Granada
Hola a todos!
Well I didn’t get this written before I went to Leon, but es Espana… nothing’s on time. No pasa nada!
Granada!
Definitely worth the trip. I went a little over 5 weeks ago with three other girls, Kayla, Aubrey, and Sam. It was a 13 hour bus ride… dios mio! but when we got there we met up with Sam’s friend Meghan who has been studying in Sevilla.
We finally made it to our hostel
Our hostel had horrible directions. It said to get off the bus at a stop with the name of one of the main roads(I can’t remember the name now) but little did we know that the street had at least 11 stops with that same name on that same line. The stops were numbered on the signs.. but did the directions mention a number? No, it just said to get off and head towards the street called Socrates. How are we supposed to know where Socrates is? I have no idea! Anyway… we ended up lost for 2 and a half hours. It was great fun. And anytime we asked for directions they either didn’t know the street that we were trying to find because it was a kind of back alley, or we couldn’t understand their directions because of their Andalusian accents.
But I’m ranting… I really don’t mind getting lost generally, I think it’s half the fun of an adventure. But the other girls were not too happy about it. I was also less keen on the city after a while because I was carrying my big backpack the entire time. Eventually we did find our hostel and everything turned out okay.
So how about a little history?
Back in the day, a long time ago, the Muslims came up from Africa and inhabited most of Spain (except the north, which I will explain more about in a later blog). Granada was the capital of sorts and the last Muslim city to fall. While in power, they built the Alhambra. It is more than just a palace, it is more like an enclosed city. There were people who lived their whole lives without stepping outside of it. When the Muslims fell the Christians recognized it’s amazingness and kept it around (adding a few additions of their own).
Everything was incredible. My audio tour was narrated by Washington Irving, haha, since he was one of the many writers, poets, and artists that lived and were inspired there after the Christians took power. The architecture is so detailed, everything is about decoration. However, a big difference from Christian architecture is that there are never any images of people or animals(with a few rare exceptions). All of the walls, columns and other structures are decorated by carving out geometrical designs and Muslim poetry in plaster. One of the themes in the palace section of the Alhambra is that there is water present in some way, shape, or form in every room- as you can see in this photo of a courtyard to the right. It was part of making everything very unified, but at the same time never exactly the same. For example, in one area it would be still water and another it would be running. It was a very effective architectural idea.
The Alhambra was definitely the highlight of the entire trip and consumed almost an entire day. Though Granada is a beautiful city as well. Other highlights were the white buildings of the Albaicin- the old Moorish neighborhood of Granada, the Cathedral, and the Arabian market.
Granada is also known for their tapas nightlife. A tapas bar is one where when you order a drink, you get an appetizer! A good deal right? The two nights we were there we spent in tapas bars and found a couple keepers. We also tried to find a place to see flamenco but we ended up only finding this sketchy bar that had flamenco music but no dancer- sad day.
I also loved how nice it was there for the entire weekend. An Oviedo winter involves lots of rain and clouds, so the sunny and warmer Granada was a welcome break. In addition, it was great for all the pictures I’d be taking with my new camera that arrived the same day we left! More of the pictures I took as well as those of my friend Kayla can be found in Picasa Web Albums.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little look into Granada! Now I can continue blogging in order haha.
‘ta luego!
Anna
