So I went home for dinner at 10 on Thursday night and my señora was no where to be found. I started to get a little nervous because I was meeting my friends that were going to Andalucía with me in the Plaza at 11:30. After ensuring (multiple times) that I was all packed and ready to go, I knocked on the door to my señora´s room. Still no answer. I was pretty hungry at this point and I only had a 20 minutes before I had to leave, so I decided that it would be okay if I made me a sandwich from the food in the fridge. After eating that I wrote a note to my señora telling her that I had to go and that I ate a sandwich and was about to head out the door when I heard a small voice saying ¨Rachael, a comer.¨ Apparently my señora had been sleeping (I didn´t actually check inside her room because the door was closed, but I did knock and call her name). I told her that I wouldn´t be able to sit and have dinner now because I had to go to the bus station and that I already ate a sandwich. She felt bad because she knew that I had to leave for the station that night, so she quickly put some fruit and some empanada in a bag for me to eat on the bus. Then I left and met the group in the Plaza and we walked to the station. Our bus was supposed to leave at 1 am, but it didn´t show up until 2:30. This bus was taking us to Sevilla and we had to get to another train station in Sevilla in order to get to Granada (which was where we were staying Friday night). Our layover time in Sevilla was supposed to be 2 and half hours, but since our bus was an hour and a half late, we made it with very little time to spare.
After arriving in Granada, we took a bus from the station to around our hostel, which was named Funky Backpackers Hostel. It was actually really nice and the staff was really sweet. Our rooms came equiped with a bathroom and a mini kitchen with a sofa/living room. We then went to the Alhambra, which is this huge muslim palace on top of the mountain. We had pre-ordered our tickets and when we printed them, the worker there said that we couldn´t enter until our time (3:30). So we waited to enter and when we did, we took our time in the garden that leads up to the Muslim Palace, which is called Palacios Navaries. By this time it was a little after 4:00. We went to go in the Palacios Navaries, but the guard people wouldn´t let us because our time had expired. Apparently we had to go in the Palacios Navaries at 3:30, not just enter the Alhambra as a whole at that time. The stupid ticket checker at the beginning skrewed us over. After I tried to talk to them to let us go in (in Spanish), they still wouldn´t let us in. So we had to go buy new tickets to enter. It was ridiculous. While it was beautiful, I was a pain to have to spend more euros to see it.
That night we went out for a tapas dinner. When you buy a drink in Granada, you get a free tapa (that is chosen by the restaurant/bar), so at our first restaurant we got little sandwich tapas with a really good meat inside. We also got some other tapas, like chorizo frito and patatas ali oli. Then we went to another place, got drinks and a seafood tapa, but I couldn´t eat that one. Then our third place we got a plate of three things (Patatas fritas, little sandwiches, and tuna salad) with our drinks. We discovered a new drink that is similar to sangría called tinto de verano, which is red wine with lemonade in it. It is super good. After this we got ice cream. This ice cream is the best ever. From afar, the display of it looks like beautiful, colorful cakes, but it is ice cream! There were so many flavors and I think that the workers knew that their ice cream was magical because they happily let us try as many flavors as we wanted and they knew we would buy a cone. I had bizcocho ice crea, and it was amazing.
The next morning we went to Sevilla by train. Sevilla is probably my favorite city that I have visited this trip. The main thing that I love about it is that it is a city, but it is really relaxed and the people are friendly. There are many little alley streets that are fun to explore and it has so many cool things to see. We got to Sevilla at around 3 and were checking into our hostel, but two of the girls (Lauren and Allison, the twins) didn´t bring their passports, so the hostel wouldn´t allow them to stay there, so I went with them down the street to another hostel (San Francisco Hostel) to see if we could stay there. The owners were really nice and allowed them to write down their passport info for his paperwork and our room was a private room with 3 beds and a bathroom. It felt more like a hotel than a hostel and we paid the exact same that we would have at the other hostel. It was also cool because the workers only spoke Spanish, whereas the guy at the front desk at our original hostel was English, so we were able to practice our Spanish more. We then walked around the city and bought tickets to a flamenco show that night. After lunch, we went to Parque María Luisa to explore. While exploring, we encounter these bicycle carts for four people, so we rented two of them for a half hour and explored even more of the beautiful park, probably looking like fools, but it was super fun. Connected to the park is the Plaza España, which is beautiful with a big fountain in the center and a bridge and beautiful buildings. Then we went to get ready for the dinner, the flamenco show, and the rest of the night. We stopped at this little restaurant for tapas and had a great meal and then we went to see the flamenco show (the professional shows are called tablaos). It was super cool! It was a hour long show and the performers were really good. Some of the others had not ever seen flamenco before, so they were shocked by how cool it was. Later that night, a few of us from the group went out to see the more orginal version of flamenco that is in certain bars in the city (called tabernas). I actually enjoyed the songs and dances in this bar a little bit more than the earlier performence, even though the dancers were better and more professional, the small, intimate setting of the taberna showed the roots of flamenco more clearly. After that, we went across the river to Calle Betis, where this is a higher nightlife. The river at night was so pretty and there is a really beautiful view of the city.
The next morning we went to the Reales Alcazares, which is this really old palace that is so incredibly amazing. I think I actually liked this more than the Alhambra. Inside it shows some old rooms of the palace and outside there is the most incredible gardens that I have ever seen. Every view and place that I went was absolutely gorgeous. And to make things even better, this was free for students! After this we went to the Torre de Oro, which is basically this tower/old fortress that is also a museum and at the top, you can see the whole city. Unfortunately, it was at this tower that the battery in my camera died. I was very upset, but I am getting all of the pictures from other people cameras from the rest of this trip, so don´t worry Mom :)
After lunch, we went to the cathedral and the Giralda (the tower that is connected to the cathedral). Just a little bit of history, this cathedral is the third biggest in the world and the biggest gothic cathedral AND it is incredibly beautiful, both inside and out. If I lived in Sevilla, I would sit in the park outside this cathedral everyday (and nicely enough, the real alcazar is right next door). The Giralda has 34 levels of pure inclined ramps in order to reach the top of the bell tower, but the views through the windows going up were amazing and at the top you could see the whole city. It was awesome.
Well, this entry was a lot longer than I anticipated, but that´s all we did...ha. I would go back to Andalucía in a heartbeat.
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