I went on an awesome adventure today! I went to the Granada Cathedral which is very important for the history of Granada. It was a giant mosque when the Arabic kingdom ruled but in 1492 Isabel and Fernando (the king and queen that basically created Spain by uniting all its parts)overthrew the Muslims and turned their mosque into a cathedral. It's really beautiful on the inside! I took pictures, even though you're not supposed to :P haha. Anyway, the history about the Arabs and their influence is really fascinating. I learned a lot about it last quarter in my Spanish class and I love that the Arabic influence is REALLY evident here.
We also went to the Capilla Real which means Real Chapel, and it is attached to the Cathedral. It is where Isabel and Fernando are interred, their bodies are THERE! It's soooo cool! And I think Juana (their daughter) and her husband Felipe are there also. Super cool!!! It turns out that an artist was commissioned to make a symbol for both Fernando and Isabel, and Fernando's has arrows in it. One of my directors said that this is the reason that the Spanish word "flecha" (which means arrow, like bows and arrows) starts with an "f". (Or at least I think that's what she said :P) It's also cool because above the actual coffins of the monarchs there is a giant statue that is meant to look like their death beds--there are two beds, one has Isabel and Fernando and the other Juana and Felipe. The death bed of Isabel and Fernando is higher off the ground of course, because they were the monarchs, and Fernando is dressed in his war outfit with a sword in his hands, while Isabel is dressed in a nice dress and supposedly the artist touched up her face to make it prettier because she was known for her lack of beauty... My director said it was the original version of photoshop, haha. Directly underneath this statue is the room which houses all of the coffins. There is a narrow staircase directly in front of the statue that you walk down and peer into the room, and then walk up the other side. Also, right before we entered the building there was a thunder storm--super loud and booming, and then RAIN! And it never rains in Granada!! I consider myself very lucky :)
We also went for a walk around the general area and it was super neat. And eventually my roommates and I decided to go to Cafe Futbol which is known for its churros and hot chocolate, so we ordered them and they were really good. Except they were smooth, and didn't have any sugar or cinnamon. They were just fried dough like doughnuts. It was interesting. And the hot chocolate was more like a sauce than our usual drink. Really good though. It was pretty funny though because we didn't know what the norm is in Spain as far as whether you seat yourself, or go to a hostess, and then once you sit down if you wait for a menu or ask for one... it turns out, at this place, which was all outdoors under a tent roof, we went to the cash register and the guy behind it pointed at a table for us to go to. We sat down, but then we had to ask for a menu because our waiter assumed that we knew what we wanted while we had no clue. It took a loooong time for him to come back because the place was super crowded, and he talked to us in English a little bit because I guess we are obviously Americans, haha. Then when we had finished we hadn't eaten everything on our plate because we accidentally ordered way too many churros, so we all felt bad because I'm pretty sure that here it is disrespectful not to finish all your food... every other plate was scraped clean in the restaurant, practically. So it took about 40 mins for the waiter to finally bring us our bill, which we had to ask for twice--I don't know if it's because they thought we weren't finished... But I also know that here people will stay at restaurants for HOURS. The final complication was paying--we had the right amount of Euros but we didn't know whether to leave it at the table or bring it to the cash register... we didn't think the cash register was right, but we didn't want to just leave it, so we waited another 10 mins and then a waiter picked it up from us... when we asked our host family later, they said you never leave money on the table because someone can come and steal it... so I guess we did the right thing. :) Oh, and also you don't have to tip here, so that makes everything cheaper and less complicated. We also had tapas with dinner, which is basically like a small meal... appetizer sized... and it was really yummy. It was chicken wings and little circles of potato, all fried and the chicken had a kind of bbq sauce, I think...
Also, we saw a statue in Isabel de Católica square which I have put in my pictures, that shows Queen Isabel sitting on her throne while Cristo Cólon (Christopher Colombus)is at her feet. According to the director of my program, Colombus went to the king and queen of Portugal to ask for funding for finding the shortest route to India, but they refused him. So, he went to Isabel and Fernando, and Isabel agreed to fund his mission if she could have all of the territories that he claimed. So the statue is the moment when Colombus and Isabel are signing a contract saying this... really interesting.
Nos vemos!
I went on an awesome adventure today! I went to the Granada Cathedral which is very important for the history of Granada. It was a giant mosque when the Arabic kingdom ruled but in 1492 Isabel and Fernando (the king and queen that basically created Spain by uniting all its parts)overthrew the Muslims and turned their mosque into a cathedral. It's really beautiful on the inside! I took pictures, even though you're not supposed to :P haha. Anyway, the history about the Arabs and their influence is really fascinating. I learned a lot about it last quarter in my Spanish class and I love that the Arabic influence is REALLY evident here.
We also went to the Capilla Real which means Real Chapel, and it is attached to the Cathedral. It is where Isabel and Fernando are interred, their bodies are THERE! It's soooo cool! And I think Juana (their daughter) and her husband Felipe are there also. Super cool!!! It turns out that an artist was commissioned to make a symbol for both Fernando and Isabel, and Fernando's has arrows in it. One of my directors said that this is the reason that the Spanish word "flecha" (which means arrow, like bows and arrows) starts with an "f". (Or at least I think that's what she said :P) It's also cool because above the actual coffins of the monarchs there is a giant statue that is meant to look like their death beds--there are two beds, one has Isabel and Fernando and the other Juana and Felipe. The death bed of Isabel and Fernando is higher off the ground of course, because they were the monarchs, and Fernando is dressed in his war outfit with a sword in his hands, while Isabel is dressed in a nice dress and supposedly the artist touched up her face to make it prettier because she was known for her lack of beauty... My director said it was the original version of photoshop, haha. Directly underneath this statue is the room which houses all of the coffins. There is a narrow staircase directly in front of the statue that you walk down and peer into the room, and then walk up the other side. Also, right before we entered the building there was a thunder storm--super loud and booming, and then RAIN! And it never rains in Granada!! I consider myself very lucky :)
We also went for a walk around the general area and it was super neat. And eventually my roommates and I decided to go to Cafe Futbol which is known for its churros and hot chocolate, so we ordered them and they were really good. Except they were smooth, and didn't have any sugar or cinnamon. They were just fried dough like doughnuts. It was interesting. And the hot chocolate was more like a sauce than our usual drink. Really good though. It was pretty funny though because we didn't know what the norm is in Spain as far as whether you seat yourself, or go to a hostess, and then once you sit down if you wait for a menu or ask for one... it turns out, at this place, which was all outdoors under a tent roof, we went to the cash register and the guy behind it pointed at a table for us to go to. We sat down, but then we had to ask for a menu because our waiter assumed that we knew what we wanted while we had no clue. It took a loooong time for him to come back because the place was super crowded, and he talked to us in English a little bit because I guess we are obviously Americans, haha. Then when we had finished we hadn't eaten everything on our plate because we accidentally ordered way too many churros, so we all felt bad because I'm pretty sure that here it is disrespectful not to finish all your food... every other plate was scraped clean in the restaurant, practically. So it took about 40 mins for the waiter to finally bring us our bill, which we had to ask for twice--I don't know if it's because they thought we weren't finished... But I also know that here people will stay at restaurants for HOURS. The final complication was paying--we had the right amount of Euros but we didn't know whether to leave it at the table or bring it to the cash register... we didn't think the cash register was right, but we didn't want to just leave it, so we waited another 10 mins and then a waiter picked it up from us... when we asked our host family later, they said you never leave money on the table because someone can come and steal it... so I guess we did the right thing. :) Oh, and also you don't have to tip here, so that makes everything cheaper and less complicated. We also had tapas with dinner, which is basically like a small meal... appetizer sized... and it was really yummy. It was chicken wings and little circles of potato, all fried and the chicken had a kind of bbq sauce, I think...
Also, we saw a statue in Isabel de Católica square which I have put in my pictures, that shows Queen Isabel sitting on her throne while Cristo Cólon (Christopher Colombus)is at her feet. According to the director of my program, Colombus went to the king and queen of Portugal to ask for funding for finding the shortest route to India, but they refused him. So, he went to Isabel and Fernando, and Isabel agreed to fund his mission if she could have all of the territories that he claimed. So the statue is the moment when Colombus and Isabel are signing a contract saying this... really interesting.
Nos vemos!
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