Corazones y Granada

I can hardly believe I’ve been in Spain for three weeks already. Time is all of a sudden starting to go so fast and the days just keep getting better. This past week and weekend were definitely the highlight of my trip so far.

           

Valentine’s Day is in fact celebrated in Spain (even though it seems like everyday is Valentine’s Day here with the amount of PDA) and my roommates and I went on a date the day before to get heart-shaped pizza at a pizzeria by our house. Telepizza is pretty commercialized, which is something I wanted to avoid here, but apparently it was the first pizza delivery place in Spain….so I guess that culturally justifies our decision to eat there, and the heart-shaped part helped too J

 Corazones

On the real Valentine’s Day a bunch of us went to a flamenco show because my roommates are in a flamenco class and we got cheap tickets. It was an interesting show with a lot of emotion, but that’s what flamenco is all about. The ‘vestidos’ (dresses) are my favorite part.

Thursday night our program got us free tickets to the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, which is a famous orchestra here in Sevilla. I typically only appreciate/listen to classical music when I’m studying for finals, but the music was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, especially since it was something I probably wouldn’t have done on my own time.

Friday morning we left for Granada, which is about three hours east of Sevilla. We were only there for about 25 hours (definitely not long enough) but I really did love the city. It reminded me a little bit of L.A. because of how it’s geographically situated beneath the mountains. The Sierra Nevadas frame the old city and give it a beautiful backdrop. It also reminded me of Lawrence (let me explain) because of the steep hills we had to climb when we walked everywhere. People had a hard time believing me that a place in Kansas could have that many hills.

 Rock Chalk from Granada

My roommate's best friend is studying abroad in Granada this semester so we met up with her and she showed us around the city Friday afternoon. She took us to this side street that was lined with little gypsy shops full of beautiful hand-crafted everything. I can't even explain how cool these shops were, and I wanted to buy everything I saw. It was almost overwhelming how many there were, but their stuff was so cheap and fun. We had a blast just looking at everything.

After about an hour of wrestling between buying this or buying that, we decided to just enjoy ourselves and take advantage of the photo opps. I had some fun with my camera to distract myself and resist the urge to spend all of my money in one place. I have always loved photography, and what better place to practice my little hobby than Europe!

After attacking the buffet dinner at our hotel, we were treated to an authentic flamenco experience that is nothing like I've ever seen before. We climbed to the top of a ridiculously steep cobblestone hill to find a hole-in-the-wall (literally, a cave) for the show. There were two "rooms" and we sat along the walls as the dancers stomped through the performance practically on our laps. It was awesome and truly the best way to take it in.

 La cueva (cave)

 Front row seats

They even grabbed some of us and had us dance with them at the end!

Saturday we had a lengthy tour of La Alhambra, which is "the last and greatest Moorish palace, highlighting the splendor of that civilization in the 13th and 14th centuries." It was unbelievable. The views of Granada, the architecture and the gardens (we saw the oldest garden in Spain!) were so interesting. It blows my mind that people could build such massive structures that long ago. It made everything in America seem brand new.

View of Granada from La Alhambra

We left Granada Saturday afternoon and arrived back in Sevilla with just enough time to hop on another bus to Cádiz for Carnaval, which is a whole other story...see the next post.