Granada and Sunday

Friday

Friday morning was the first time I have woken up before 8 am in Sevilla. It was rough I was actually up at 5:45 to pack for overnight in Granada. We all had to meet at our usual spot at the train station at 7 am! Yes it was extremely early and completely dark outside! By 6:30 am we were waiting outside our building for the bus...but after 15 mins the one we needed had not come so instead of risking missing the bus for Granada the four of us (me, my roommate and the two girls who live across the hall) crammed into a taxi. It cost about 5 euros and we split it between the four of us. I guess early in the mornings like late at night the buses are less frequent next time I am walking. We got to the bus and there were only 3 or 4 people there before us so we loaded on to the bus and waited for the rest to show. We departed about 15 mins late, so we probably could have waited for a bus but you just never know when they are actually going to leave.

The bus trip to Granada is probably about 3 hrs or so. About 2 hours into it we stopped at a rest stop where a whole but of other tourist groups stopped as well and we got some breakfast and had a potty break. Then back on the bus we went. About 40 mins later we had arrived in Granada, we then shuffled of the bus and started walking to the Cathedral and the royal chapel of Ferdenad and Isabel. Unfortunately neither of the places allowed pictures. Both were extremely pretty though. In the royal chapel for Ferdenand and Isabel were their actual coffins, kind of creepy and in the basement below they have glass that you can see them in. After both those we were free to explore Granada, I decided to go with the director of the program to eat Moroccan  food, it was amazing there is a picture of my meal on FB. Lunch too a little longer than planned so no dessert, so we had to walk really fast to go meet back at the bus. Then we went to Alhambra, which is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would have like because my awesome teacher (sense the sarcasm) decided it would be a good idea to give us an assignment that we due when we were leaving the Alhambra. I was not a very happy camper because we had a tour guide (in a pic with Sarah and I on FB) that spoke in english but went very fast because the place was huge and it took us the whole 3 hrs. Our assignment was writing down 3 facts about 4 different pictures of places there, so there was some confusion because some of the places look similar and because he was moving so fast it was hard to write stuff down (with nothing hard to write on) and take pictures. So the entire experience turned out to be more stressful then enjoyable. I was very disappointed by this because my aunt had told me the night before I left that I absolutely had to go to the Alhambra and I didn't even get to enjoy it!

After that experience we were finally taken to the hotel to check in. Once we were a little settled we decided to go look for some food. There wasn't much to find.......so eventually we just went to the grocery store were I bought a cold meal and some cookies and that was my dinner. At 8:30 pm people were meeting down stairs in the lobby to go see a Flamenco dancing show, so I decided to go! It was very fun and so intense. I took like 4 videos so I will upload those on to facebook as well! After the show part of it was also going up to this viewing point where you can see pretty much the entire city. Since we had woken up so early but the time we got home from the show around 11 we decided to just go to sleep.

Saturday

I woke up around 8 got dressed and went to go get breakfast. Which this hotel had the best and biggest breakfast buffet I had ever seen/had! It was SO good! At 9:30 the director of our program Dr. Ingles was meeting in the lobby to go to a monastery, it was optional so there were only about 6 of us total! I feel that it should have been mandatory because the chapel within it was literally the prettiest place we had been into! There was not one square inch that was not painted!! I could not believe it! It was just breath taking. It only took about an hour and a half and then we had til 3:30 to walk around the city. We went to some of the moroccan shops and I got the gorgeous throw. Now there is a story behind this and all in spanish I bartered with the owner of the shop. I guess he thought I was just a stupid American but he told me it was 40 euros which is just absolutely ridiculous so he asked how much I wanted to pay I said 25 and he said if he gave it to me for 25 his boss would fire him. So I told him see you later, and he yelled 30 I said again 25 then as I walk out the store he yells 25 I keep walking and I walk out. I went to the store next to it where some of my friends were I didn't see anything in there so I went back outside. There was the store owner and he said 24 euros I was like really and he was like yes. So I said okay! hah a I was so proud of myself, I knew I had it in me because my mom is very good at that but I had never done it! So I happily walked away. I also found some postcards for only 15 cents!!! Cheapest by far usually even in seville you can't find any for less that like 30 cents.  After a few hours we wondered back to the hotel where we were meeting to catch the bus we had about an hour so we just sat and chatted in the lobby. When then loaded the bus to come home.

When we got home it was the first time we had seen our Mama' at our house since before we left for Barcelona and boy were we glad she was back! We gave her big hugs and kisses and then she told us to go shower and she would prepare dinner!

Sunday

Sunday was a very relaxing day, we didn't really get up until about noon and we just watched some shows on our computers and relaxed. Lunch wasn't until about four and everyone in our apartment and everyone in the apart across the hall came over for paella which is the very traditional spanish dish I have talked about before that contains shrimp with heads! Nevertheless it was yummy! After lunch I was texted by one of my friends to walk around so we walked around Sevilla and we saw some street performers down by the Cathedral it was a very fun and leisurely afternoon! We were just killing sometime until our other friend got off work. I came home about 8 and skyped my parents and eventually we had dinner. Except I was still completely full from lunch so dinner was rough! As most of you know it was the superbowl yesterday and you all know how much I love football! So of course I had my parents take me over to the neighbors for the superbowl party and prop me up on a table and I watched it via skype! It wasn't the best but it was definitely better than nothing and it didn't ever start til about 12:30 am my time so it was a late night/ early morning for me today but I feel that it was worth it!

Today has been pretty ordinary nothing much to report. Our "brother" finally returned from Madrid this morning at about 6 am and he has his first day of classes today but I guess the are all at night? haha who knows. After this blog post I am going to watch some tv, have lunch, digest a little bit and run later this afternoon! I hope this finds you all well. I love and miss you all very very much!

abrazos y besos (hugs and kisses),

Katie