Monday, February 23, 2009

Granada!!1

Granada!!!
Highlights of the week
Monday- went to see Slumdog Millionaire!!!
Wednesday-joined my fellow Americans in climbing a rope jungle gym while simultaneously drinking wine. From a carton.
Thursday- found a place that serves mojitos. Unfortunately, this bar has decided to use some very interesting cartoon drawings for its wallpaper that made me a little uncomfortable. Went out to Buddha again and saw everyone from the group. Had a great time dancing with Coop until a guy 5 feet away from us threw up. We left the club at about 3 and grabbed some churros before walking home. Perfect ending to a memorable night.
Friday-
I left for Granada and slept the entire way there. Surprise surprise. As soon as we got there, Andrea, Elle and I all showered and then proceeded to nap for 2 hours. Although this may seem like a waste, after having 6 minutes *if that* of hot water to shower for a month and half, I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. After we woke up we headed off to see my FAVORITE city in Andalusia, Granada! I love Granada for its Arabic feel and more importantly its shops. There’s a large Muslim population there and they have very cool shops filled with pillows, blankets, wall coverings, jewelry, hookahs, lamps…everything is so beautiful and exotic! So after our nap time, we tried to meet up with Derek and the boys for a drink because a glass of beer or wine here comes with a free tapa. Tapas are an important part of Spanish culture. They’re little appetizers or snacks that range from mini-sandwiches to a plate of cheese to meatballs….it’s a great addition to the social life. Anyhow, we call the guys and try to give them an idea of where we are in the city. Elle informs them that we are next to a large fountain. Very clear description as there is a large fountain at just about every intersection.  Anyhow, I was starving at this point because I had decided earlier that I was too good for my bag lunch. Bad idea. We finally arrived at the teteria (Moroccan tea place) called Kasbah. Coop let me know that it is highly recommended by Rick Steve’s travel book (I’m pretty sure he has memorized the book). Anyhow, great atmosphere but my order got lost in translation. I specifically pointed to the Moroccan/Indian bread for one euro. I was only looking for something quick and cheap to hold me over until dinner. I got exactly that. Apparently, Moroccan bread is a tortilla. A cold tortilla elegantly folded on a plate. It was disgusting—but I still ate it. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel for a 3 course dinner. Salad with tuna, pork with French fries and yogurt with fruit. No one was a really big fan but it was free so I guess we can’t really complain. That night we all went back to Kasbah to smoke hookah for Kali and Katie´s bday....I was terrible at smoking hookah compared to everyone else. I guess I have small lungs. Anyhow, it was fun and we had a good time just laughing although our friend Zach snapped a lot of double chin pics of me. oh well. haha. We had such a great time (although Elle aka Dragon was feeling light headed afterwards :( ...) but I was ready to go to bed at 2 when we realized we had to be up the next day at 8:30.

8:30 bright and early the next day we were off to the capilla and the cathedral. Outside the cathedral are a large amount of gypsies. Beware of the gypsies. 1) they are not magical beautiful women dancing in long skirts. they are old unattractive women trying to steal your money. 2) they hand you these little plants as a "gift" and then demand that you give them money for it. this is how they get you. do not fall for their tricks. our friend john lost money to a gypsy last time we were here because he was being too nice. don´t let them take advantage of american friendliness. 3) some gypsies do play music or perform in some sort of way. some are cool, like this one little band we saw and some are a little lame. one lady painted herself gray (i guess to be a statue) and then had a hat for money. I guess if i could have the job of just being painted gray, i would do it but i think its kinda a lame talent.

anyhow, la capilla--inside are the remains of ferdinand and isabel. interesting fact: their tombs have statues of them sleeping and isabel´s head is imprinted further into the pillow because she was more important and had more influence. Their daughter and her husband are buried next to them and they are facing opposite directions because the husband was unfaithful and they had lots of problems in their marriage.

The cathedral, beautiful but freezing. We saw a reproduction of John the Baptist...but just his head cut off. Our tour guide Rafa started telling the story and I was thinking ¨this sounds a lot like john the baptist" and then i stopped being blonde and realized he was talking about john the baptist....

break time: 1) andrea and i bought indian pillowcases which we are psyched about. 2)i bought donor kebap (gyro) and wasn´t able to eat it because my stomach was upset. disappointment of a lifetime. luckily i found one sunday night in seville and ate it in 30 seconds.

la alhambra: i would talk about how amazing this was but after spending 3.5 hours there, im still a little scarred. i might comment later but with the attention span of a 5year-old, i really thought i was going to die.

After la alhambra: we were sneaky and watched pineapple express on derrick´s computer. about halfway through the movie, zach says "i really can´t see the screen." then everyone in the room minus derrick admits that they really haven´t been able to see the movie because of the glare. nice.

dinner: white soup. not good. fried chicken and fries. delicious. dessert: something very similar to the box cake veanetta if anyone remembers it. my gma used to always have it but it went out of business or something. someone informed me at the table though that its coming back....i can´t wait.

going out: Andrea convinced me to go out despite my exhaustion because Philly Tilly demanded her to force me to. So I went and had a great time. Andrea and I danced around and were stupid at this really awesome club with metallic gold couches. Sass and I really do know how to have a good time. Unfortunately, everyone else felt they needed to go to a bar before dancing so Andrea and I stayed until about 3 and then headed home. But I had such a good time with my date DREA!!!

Granada is my favorite city so far. I wish I could go back now. Unfortunately I have noticed that even only one month in, our wknds are running short. On Sunday Coop and I are booked trips to go to Paris and Berlin the last week in April and Barcelona the second weekend in March. I CANT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!

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