Days 15-23.
Wowza I have not posted in a long time! Sorry about that.
After last weekend at the beach we didn’t do that much until last Friday when
we went horseback riding… J
So that would have been day 18 I believe. Last Thursday we had a Flamenco
lesson… only me and two other girls showed up, so it was pretty private! And OH
MY GOODNESS Flamenco is SO HARD. So hard. And it was in a dance studio with a
giant wall of mirrors so I had the priviledge of watching myself just utterly
fail, haha. But I tried J
Friday we took a bus to a more rural area about 30 mins
outside of town to a little ranch type place with tons of horses. The ranch also had a new litter of kittens which were running around, so cute! It was pretty
scary because I have never really ridden a horse, aside from when I was a
little kid, and it is just so high up… and then the horse sways from
side-to-side so you feel like you’re going to fall off… because all you have to
hold on to is the saddle unless you want to squish yourself against the horse..
Anyway, it was pretty fun. There were probably around 15 of us all on different
horses, and the horses were well trained so we all just walked single file in a
line around a giant track that went through fields of crops and had a pretty
view of the city and mountains in the distance… and it was almost sunset time
so it was really beautiful. The only thing is, my horse was SUPER slow. The guy
behind me (who worked at the ranch) kept telling me to kick its sides with my
feet, so I would gently kick it but it NEVER responded. And then a few times
the guy just slapped my horse’s but so naturally it started GALLOPPING with me
on its back… which was SO scary. I was holding on for dear life because I was
bouncing so badly! Also, it kept taking me towards low hanging branches at a
gallop… I don’t know if it was on purpose or not… In the end it was really fun
though, but I didn't take too many pictures because I was afraid to take my hands off the horse. J
Then Saturday morning we all got up early and took a bus to
the Alpujarras, which I believe is the name of an area of the Sierra Nevada
mountains which contains several mountain villages… the lower ones are more
tourist-y, but the higher up you go the more legit they are. I believe we went
to the highest one. We got out and walked around the town for a little bit—including
a little visit to a shop where they make textiles, and we got to a 150 year-old
loom in action.. a GIANT loom. It was pretty cool—and then took a trail on its
outskirts which gave us a great view down the mountain and into the countryside…
we had to walk through basically a jungle of weeds the whole time, or other
plants, but on the way we got some cherries and blackberries fresh off their
trees… YES blackberry TREES. Not bushes. I didn’t know this existed!
Our walk took us from one village down to another until we
ended up eating lunch at a little restaurant where I tried liver… I can’t say I
liked it that much, but I tried it! After lunch, we went to another town that
was further down the mountain, and walked around the shops a bit. I
particularly remember going into a little chocolate museum/store because they
had a whole counter full of samples of their different types of chocolate…
which all looked AMAZING. I really liked the pepper one… it was really strange
but good.
After the Alpujarras we returned to town and then my
roommate and two other friends of ours and I all took a bus to Sevilla (about a
3 hour bus ride). We walked to our hostel (of which we had already booked a
private room) and then went out for a late night snack—the only thing that
super stinks about everywhere in Spain EXCEPT Granada is that, the tapas aren’t
free… :P Only Granada has free tapas (which are basically free little
appetizers that come with your drinks.) The next day (Sunday) we got up, had a
breakfast of toast with olive oil, tomato and salt, and OJ and coffee… (Oh, and
I have noticed that ALL of the OJ I’ve had here is delicious because they just
put a few oranges in a machine and grind them up to make the OJ they’re going
to give to you… so it’s super fresh!) Then we went to la Plaza de España, which
is SUPER awesome! The park right before it looks like the zoo because of all
the trees and shrubbery, and when you walk into the plaza you are just struck
by a giant castle-like building, a giant fountain, a line of horse drawn
carriages, and a river in front of the building with boats on it… it’s super
beautiful.
After that we went to Alcazar, which was an old Arabic
palace (kind of like the Alhambra) and it is also where the current kind and
queen of Spain stay whenever they are in Sevilla. Because it is Arabic it also
incorporates nature and water into its architecture, so it’s beautiful. We all
wanted to learn more about it, so they have these little hand-held guide things
which basically seem like giant phones. You type in the number for the area you’re
in, then press go, and then hold it up to your ear like you would a phone. But
they were actually pretty awesome. J
The gardens at Alcazar were really pretty and there were even peacocks roaming
around in there!! We were in there for about two hours because there was so
much to see.
After Alcazar we found a restaurant to have lunch. I had a
mixed salad and pasta Bolognese which were both yummy J And it came with a desert
which was some sort of delicious mixture of cake and mousse.
After lunch we
headed to the Cathedral of Sevilla which was way bigger than that of Granada!
And we rented the same audioguide phone things so we were in there for hours
too, listening to the story of every little altar… What I find super cool is
that Christopher Colombus and his son are BURIED there! And also, in all the
little rooms dedicated to certain saints where the saints are actually buried,
their coffins are so cool because a lot of the time they are white marble and
they are SO realistic it’s crazy!! The cathedral has attached to it a tower
called “la Giralda” which you have to walk up 34 flights to get to… I did not
realize this until I got to the top. It was pretty funny because I entered the
first ramp, walked to like six, and then started wondering “ummm how tall IS
this tower?” and by the time I got to 27 I was convinced it was never going to
end… I felt like Sisyphus… it just kept going… but at the top, which is also a
bell tower, it was beautiful.
After the cathedral we were all pretty exhausted. It was
really hot and humid in Sevilla, whereas Granada is VERY dry. Oh, also, Sevilla
had a giant river and on the other side were tons of multicolored houses…
Sevilla was way more what I would think to be “European” looking than Granada.
It was also way bigger than Granada… but very cool.
Sunday night we took a bus back to Granada.
Yesterday, Monday, we had a cultural excursion to an Arabic
Bath House!! By far one of my favorites! Unfortunately, pictures weren’t
allowed but it was AMAZING! The actual bath house was made to mimic Arabic
design so in a lot of ways it resembled the Alhambra… the intricate carvings
and colorful tiles, the specifically shaped arched doorways and no real light,
just tons of glass candle holders… When you walked in you entered the “cold”
room which was hot but had a small cold pool. The next room was the “hot” room
which had a long rectangular hot water pool, and then the third room had a
tepid pool which was the biggest of them all, but was super awesome because it
had columns in it which went up to the ceiling and awesome decoration… the
whole place was full of fountains… every pool had a fountain going into it… and
the ceiling was full of cut outs of starts which were illuminated… there were
little alcoves everywhere with tables holding teapots full of a strong mint tea…
there was also a steam room which I went in for a couple minutes. Also, we all
got to have massages… I had never had one before but in the end I liked it. It
kind of hurt my back, and grossed me out because I could feel it cracking, but
after it was over I felt very relaxed. There was also a room with a big
circular hot rock that you could lay on… it wasn’t too hot though, just like as
if it had been warmed in the sun…
We got to spend an hour and a half there, and it was so
great. I just went from tepid to hot to cold pools over and over, and just
enjoyed how beautiful and peaceful it was… I definitely want to go back to that
one! Anyways, today we don’t have an activity but tomorrow we are going to some
sort of concert at the Alhambra, so that should be awesome. J Hasta luego!
