Granada

So as I said last week, this week began my travels outside of Murcia.  Of course I'd been to the beach and Cartagena, but that is still in the region of Murcia, so I'm not sure how much it counts.  This past weekend, myself and 97 of my closest friends (it was a trip for the international students) went to Granada.  For those of you who don't know Spanish geography, Granada is in the region of Andalucia which is the south of Spain.  It is what you think of when you imagine  Spanish culture...the guitars, the food, the Arab influences.  
Day 1, Friday: We arrived in Granada, after a 3 and a 1/2 hour bus ride, around 11:30 in the morning.  We then had free time to wander around.  A couple of friends and myself went to the Cathedral.

It was a really grand cathedral, as they tend to be.  Pretty much everything was covered with gold leaf.  There were paintings everywhere and the stained glass windows were gorgeous.  We also went to the Arab market and wandered around and bought waaaay too much stuff.

That's my friend Erin in the picture.

I bought holiday presents, the nature of which I will not divulge because that's no fun, tea, shoes (in true Sarah Surrey style), a charm for my charm bracelet, 2 paintings for my room, and a very ornate hookah (for decoration of course...).  We then finished off the night by going all together, the whole group of international students, to a bar near the city centre.

Day 2, Saturday: The day began with breakfast in the hotel and then my friend Erin (different Erin than in the previous picture) and I were planning on going to the Arab baths, but as it turns out you have to reserve it in advance so instead we wandered around some more.  Went up to the Mirador San Nicolas to see the view of the Alhambra/the city. Then we went to the Sacromonte where all the houses and stores are built right into the mountain.

After that we met up we ate amazing Kebabs (which are not actually kebabs but rather schwarma in a pita) and then went on the tour of the Alhambra.  It started raining right about the time we got to the top of the hill (the Alhambra is situated on top of a hill because that way the king could see the people who were trying to attack his kingdom) and poured the entire time we were there.  But it was fun!

 The famous fountain in the garden...I know it's a well-known picture, but it just looks so cool!

Me in the rain at Carlos V palace...he had it built for his honey moon and then forgot about it, I mean I forget about my palaces all the time, so its completely understandable

I feel that this one is rather self-explanatory. I just thought it was a cool picture,

This is the front the 3rd, and most recent, palace.  There are 3 palaces.

Following our soaking adventure in the Alhambra we went back to the hostel to warm up.  The activity for the evening was to go to a club in Sacromonte that had a view of the Alhambra all lit up, but seeing as I'm getting over a cold and I was already freezing from sojourn I decided not to go.  A group of friends and myself went out to a nice tapas restaurant and ate a lot of really delicious food.

Day 3, Sunday:  We had to be out of the hostel by 10 (10:30 Spanish time) so after leaving all of our stuff on the bus a group of us went back up to the Mirador and then shopping.

On the way back down from the Mirador, since it was so cold (literally 30 seconds after this picture was taken the wind picked up and it was freezing) we stopped into an Arab tea room.  I had tea Al-Andalus which is green tea with vanilla, cinnamon, and cardamon; it was amazing!  After shopping we had lunch at an Italian restaurant (partly because the food looked good and partly because they had space for 8 people inside).  Then we wandered a little more and met up with the group at 5:30.  After taking a huge group picture we got on the bus and arrived in Murcia around 10:15.  Just in time for dinner!

Other than that, school/life is going well.  I didn't have class today because there is a holiday (National Day of Spain, or something like that) tomorrow.  And yes, I did say that right.  In true Spanish style, no one wanted to work for one day in between the weekend and the holiday so they made it a 5 day weekend.  Pretty awesome! I also got a new roommate in addition to Cristina.  His name is Caleb and he's from New York.  He is here teaching English for the EU.  Also very nice.  

That's about it for this week.

Ciao bellas (I'm preparing myself for Milan this coming weekend).

xoxo

Sarah