Granada, Spain: The Arab Capitol

I finally traveled to another city within Spain. Last weekend was the study abroad sponsored trip to Granada, in the southern tip of Spain. The city has a very strong influence from the Muslims due to their conquest of Spain between the 8^th and 15^th centuries. Through Granada, the Moors (Muslim conquerors of Spain) ruled Spain for almost 800 years. The main attraction in Granada is La Alhambra, a palace fortification built in the 13^th century that housed the Moorish nobles for 300 years before the Catholics retook the Iberian Peninsula. Other attractions include gypsy homes built in caves in the hillside where flamenco shows take place and an overlook that faces La Alhambra from a nearby mountain. The Catholic Monarchs (pretty much the mother and father of Spain) also have their tomb in the Cathedral of Granada as well.

On Friday morning we had to be at the airport at 6:15 which meant waking up at 4:30 which was not good because I was still packing at 12:30 the night before. The adventure started a little before 5 AM when one of my friends showed up drunk at my apartment to share a taxi with Leah and I. We arrived in Granada around 9 something in the morning, took a bus into the city, dropped off our bags at the hotel, got chocolate and churros, and started touring. First we saw the old hotel where merchants from the Silk Road would stay before going to the market next door where we visited next. Then we saw the Cathedral and Chapel of the Catholic Monarchs. In the chapel we saw the coffins of the monarchs and some of their offspring. Friday night we explored the nightlife of the city. In Granada most tapas bars will give you free tapas as long as you are buying beer. For every round of beers we bought, we were given another plate of amazing food. Saturday morning I had the best breakfast I’ve had since arriving in Spain. The hotel had the best full continental breakfast that I think I’ve ever seen. Then we went on a tour of the old scenic neighborhoods of Granada. This is where the homes carved into the walls of the mountain are. After exploring the winding streets of the mountain we arrived at the overlook of La Alhambra. When the tour was over we had a couple hours free until the next activity, the Arab Baths. Until this point I had never gotten a professional massage in my life. Basically, for an hour and a half we hung out in a room with 6 different hot tubs, a cold bath, free aromatic tea, then received a 10 minute oil massage. I don’t need to tell you how incredibly relaxing and amazing that was. After the baths we went back to the hotel, changed, and went out to a bar to watch “el classico” the most popular soccer game in Spain between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Barcelona won 2-1, allowing us to celebrate with other Barca fans in the bar. Then we hurried to meet up with the group and headed off for tapas dinner and the flamenco show in a gypsy cave dwelling. Sunday morning we got up and had another amazing breakfast before heading off toward La Alhambra. Finally we were about to visit the Red Palace that had been looming over us all weekend. The only thing that stood in between us and one of the most well known sites of Spain was a nice hike up a mountain, not really an intimidating barrier after going to school in Morgantown for 5 years. At the top we were reunited with our awesome tour guide from Friday and began the tour. First we saw the Generalife (summer home) and its famous gardens outside the castle walls. Then we moved in to La Alhambra where we walked through palaces that used to house the Sultans of Al-Andalus, the name for Muslim Spain. My pictures barely give you a glimpse of how incredibly overwhelming the beauty of that place is. After the tour, we strolled back down the mountain for a relaxing lunch back in the plaza by our hotel. In the afternoon we made our way back to the airport where we played charades and one of the male students ended up wearing a dress to square up on a lost bet.

My New Haircut

Over the past week I've been feeling like a needed my hair trimmed up, but I was worried about going to a hair stylist here and getting my hair messed up. In Chile I was growing my hair out, so I never had to worry about the language barrier in those five months. Today, I finally man'd up and took a leap. Before going I decided I wanted a more European style though. In order to choose what would look best, I looked through the roster for the FC Barcelona soccer team. I decided on Gerard Pique, who happens to be Shakira's husband as well. At the peluquerria I asked the stylist if he liked Barca (the soccer team) and he said no, he preferred Madrid (He was gay, I should have known he would prefer David Beckham's old team). So I asked if he knew Pique and he said he wasn't sure. Then he talked with some of the other people around the hair salon and looked at me and said "you can't say soccer player, why didn't you just say Shakira's husband?" We laughed and then I got my haircut while Leah got a pedicure.

This weekend I am going to Granada with my study/intern abroad program. Almost everybody is going, so I think things are going to be pretty crazy but only in the best way. Granada is the southern most region of Spain boasting a famous palace known as La Alhambra. I look forward to sharing those photos with you soon!

Another bit of amazing news for you all, Leah encouraged me to plan another trip to Norway and now those plans have been finalized. The two of us are going to be flying to Bergen, Norway (not Oslo as per my previous plans) during the weekend of the 14th of November. According to past records, the tempurature should be between freezing and 42 degrees F while we are there. I am so excited to have a second chance to enjoy the natural beauty in Norway!

Falling Off The Map

So it finally happened. I fell off the map as far as my blog is concerned. It has been at least two weeks since my last post. I'll try to sum up my past two weeks as good as possible. Last thing I told everyone was that I was going to Norway the weekend of October 10th. Well that never happened. You may have seen my unhappy facebook post about it. I arrived to the airport the morning of Thursday the 10th only to discover that my flight was canceled. There was a French air traffic controller strike and although nothing about my flight had nothing to do with France, I was to fly over France and that was enough to cancel my flight. I walked calmly over to a huge line and proceeded to stand in line for the next two hours while becoming more and more pissed off at every one of the French people in the world and the airline that didn't seem to find it necessary to warn me ahead of time that my flight would be canceled. After the two hours were up and I finally made it to the counter, I discovered that the next flight I could find would be on Sunday. Head hanging low, I began my trip back home from the airport. I could continue telling you my terrible story of dealing with the airlines, but the fact of the matter is that I managed to get most of my money back and then proceeded to have one of the best weekends of my life. To go back in time a little more I got a new roommate on Monday the 7th. We could immediately tell that she and I were going to be good friends. So back to Thursday. I finally got back to my apartment sometime in the afternoon and eventually Leah got back home. When she saw me she was disappointed for me, but we decided to make the weekend epic. That was all it took to turn my day completely around. Another long story short, it turned out that her parents were in town for the weekend. We guided them around town and tried to see as many of the cool sights as possible. To name a few, we saw the castle, went to a flamenco show, and went through the labyrinth (a hedge maze). We also visited Barcelona Oktoberfest which was an amazing event with real German beer and stereotypical food. One night Leah and I even went to a bar with her parents. We danced until the bar closed at 3:30 AM.

Monday was Leah's parent's last day here so we said our goodbyes after work. Tuesday was the second of four salsa classes. Wednesday, I chose not to go to the study abroad group activity and instead went to a Barcelona expat networking event with a few of the interns. I talked to a Cypriat, two Danes, and a Belgian guy. I think the night was pretty successful in getting me out of my shell.

Thursday, I went to Ireland with my friend Jazmin. We hadn't really planned much other than the flight to Dublin and our hostel. Upon arrival we quickly discovered how nice the people were when the customs official was having a laugh with us. We decided to take day trips out of the city on Friday and Saturday, so we saw as much of Dublin as possible on Thursday. We visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Stephen's Green (a beautiful park), Christ Church, Trinity College, and Dublin Castle. Dublin's population is about a half a million people, but it feels like a small town. The people of Ireland as a whole are also the most polite people I have ever met in my life. Friday, Jazmin and I took a bus tour to Kilkenny, the medieval capitol of Ireland. There we visited the castle and church. It rained cats and dogs and unfortunately we didn't have rain gear. After Kilkenny, the bus drove through the Wicklow Mountains where the movie P.S. I love you was filmed along with a scene from Braveheart. Then we saw the ruins of St. Kevin's Cathedral before returning home, soaked and cold. As soon as we got off the bus I found an outdoors store and bought a raincoat. That night, both of us were in bed by 10. The next day we took a day trip to the West coast of Ireland to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway. The cliffs were unreal! It really felt like the world just ended. Galway wasn't as impressive as we expected. When we finally returned, Jazmin went back to the hostel to rest because it had been a long day. I was determined to find a good craft beer in Dublin. After that beer I moved on to another bar where I met a girl from London. She was kind of crazy and managed to convince me to drink my beer quickly before moving on to a third bar. The next place was awesome and had a live band that played all of the best classic rock songs. We met up with more of her friends and danced a while before I decided I needed to head back to the hostel. To put it gently, it was tough to get up on Sunday. I was still up and ready before Jazmin though! We didn't have much time, so we went straight to the Guinness factory in the morning. It was the coolest museum that I have ever been in! After the tour, we ate a real hamburger at a 50s themed diner then went to the airport. Other than our flight being delayed 30 minutes, our flight home was relatively uneventful. Tired, I stumbled back into my apartment at 11:30 PM.

It's officially been a month!

Friday night I went out to a bar with the students. It was one of the better decisions I've made here. You know the saying about traveling not being about the destination, but the journey to it? I’m pretty sure this night was why that quote was made. After pre-gaming a bit, we all shuffled to the metro. I’ll let you imagine the kind of noise a group of about 15-20 people of various levels of intoxication can make when in a tunnel. The upside to that: We weren't half as bad as a group of our Spanish counterparts that got on at the next stop. The best part of the night was when our two large groups came together to sing Backstreet Boys on the metro. After the hilarious metro trip we continued on foot to our destination… where they wouldn't let us in because there were too many people. Luckily we met a really nice promoter that offered us a great deal to go to his bar. After hanging out for a bit, I made my way back home to call it a night.

Saturday, I had planned on getting up early and touring various museums around Barcelona, but due to my late night Friday I ended up sleeping till almost noon. Once I finally did get moving, I joined a couple friends for lunch and then we headed off to the Pablo Picasso Museum. He had some cool stuff, but nothing really jumped out at me. My favorite part was a large room full of paintings Picasso did that were modeled after a Velazquez painting called “Las Meninas.” Each of the different versions was very weird and my friend Meredith and I tried to decide what animal the dog in the picture resembled most. When we left the Picasso museum the girls went home and I went off to find another museum. After walking in a huge circle for an hour and a half I ended up in the right place, the Born Cultural Center. El Born, also known as the Gothic quarter is one of the oldest parts of the city. The BCC used to be a giant open air market, but fell into disrepair during the 1900s. When trying to revive it with a face lift in the late 1900s, construction crews discovered the ruins of the 18^th century neighborhood underneath. They then decided to ditch the market idea and build a museum over the site, using the frame of the market for the building. The building feels like a giant warehouse inside. In the center you can look down at the 18^th century streets and building foundations. In one corner there is a café. Two more corners house exhibits with artifacts discovered in the site and a history of the War of Succession when Cataluña tried to become independent from Spain. A loss they are still sore about today, 299 years later.

Sunday morning I got up very early to take a train to the town of Girona with the students. After an hour and forty-five minute train ride north we arrived at our destination and set off exploring. In my facebook album you will see several pictures of Girona’s wall that was built in the 9^th century. Also, we visited the 12^th century Arab bath house. Unfortunately, inside the main church photography was not allowed. There were humongous stained glass windows and the baroque architecture was amazing. We walked through the medieval and Jewish quarters as well. After we felt that we had seen everything, we hopped back on the train and arrived back in Barcelona around 5.

Spanish Castle and Clubbing

You might be wondering why I haven't written anything since last weekend. Well not a lot has really happened except for what the pictures show. I'll tell you a few stories anyway.

Last weekend I visited my first Spanish castle and it happened to be RIGHT HERE in Barcelona. Why did it take me so long to go check it out? I have no idea. The castle sits on top of Montjuic, overlooking the ocean. I kid you not, Montjuic translates to Jew Mountain in Catalan (the Spanish language I don't speak). The castle is aptly named Castle Montjuic, very creative. Montjuic is also home to the Olympic Park in Barcelona and several other attractions such as the MNAC. My friends and I "hiked" to the top of the "mountain" stopping along the way for various other pictures. Was it a long walk? Yes. Was it strenuous? No. The original fortification was built in 1640, but has had a few renovations since then. The last defensive additions were completed in the late 1700s. Fun Fact: When Napoleon invaded Spain, he took the castle without losing a single man because the commander decided to side with the army he knew was going to win. To sum up my visit to the castle: I got pretty nerdy and it was awesome.
That same day I went out to my first club in Barcelona. I had been avoiding it up until now, but the girls offered to cook dinner as a bribe. Apparently that was the right thing to do because it worked. There isn't much to say about the club though. All the guys there were impressed by the way the american girls danced. There were two male cross-dressers on stilts that were part of the go go dancers and Jazmin was all about dancing with them. It was hilarious. After making sure the girls made it home, I finally arrived back home at 6 AM Sunday morning.

This week has been pretty tough. I started it out depriving myself of sleep. Then Tuesday I woke up with serious sinus drainage and a fever. I missed half of my class in the morning because I decided to stay in bed for an extra hour and then go to the pharmacy and get some medicine. Today I'm still pretty tired, but that didn't stop me from going to a salsa class that my program was putting on tonight. That was hands down the most fun dancing class I've ever been to. There was no awkward pairing up and stepping on feet or anything. We stood in lines and just danced on our own, mirroring what our teacher was doing. He was incredibly charismatic and did a great job of making everybody feel like they were doing a great job. It also helped that all of the girls were so distracted by watching him shake his butt that I didn't feel the pressure of anybody seeing how terrible I was. Afterwards, the instructor offered to teach us 4 more classes at an incredibly discounted rate and I will be going back.

So that's my week. I promise that this weekend I will do something that is blog worthy and share it with you all.