Granada, España! Day 2 - 9/05/10

Man oh man! The morning after was a pain in the butt! I hadn’t finished packing for my trip to Granada and I got a wake up call from me dear friend Shelley at around 8 AM to catch out 9 AM bus to Granada. I was in such a rush to get ready but – I made it! 4 of us (Me, Sarah, Maria & Shelley) headed to Granada for 2 nights mainly to see La Alhambra. After the 4 ½ bus ride – consisting of lots of sleep - we arrived in Granada. The city is pretty big but everything is so close together and all the houses are so cute & small.

Our hostel was in the Albaicín area of Granada & was very close the La Alhambra and everything the tourist would want to see so it was great. Almost everything was walking distance and if not there was a bus stop right at the bottom of the street to take us there. When we arrived the first thing we all did was shower and get ready for the day. It was around 3 when we headed out to the internet cafe to get in touch with a friend who missed the bus. After that we went to a place called Oh!LaLa for a late lunch. We each got a different paella & of course our usual sangria.

After refueling we headed out to explore. We had the most amazing ice cream that Maria & Sarah’s cab driver suggested. It’s homemade & man oh man I have never tasted anything better then it! After that we headed across the street to the Granada Cathedral and did a tour of it. You weren’t allowed to take pictures but I got some really good ones. The ceilings were SOOO high and there were HUGE wood carvings that were floor to ceiling on just about ever wall. There was just so much detail. Here is a picture so you can get an idea of how elegant and detailed it was: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Andalusia_hl_20060811_006.jpg

After the Cathedral we did some shopping and exploring the city. That night we went out to Sacromonte which is known for its cave district & flamenco dancing. The bus ride there was very interesting. The streets are so narrow and they are packed with people – I don’t understand how people do not get run over!! The busses just squeeze past! And when they turn corners they barely slow down and just blow their horn to warn oncoming cars – we almost went head on into a BMW that was flying around the corner but he had to back up so we could get past. I have a fun video of the bus rides around Sacromonte :D

We headed there around 7 pm to see the sun setting over La Alhambra – such a gorgeous sight. You can see La Alhambra on a hill across the way and bellow is the city and with the mountains in the distance it is just amazing! While we were waiting for sun set we walked up into the hilly city to see the neighborhood – we ran into a small restaurant and there was 2 older men sitting at the bar listening to music. One man started dancing for us and speaking in Spanish to the other man. Luckily! Maria speaks Spanish and as they talked she began to laugh and repeat what they were saying in Spanish. He was telling the other man that he brought us here form far away to see the sights and was joking around saying we were with him. Too funny!

We head back into town once the sun set and grabbed some Pizza at a place called Nemrut Doner Kebap. It was really yummy! After that we had a little search & rescue mission for one of the girls who decided to go out and search for a pay phone at 1 AM. But she was fine and ended up heading back to the hostel and we didn’t know she was there for about a half hour.  Besides that the night was a lot of fun! While we were searching we ran into a group of SASers and got free shots at a nearby bar – 19 of us! It was too funny all of us jammed into a small bar. After hanging out there for a little we went to a bar called Tranta because our waiter had a crush on Maria and gave us drink vouchers for it. ;) It was a pretty cool bar but we were so tired and only stayed for a drink then headed back for a good nights rest because we had La Alhambra tomorrow!!

Sorry for the long posts :P I just don't want to forget anything!