GRANADA - OCT 26-28

Our program took a trip to GRANADA, SPAIN two weekends ago. Granada is one of the most widely known cities in Spain. It is an ancient Muslim city located in the South of Spain, close to Morocco, so there is a lot of influence from Morocco and there is a strong population of immigrants, many of which speak Arabic (how cool is that?!) The city itself looks like two worlds that are colliding together. One the one hand, you have all the ancient Muslim streets, which are really tiny, and curvy, don’t make any sense, and have no sort of order. It’s like trying to walk through a maze, and you have no idea where you will come out. One the other hand, you have huge streets that are newer, where buses run, and there are cars everywhere, traffic lights, cross walks, the works. It is so interesting because there is literally some of each everywhere you go.

It was a five hour bus ride to Granada, most of which I slept, but when I wasn’t sleeping I was taking in the beautiful countryside of Spain, which is absolutely gorgeous, full of hills, trees, mountains, and smaller towns (each one with its own castle, of course!). The first night we arrived in Granada, we walked around the city a bit, and ended up hanging out in our hotel room playing cards with a bunch of our friends. Spanish culture is kind of weird in that it is not really a custom to invite your friends over to your house at all really. They only invite over their closets friends, and even then, it is not often. So we all enjoyed being a little American for a bit and hanging out with each other “at home”. The next day we woke up and had an amazing breakfast in the hotel (which I was VERY excited about) and then we set off to see the sights.

We walked to the historical center of the city, visited the Cathedral of Granada, which was huge! The Cathedral was designed originally in the Renaissance era but later a few Baroque touches were added. It was really interesting. Inside there are huge vaulted ceilings and many different paintings, sculptures, old sheets of music (which were huge, and super interesting to look at), and overall just really cool. (The sad part is that Notre Dame kind of ruined the magic of it, it was definitely not as cool after having seen Notre Dame). Right next to the Cathedral is Capilla Real where Queen Isabel and King Fernando are buried along with Princess Juana la Loca and Prince Felipe el Hermoso (“the crazy” and “the handsome” respectively). The history with them is that Felipe el Hermoso cheated on Juana all the time, and then he died, after which Juana la Loca went to visit and take care of his corpse every day for 20 years after he died. She was definitely crazy.
This is a picture of inside the Cathedral...

Afterwards, we went to Corral del carbón that is an ancient Muslim house. In my Society and Territory class we are studying ancient Muslim cities. A normal Muslim house is not decorated very much at all on the outside except for the door, which is usually very ornate. When you walk in, you come to a patio that always has a fountain in the middle. From here, the rest of the house is extremely ornately painted and decorated. It was amazing to see pictures and learn about this and then actually go there and see the real thing! Next, we took a walk along the Alcaicería which is the ancient part of town, the old Muslin streets, which are barely large enough for one person to walk through, and went shopping! There were TONS of stores all with really cool purses, scarves, jewelry, lamps, incense, and any number of other things that really made you feel like you were actually in Morocco instead of still in Spain. So Erica, Catie and I went and got lost shopping for a few hours, then went and found lunch at a restaurant.

Later we went and visited the infamous ALHAMBRA. If you ever are anywhere near Granada, it is an absolute MUST to go see this. It was literally breathtaking! It is an ancient palace that belonged to the Kings of the Moors. Now it has been converted into a museum. “Alhambra” in Arabic means the red, which is derived from the red color of the clay used to make the surroundings of the fort. There is absolutely no way I could explain the beauty or intense décor of this place, so I am just going to post a picture… ☺


That night, we had the opportunity to go and see a real Flamenco show. It was soo much fun! The dancers (guys and girls) were all really impressive, although my favorite was this old lady who looked like she should not be dancing at all who got up and not only danced really well, but also sang, it was awesome! We all had a really good time and laughed at the end when the dancers made some of us get up and dance with them. The best was our director, José, dancing with one of the ladies. We all had a good laugh.

On Sunday, we went to visit Alcazaba, and Palacios Nazaries and Generalife, which are all palaces that are connected, located on the top of this huge hill. It took us so long to walk around and we got a tour of the entire place! There were all these different gardens, and huge pathways, different buildings with the same amazing architecture and details as the Alhambra. Then we rushed around a bit, buying last minute scarves and got on the bus for the five hour ride home!