesus in the most honest, beautiful way. There was a huge statues of Jesus hanging on the cross at the top. Dr. Stratton explained that the way it was designed was to make multiple triangles connecting different scenes that represent the trinity. I understand why they wont allow pictures in that place- it is amazing.

Next, we went down into the crypt and saw the king and queen’s tombs along with their children’s coffins. You walk down these steps and there is a glass window into the crypt. You can see their coffins and it’s actually kinda creepy. There were flowers in there and their crowns are also placed inside of the tomb to where you can see them. It was pretty cool to see that, but a little disturbing because you were literally 2 feet away from the coffins.

After you leave that room, you go into this other room with artifacts from their rein. They have the original flags on display that they used when they marched in Granada in 1492 to take over the last Muslim city. That was pretty awesome to see something in it’s originial state. There were also little artifacts like their jewelry box or their royal cloaks they wore. There was also a collection of art on the wall that is flown in from cities all across the world of religious pictures. They were pretty awesome paintings from all over the world.

After we left the Cathedral we walked over a couple of blocks to a market area! There were tents sat up were you could buy all sorts of different thing. I bought a beautiful- but cheap- bracelet! There were also little cafes, tapas, shops, and the most amazing ice cream shop in all of Spain. I had strawberry ice cream and it was to die for! But I also tried a little bit of everyone else and discovered that you can;t go wrong with any of the flavors! They were literally all amazing! Maggie made one of the best purchases at the market- olives. They were amazing! great little mid-day snack for all of us.

After shopping around for a while we walked back to the bus and headed to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a big palace that was created by the Muslims when they ruled in Spain. When we visited the Alhambra it was a little different than the other tours we have done. We had this tour guide and head to wear head sets to hear here talking to us. Our tour guide was awesome and had the best Australian accent ever. We was extremely knowledgeable and I learned so much!

The Alhambra was huge! We saw two different palaces. One representing the new world and the other representing the old world. One of the most interesting things about the palace was there ideology about the number 7. In every room and ever garden the number 7 was significant. There were 7 pillars over here, or 142 piece of wood to make up the ceiling (1+4+2=7). All sorts of interesting references to the number seven. The number 7 7 represents "7th heaven" the highest heaven the Muslim faith believes in reaching. 8th heaven is only for the "perfect" and the only one who is perfect is God. Therefore, the number 8 is representative of God (also if you turn the number 8 sideways it is an Omega sign).

We also visited the room where Isabella and Ferdenand gave Christopher Colombus (Colon) his money to take his voyage to the Americas.

The most beautiful part of the Palace was its gardens! We spend a good 2 hours exploring the gardens! It was so green and all of the flowers smelt amazing. My favorite part of the gardens was the Tree. If you touched this old tree then apparently you will find your one true love within the next calendar year from the date that you touched it. So being the only single girl on the trip I felt obligated that it was my duty to test out this superstition. (or i might have been super excited like a like kid). Only problem was- the tree was blocked off and off limits. But did that stop me? Of course not! We took a group photo not far from where the tree was, and then my friend Caroline Courtney and I lingered behind to take some awkward solo shots in order to sneak away from the rest of the group. I had to hop over a iron fence quickly without being seen, but did it gracefully and quickly! Mission accomplish (don't worry Brennan- caroline didn't touch the tree, she already has you). So if my June 3 2012 I haven't found him yet then we know the tree is a phony.

After that exciting adventure, I had an extreme adrenaline rush and was in an extremely obnoxiously/great mood for the rest of our time at the palace. Dr. Stratton took a group of us to the top of the palaces tower/ fort. This was the most amazing view of the city of Granada! You could see the entire city!- the mountains, the trees, the city, the countryside. It was so beautiful! We ran down from the tower because we got caught in the rain! Getting caught in the rain with a fun group of people is extreme fun! We didn't really care if our hair got messed up! It was a blast! After the rain, we caught the bus and head to our hotel!

Katie, Shaina, Angie and I all stayed in a room together not far from Caroline, Maggie, and Chelsea! Our professor told us about an awesome Flamenco show the the "Gypsy Cave" that we needed to go to, so we signed up to go! It started at 9, so we decided to all go grab food before we got ready for the night. We all dropped our stuff off in our room and went to find somewhere to eat. Granada is supposed to be known for its great tapas, but almost every single tapas place in the city was closed! It was bizarre! It was only 6:30pm! But we finally found a place that had burgers! All of us order a burger and a drink. The burgers turned out to be so small though so we all had to order one more round! After food we went and bought some Champagne and headed back to the hotel to get all fancy.

We all got ready and then met in the other room to have a classy glass of champagne and jam out to some Dixie Chicks and what not! We were having way to much fun singing and being goofy that we almost missed the bus! Once we looked at the clock and realized we had one minuet to make it to the bus, we cut our karaoke session a little short and ran down the street as fast as we could to meet to rest of the class!

We all took the bus to the "Gypsy Cave." When we got there we sat toward the back with the teachers. It was the smallest room ever, but it actually looked a lot like a cave. This flamenco show blew the other one we saw in Sevilla out of the water! There were two sets of flamenco dancers. The first group was three girls and they were awesome! Their feet moved so fast and it was a lot more entertaining than the other show in Sevilla! Then there was a group that had both guys and girls. The guys were even better than all of the girls! Apparently one of the guys that went has won a bunch of award in flamenco all throughout Spain.

After the Flamenco we went on a night tour of Granada! Our tour guide was extremely weird and I couldn’t understand anything she was saying so I just walked in the back with our group of friends and just talked amongst ourselves. It was too hard to hear her and know what she was talking about. At one of our pit stops where she was explaining something, there were these teenagers and a little like ten year old boy that were being hilarious. They were talking really loud over the lady giving the tour and it was a lot more entertaining than the actual tour itself! Then the tour ended when we went up this hill and could see the entire city of Granada lit up. It was awesome!! There was a band playing up there and it was apparently make-out hill haha but it was so pretty! I was really upset I didn't bring my camera!

After the tour, we all went back to the hotel and got dropped off and tried to come up with a game plan for the rest of the  night. A huge group of us decided to just start walking around near our hotel and find somewhere to go. Our group was wayyyy too big for anyone to make a decision so we all just split up. Us girls started wandering around and heard some music. We found where it was and it was this awesome festival/band thing! We went up to the bar to try and get some drinks and hang out and listen to music, but apparently you had to have a ticket to order anything, so we had to leave. It was cool to see for a little bit though. Then we found this bar nearby the music, so we just decided to stay there and get some drinks.

The cool thing about Granada is that when you order drinks, they bring you free tapas. So we got three free plates of tapas, it was awesome!! There was a group that was sitting behind us that were a band. They started playing music! These two guys from the band then came up to us and started playing their guitars! It was awesome!!! The night looked like a dud at the beginning, but turned into an awesome night! The band actually sat with us all night long and we got to request songs and they played us all sorts of stuff!!! We all danced the macarena and were really loud and obnoxious! I even played the guitar for quite a while and tried to teach the guys how to play some "Texas" songs! I tried to teach them how to play Wagon Wheel!

This was seriously one of the funniest nights!! One of the guys from the  band also came over and started doing magic?? It was hilarious!! There were just so many funny things going on, I loved it! We were sitting outside and then all of a sudden the inside of the bar turned off it’s lights and turned into a discoteca! SO FUNNY! Shaina even went and stole some potatoe chips from this sketchy box while in line for the bathroom! It was an awesome night all around! We had so much fun and we all sang Blink 182 on our way back to the hotel! One of the best nights in Spain for sure!!

Saturday we had the entire day free in Granada! So what did us girls decide to go do? Shopping of course. After breakfast with the class we headed back the the shopping area by the Cathedral. The shopping in Granada is fantastic! I only bought one shirt though- I am very proud of myself. I have been really good with my money so far this trip. We basically walked around the city all day! We sat down for tapas once and for coffee another time. After a long day of exploring and shopping, we headed back to the hotel. One our way back there was this amazing park! This park is named after Frederico Lorca who is a famous Spanish poet! His summer home is in the park and it is beautiful! There are where beautiful flowers, an awesome play ground and a zipline that we all played on! It was really fun! And to top it off they had ice cream at the park! We ended the day with a little ice cream before we got back to the hotel and caught the bus back home.

I slept the entire way back to Sevilla! We stayed in last night and caught up on some sleep! Today, Sunday, has been a great day of rest for Angie and I! We slept in and went on a little walk around our neighborhood and the market, and then we started to book our flights, trains, and places to stay for our trip after Spain! It is going to be a great time! I think this blog is long enough, so I will tell you all about it soon!