I want to spend this blog post devoted to my time spent in Granada and Sevilla, and dedicate another blog post to my time in Rome. As you know, my spring break coincided with holy week. Spain is an extremely devoted and religious country, and holy week is one of the busiest and touristy times for places like Granada and Sevilla. We got into Granada late on Tuesday evening. We woke up on Wednesday to learn that it would be very difficult to get tickets to visit the Alhambra, the main tourist site in Granada. This, of course, was very disappointing to learn, but we decided we'd go and stand in line and try to get tickets for that day anyway. On Wednesday, we hiked up the mountain where the Alhambra stands, only to get lost in a beautiful gardens. Thinking that it would connect to the Alhambra, we wasted a good hour circling the gardens. It was beautiful, so wasted is not really the appropriate word, but we did not manage to arrive at the Alhambra ticket office until much later than expected. When we did arrive, of course, tickets were sold out, so we explored the Medieval Moorish neighborhood of Albayzín. I love this area of Granada. The streets were narrow and winding and were exactly what I pictured a quaint town in Spain to look like. A typical street looks like the picture below:
We decided to continue exploring and go to the area called Sacromonte, which the man at our hostel described was full of Gypsy caves, that usually held Flamenco shows for tourists. We walked along the main street and saw the houses built into the hill. I wouldn't really call it caves, at least not in the way I was expecting. It was a beautiful long walk that we really enjoyed. We headed back to the hostel afterwards to get some rest and to plan the rest of our time in Granada. We decided that we were not going to leave Granada without having visited the Alhambra. All of the tickets for the Alhambra was booked online, all of the tours were booked, and the Granada card which would provide access as well was all sold out. After doing a lot of research, it came down to we would have to either go and visit the palaces at night or to get in line at 6am for the ticket office that would open at 8am. OY. Well, guess what we ended up doing...
Zoe's stomach had been hurting a lot for the past few days and since it wasn't going away or getting better, we went to the emergency room to have a doctor look at it. This was around 7:30pm. 4 hours later, at 11:30, she was finally seen by a doctor, who basically gave her ibprofin and told her to eat simple foods. We got back to the hostel at 12:30am, and decided that we would have to be up at the Alhambra in 5 and a half hours in order to get in tomorrow. The reviews online said that if you are there during holy week and want to get tickets, you would have to be in line by 6am. If it was not holy week, then maybe get there at 7am. Well, we got there at 6am and were the second people in line! There was an Italian couple ahead of us who had gotten there at 5am! Well a painful 2 hours of sitting and waiting in the cold and rain paid off since we were the second ones into the Alhambra that day!
The Alhambra was wonderful. The intricacies of the mosaics and the carvings in the palaces were exquisite. It was detailed and ornate and yet not overwhelming or distasteful. From the outside the Alhambra does not look like anything spectacular, but on the inside, it's beautiful! Also, the view of teh city of Granada below was so amazing! Luckily the rain in the early morning cleared up by the time we got into the Alhambra so the view was beautiful! We probably zipped through the palaces too quickly, but having we were tired and a bit irritable from being up so early. We spent about 2 hours at the Alhambra total, when it usually takes 3-4 hours. After the palaces, we explored the gardens of the Generalife, which were absolutely beautiful. Overall, I think the wait in line was totally worth it; it is definitely a must-visit if you are ever in Granada. Below are a tiny select sample pictures of what I saw at the Alhambra. There were so many other beautiful things, but this is just to give you a taste!
For the rest of the day in Granada, we explored the little streets. We had a big tapas lunch and froyo, and then boarded the bus to Sevilla! We were so tired when we arrived in Sevilla. It was the first time that we were staying in a "real" hostel like hostel. The hostel in Sevilla was a frat party hostel, meaning it was full of college students travelling. The hostel had all these organized events like a pub crawl every night, and tours of the city. It had a bar on the terrace where they gave you a free welcome drink. Well we were way to tired for anything like that; we grabbed pizza (oh thank god because we were sick of Spanish food at that point) and went straight to sleep real early!
It was our last day in Spain together :(. We got up and was ready to conquer Sevilla. But, it was good friday... meaning everything was basically closed. Our first stop was to find the Alcazar, which similar to the Alhambra in Granada, was a royal palace of Moorish origins. Well once we finally did find it, it was closed because of good friday. Also the huge amazing Cathedral of Sevilla had a line wrapped around it that would have taken hours to get in. It is an understatement to say that I was bummed. The two biggest landmarks seems impossible to get into. To top it off, a bird pooped on my head. OY...the day was not looking too bright. We headed off to explore the rest of the city. First stop of Plaza de Espana in Parque de María Luisa. Boy was this plaza beautiful! Exquisite. But of course, it started raining when we got there. The plaza had a beautiful fountain and exquisite mosaics. We waited for it to stop raining to take our pictures and to head off to keep exploring. We went into the historical part of the city and stopped at a lot of the major sites, like Plaza Mayor, which has the largest wooden structure like in the world, the bull fighting ring, and a bar that has the cheapest beer in Spain (a beer for 40 cents). We headed back to the Cathedral to see if we could get in for good friday mass, so that we could see the inside of the Cathedral. Turns out, we think, that the procession for during the day got cancelled because of the rain, so they had the altar of Mary that was supposed to go in the procession on display in the Cathedral. They were letting visitors into the Cathedral to see the altar. Great luck for us! We were able to see the inside of the Cathedral and see the altar! The downside of the procession getting cancelled was that we didn't get to see it. We did see a lot of people dressed up, wearing these clothes that scared us very much. Remember the very first scene in the Da Vinci Code, when the professor shows a symbol and the audience guesses the symbol, and he tells them where its origins come from. Heres the link to the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hWzLksAWUI. Well the very first symbol in that scene is that of the KKK robe, which in Spain, he explains, is worn by priests. Well we saw people wearing these robes everywhere in Sevilla! I unfortunately didn't get a picture :( but it was very very interesting to see!
That evening, we use the hostel's kitchen to whip up some simple pasta, and then we attended a Flamenco show!! FINALLY! This is what we were waiting for. Definitely some authentic Spanish culture in front of us. The dancers were fabulous, the singer was great, and the guitarist was just wonderful. We almost didn't get in, but we were fairly aggressive, getting the last two seats! Here's a picture of the flamenco show!
The show was great! These obnoxious drunk American girls were behind us being very loud and were clapping during the show, which could have easily distracted and gotten the dancers off-beat. They started talking to us during intermission. They were teaching English in Palma de Mallorca. WOW, that is a fabulous experience- that is something that I would like to do. Anyway, the show was great. We learned that being a flamenco, is a way of life, not a hobby, and we learned that all four of the participants, the singer, guitarist, and the dancers, their expression is a form of communication to each other. The show was a great end to our trip in Spain! By the time we got back to our hostel that night, I had to get up in 3 hours for my flight to Rome! OY, what a whirlwind of a spring break, but fabulous for every minute!
Can't wait to tell you about Rome!
Adios!
~E
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