Feb 25-26

GRANADA:

So we finally found our way to Granada (ps: road signs in Spain are terrible), and headed into the Alhambra for our appointment at 2. Luckily, Dan had purchased tickets online beforehand, which saved us a buttload of time.

When you get there, you have to go in at your designated time, into the Palacio de Nazaries, which is the big palace where the Muslim sultans lived and worshipped while they reigned in the area. Granada was the last big stronghold of the Muslims before they were pushed back by the Christians in 1492 (a good year for Spain, apparently). After seeing the palace, you then head into the Alcazaba and the palace of Carlos V, who was the Spanish ruler at the time and had built these items for himself after Granada was reclaimed. In the middle of the palace of Carlos, there is a huge colloseum-looking structure; apparently it´s supposed to represent bringing the country together...whatever. After that we checked out the Gardenlife, which is a huge garden/terrace area that Carlos also made. There are actually some pretty cool plants there, with TONS of orange trees (not sure if it´s legal, but Jamie and I knocked one down with a brick and made everyone in the car try it...unfortunately, it was terrifically sour, making one member of our group open the car door and spit it out, while Jamie swore that her left tonsil was swelling up because of it. ) Then you can head up to the highest point of the Alhambra, the fortress tower. A great view of the city, including many cave-dwelling people and their dogs on the hillsides.

Oh, I have to insert this here. The highlight of the trip to the Alhambra was seeing not only a mullet, but a ¨double dread rat tail.¨ We actually got it on camera it was so fantastic. Apparently rat tails and mullets are making a come-back, because we´ve seen several more since then. Seriously, that DDRT made my week.

After 4 hours at the Alhambra, we hopped back in the car and struggled to find out hostal once again. This hostal is not as nice, but the owner is still very friendly and the water-pressure is good. We are also right in the downtown, so we´re closed to a major tourist plaza and an apparently very famous church, which we are about to go see.

Later on, we went to a few tapas bars, which Dan and Mia had researched. At a lot of places you get free tapas when you order drinks, so their mission was to order many drinks, as the tapas get better as you go along. Well, I don´t drink, so that left me with no tapas, and an empty stomach. So mcuh stomach rumbling and grouchiness from me, we headed to a different bar with actual food, where I ordered an hamberguesa; however, this was no cow! Instead, it was some sort of sausage, and the fries that were guaranteed in the picture were instead those little fried potato sticks. We actually saw another dude with an entire plate of real french fries, so we think the bar ran out and gave us the sticks from the can instead.

After that, we found a club which Dan wanted to go to, called Granada 10, which is a re-done opera house, which didn´t open until 12:30. He insisted that everyone would come ¨decked out.¨ So, we got all ready and went over there in the hopes of doing some Spanish dancing. However, ¨no hay gente,¨mostly because it was a Sunday night. They were playing some interesting music though, including Ï like to move it move it,¨and lots of people were making out on sparkly gold pleather couches.

This morning we decided not to set our alarms, so I woke up to the sound of people yelling in las calles, at approximately 11 am. Woo hoo! That was awesome. We had a leisurely breakfast at a cafe, where the waiter was ridiculously rude, and then headed off to the bank, grocery store, and post office (sounds like what I do at home on my days off). Then I ducked out to finally find the internet cafe. I´ve been using my Spanish a lot though!