May 17th - Granada

I have heaps to blog about! Heaps! Do you like that?! I've been spending too much time with Aussies. I'm going to start using dodgy and I reckon too.

First the important stuff and speaking of Aussies… I just met two Aussie sisters who have both been traveling for a year (separately, they have just now joined each other) and have given me great advice! They both said to set a few specific goals so that I don’t get lost in all of the traveling, for example: learn a language, meet a local in each city, blog of course, learn X number of words in each country (which doesn’t work in the few that speak English but oh well), etc. That all makes total sense, with my short period of travel I can already tell that it would be easy to either take this all for granted or forget to focus on what’s important or why I’m here. Other suggestions they had, definitely get my own room every few weeks in order to keep my sanity, one convinced me to look into couch surfing. Her experience has been really positive and she’s met a lot of great locals that way. I’m a little on the fence about it but it does look like a great community so I set up a profile on the website so we’ll see what happens. I don’t have hostels booked in Ireland, maybe I’ll give it a go there. One sister said she regretted not stopping and working in a place for bit, the other worked in the Swiss Alps for awhile and loved it. They gave me a few websites where I can find volunteer jobs and get free lodging and food, it’s mostly for organic farming but I also saw cheese and bread making which would be pretty cool and some of the websites had other options. So what do you think? Any suggestions on what my top goals in each country should be? Leave a comment!!! I also made a poll, look to your right and maybe scroll down a bit. I tried to add it into this blog post but I couldn't figure out how. If you know how please share! I've included a what language should I learn poll. Disclaimer, this is just for fun!

Yesterday was my first difficult task of being on my own. I wanted to do a free walking tour (so far have done one in each city so I may as well keep that up) to learn a bit more of the history. I found one, went to the meeting spot, and no one was there! I figured I’d spend the day on my own exploring but I was a bit bummed. I left but ended up walking back by the meeting spot and saw a bunch of English speakers who didn’t seem to know each other. It took some convincing myself and a bit of courage to ask them (I’m not used to this yet but I’m sure I’ll get better with experience) but they were the walking tour! Anyway it was great tour let by a British guy who has lived here for 4 years. There were only 7 of us and I learned a ton of history and interesting facts about the culture here. One interesting fact, they made the steps uneven to make it harder for soldiers storming castles to run up and fight, they would topple over a lot with all of the armor. After the tour we went for tapas and drinks. In Granada you get a tapa with every drink and you only pay for the drink. I had the local drink, tinto del verano, it’s wine and sprite mixed basically. Wasn’t bad, definitely refreshing on a hot day. Later at night I met up with a few people from the tour and we ended up at a Flamenco show. It was in a cave thing which was a cool space but I’m not sure if I went to a bad one or if I really don’t like Flamenco but it was awful. At first there wasn’t any dancing just a guitar player and a women singing, well if you can call it that, she basically screeched the whole time. The a women in a flamenco dress got up and I thought she would dance but she also sang and she was worse then the first woman! She danced for about 4 seconds which consisted of a lot of stomping her feet and waving her arms a bit. Maybe that’s what it is and I just don’t get it. I think I’m going to another show tonight so hopefully this is a better one.

Traditional Bath House built for the Muslims so they could
bath five times a day according to their faith

This is original

From the ceiling of the bath house

Alhambra

Today I saw the Alhambra, the main thing to see in Granada. I had to get there early and it was quite a hike. I met a girl from my hostel going the same time. She didn't look so young but she's a high school student studying abroad here. She's a sweet girl and I enjoyed hearing about her experiences living with a Spanish family. She struggles with their eating habits still. They don't eat breakfast, have a large meal at 3pm and then have dinner at about 10:30pm. Dinner usually is only some bread or just a bit of food. The major downside today was the weather. It was raining and freezing cold all day and I definitely wasn't dressed for it. Also, I really wanted to get the audio tour but you could only get that from one part of the Alhambra the signs were not marked well so I missed out on that but my guide book did have a lot of information so I learned a little.

It was originally constructed in 889 and then converted into a palace in 1330 for the Muslim emirs in Spain until Isabella and Ferdinand took over in 1492. Ferdinand wanted to live in Toledo or Seville but according to their pre-nup, signed on the outside of the Granada town walls, Isabella got to decide where they lived and she loved Alhambra.

I really loved the detail so I have a lot of the pictures

The ceiling was constructed with 8,000 pieces of cedar

On my walking tour the guide suggested we go into the lobby of the Paradore in the Alhambra grounds. Most people don't realize non-guests can go in and I'm so happy he told me that! Paradores are government run hotels mostly built in monasteries and convents. They are very much out of my budget so I'm not staying in any on this trip. In part of the lobby we found where Isabella and Ferdinand were originally buried while their tombs were being built in the Cathedral in the main part of Granada. Isabella wanted to be buried in the Alhambra in a modest fashion but she died first and Ferdinand wanted lots of gold! She said it was more important for her to be buried with her husband so they could be together in death just like they were in life and if he wanted to be buried somewhere else that was ok with her.

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Where they were before their
grandson moved them

Another part of the Alhambra, the General life gardens