Weekend in Granada

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great weekend and are enjoying the snow back home :) I got back late last night from my trip to Granada. The group that ended up going was me, Ana (friend from class), Alex (Ana's boyfriend), Teresa (Ana's friend from Santander), and Sheila (Teresa's friend from Castellón). Yes, it was me and four Spaniards! But four Spaniards from the north with much more tolerable accents than the Andalucíans. We stayed in a really nice apartment in the Albayzín in Granada. The Albayzín is the old moorish neighborhood. It has narrow streets weaving between white houses built up on a hill. It's a pretty beautiful neighborhood and we had an outstanding view of La Alhambra from the terrace.

The Albayzín, as seen from la Alhambra.

La Alhambra, as seen from out apartment in the Albayzín.

Our apartment on the inside!

Granada is known for being exceptionally cheap. You can get a drink and a reasonably sized tapa for only 2 hours, so we spent both Friday and Saturday night tapas hopping. Saturday during the day we visited la Alhambra, which is the exceptional Moorish palace in Granada. It was the last stronghold before the Christians came in and reconquered Spain. Since Alex was outnumbered by girls, we spent about an hour Saturday night practicing dancing Sevillanas. Sevillanas is the style of Flamenco that they dance at the Feria de Sevilla, and it is the style Ana and I are learning in our Flamenco class. Needless to say we had a lot of fun with that. :) Sunday morning we checked out of our apartment and did some souvenir shopping. Since it is nearing the Christmas season, all the stores are open on Sundays now. This is unusual because normally the entire world shuts down on Sundays in Spain!

This seems like as good a time as any to explain the interesting holiday season here. I'm sure I'll have more to share after experiencing it myself, but for now I will just explain. In the U.S., we celebrate Christmas with Santa Claus and presents, etc. In Spain, they celebrate Christmas as well, but more as a religious/family holiday. There are no presents and Santa Claus doesn't come (tragic, I know). But no worries! The children of Spain still get presents, they just have to wait until January 6th, el Día de los Reyes Magos (the Wise Men). Instead of Santa Claus delivering presents, the Reyes do. So when people are talking about going out and buying presents, they don't say Christmas presents. They say, regalos para los Reyes (presents for the Reyes). I find this pretty fascinating, since they celebrate Reyes in almost exactly the same way we celebrate Christmas (write a note, leave out cookies, etc.), but they just do it on a different day!

Overall it was a really great trip. We had a good group and I really enjoyed seeing the city again. It is nice to be back in Sevilla though! Whenever I travel I always miss it! Here are a few more pictures from Granada!

Suca, Sheila and Ana

View from la Alhambra

More view

View of la Alhambra from el Generalife (the gardens)

Me!