The Alhambra, Granada Adventure Part 2

The Nasrid Palace

Leah, Dave and, me at the Alhambra

At the Alhambra with Granada in the background

My last post explored the snowed-in adventure we had on the mountain in the Sierra Nevadas of Andalusia. This post will recap the incredible experience of the Alhambra in the heart of Granada and some of the cool things we found in the Albaicín neighborhood.
Suzanne had an excellent guide book that told us about the different areas in Granada. Our hotel was situated next to the Albaicín neighborhood which is where many Moroccan immigrants live. The narrow streets are bursting with shops that sell leather, jewelery boxes, tea, shows, artwork and, other touristy things. The really interesting shops in the neigborhood were the tea houses. It was cold and rainy that afternoon so the idea of a tea house sounded even more appealing. Sean, Eliza, Taylor, Suzanne and, myself found a quiet one called Asurat. We walked in and noticed a table perched on top of an alcove in the restaurant accessed by a tiny little ladder of a staircase. We immediately requested to sit up there and a polite waiter granted our request. The menu consisted of at least 100 different teas with many exotic ingredients in creative combinations. Sean, Taylor and, I ordered the mint tea which is very typical of Morocco. Suzanne ordered a tea called 1000 nights. And Eliza ordered the Dreams of Alhambra tea. Each one had way too many ingredients for me to list/remember. Everything from jasmine to caramel. The atmosphere was very inviting and the staff was friendly. Our waiter wanted to practice his English on us and we tried to speak to him in Spanish instead. That has happened to me alot here, I'll begin in Spanish and they will reply in English. After tea, we continued to wander without an agenda and took in the sights around the city (Unfortunately, I forgot my camera in the hotel this afternoon.) We went out to a bar that night but no one stayed out too late because we were still very tired from Friday's activities. We also wanted to be well rested for Sunday's activity of the Alhambra.
For those of you who don't know, the Alhambra is a stunning example of Moorish and Arabic architecture from the time when the south of Spain was part of a Muslim kingdom ruled by the Moors. Our group took the entire day on Sunday exploring the vast complex of the Alhambra.
During our lunch break, we split up into smaller groups to find a place to eat. Dave G., Leah and, myself decided on a Doner Kebab place to get some unhealthy Turkish food. The Menu del Día included a chicken kebab (pita stuffed with chicken, vegetables and, two different sauces), french fires, a drink and, some mystery dessert (not good at all). It was filling but as soon as we started walking we began to regret it. It felt like a cinder block was just settling in our stomachs. After we adjusted to our post-lunch regrets, we decided to not meet up and find the rest of the group but rather to go exploring on our own as a smaller group. There was a bus you could take to the top of the Alhambra, but we wanted to save our money after the skiing fiasco and walk. The walk up was very hilly but scenic at the same time. The imposing walls of the complex began to take shape half-way through the walk and we noticed how large all of it was. At the top, we saw the line to buy tickets and we heard the multi-language announcement that the morning tickets had all sold out and we had to buy an afternoon session pass to get in. The Alhambra is so popular that even after you enter the grounds, you cannot go into the Nasrid Palaces (the main site with the ornate architecture) until your specified time printed on your ticket. We purchased our tickets and waited until 2 pm to enter. Our palace visiting time was not until 4 pm. Luckily, there is no shortage of interesting gardens and smaller buildings to wander around in and enjoy. Dave, Leah and, I meandered through to the Generalife (a smaller, but still interesting palace). One unique aspect of the Alhambra is there is a running stream/system of water/irrigation throughout the entire place. We would be walking up a staircase and on the sides there would be a stream of water flowing parallel to the stairs. The streams would end up in fountains or small reservoirs...the very intricate nature of all the buildings and the engineering was quite impressive when you consider that this was all built in the late 1400s.
Four o'clock finally rolled around and we began our tour of the Nasrid Palaces. The attention to detail was breathtaking in its accuracy and beauty. The intricate carvings of arabic letters and symbols looks like a state-of-the-art computer executed these carvings. I don't know how the large amount of artists and workers managed to create a very streamlined look to the place. One of the famous fountains (the ten lion fountain) was removed for renovations. The fountain is supported by ten stone liones all facing outward. The construction still didn't take away from the experience of the Alhambra. Afterward we walked back down to the center of Granda and got a sandwich and some gelato. Since our train didn't leave until 10 pm, we still had plenty of time to leisurely explore the city. The Hotel was nice enough to store nine big bags behind their tiny reception desk until we picked them up later that night. Despite a late train ride and an absurdly early/late? arrival in Valencia, my weekend in Granada is not one to forget!

Sierra Nevada and Granada Part 1

First Run! After a day on the mountain

This past weekend was epic in its adventures and length...to say the least. I know that statement is very overused and has lost its hyperbolic shock value, but I can safely say that no three day weekend of travel could compare to the unexpected fun a group of nine students could have. This was the first weekend the program allowed us to have no Friday classes on. With that date set, it took a good two weeks of procrastination and discussion to decide on how to best maximize our time and budget to make travel plans. Sean, Ryan, Taylor L., Dave G., Hope, Leah, Eliza, Suzzane and, myself settled on an ambitious weekend to Granada and the Sierra Nevada mountains. The train schedules to get from Valencia to Granada were few and far between, so much that the only way to get there was to take an overnight train there and back. The train to Granada left Valencia at 00:51 or 12:51 AM (not the European way) and the return train left Granada at 21:55 and arrived at 5:05. Brutal, but we didn't have anymore options. That took care of our transportation issue. Next we had to settle on lodging and skiing arrangements. The ever-handy hostelworld.com and hostels.com once again provided us with ample cheap hostels and one-star hotels that fit nicely within our meager little budgets. Hotel Niza won our business and at 28 euros/night it was a great find. I highly recommend it as do other users on the website. Now, 28 euros isn't much if you actually stay two nights and don't book another hotel the same weekend (I'll get to that later). Now all we had to do was figure out the logisitics of skiing. Luckily, the Sierra Nevada mountains are only a 45 minute bus ride from city center. Our scheduled arrival time at 8:30 in the morning allotted us enough time to get to the hotel and change into our ski gear and catch the 10 am bus to the Sierra Nevada Resort.

Surprisingly, our group managed to change and catch three cabs to the bus station, then make it on to the bus to get on the mountain right around 11 AM. The weather was clear and not too cold and the mountain were gorgeous. It was really interesting to be in Granada and see the mountains in the distance and then to take a short bus ride and be among them. They looked like the Rockies and less like the smaller mountains on the east coast of the US. Rentals and lift tickets came out to 62 euros. We received a student discount on our rentals, always a plus. It felt great to start skiing again. I hadn't been since 2006, when I went with some friends in high school to New Hampshire and Vermont. The runs were not too crowded and the snow was great (it got even better!). I somehow managed not to fall at all during the whole day but, I really couldn't do some of the more challenging ones because they had yet to open for the season. During the day, all of us noticed the deteriorating weather situation and how a snow storm begain to roll in around 3:30. At the time it made skiing even more fun and challenging because it was white out conditions at the top of the mountain and fresh powder everywhere. At some points I could not distinguish between the horizon, where the ground ended and the sky began in front of me. It was especially eerie when I ascended the mountain on the chair lift. It was like taking a chair lift into a great white void. It was very peaceful and serene, a wonderful way to clear the mind.

Despite the enchanting winter wonderland our group enjoyed during the day, the weather soon became a nuisance and source of trouble for us when we turned in our rentals and began to wait on the 6:30 bus to take us back to Granada. Our group was very eager to change out of our cold ski gear and get back to the hotel to refresh ourselves and rest up before we went out that night. We started to notice a slight problem when the bus didn't show up on time and the snow continued to fall and cause the cars there to stop moving. My deductive reasoning led me to believe the bus was canceled or never made it up the mountain. What also didn't help was our language abilities in trying to express our concerns with people there and resort workers who couldn't really give us any helpful information. After an hour, we attempted to call the bus station but it was expensive on our pre-paid phones and we were put on hold. So, without knowing anything about the expected arrival time and the road conditions, we settled into a nearby bar/restaurant to get some hot drinks and discuss a strategy for the night.

We began to hear several differing reports on whether or not the bus was going to make it up the mountain. A married couple from Belfast, Northern Ireland told us to not worry and just take the bus because this happens all the time. An English couple told us we needed to find a hotel room for the night because the road was closed because a car/bus careened off the edge of the road. Another English snowboarded said his father had to hitchhike up to the resort to come get him/still hadn't arrived. A pair of Belgium skiers kept asking us what we thought we should do. It was an international problem affecting many Europeans and Americans to say the least. After some deliberation and consulting all of our parents that we would be spending some more money on an extra hotel room, we booked two rooms at the Mont Blanc hotel right near the restaurant where we were eating dinner. It was only 48 euros, which was still alot but not as bad as being homeless during a snow storm or dead at the bottom of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Despite the fact that we had no clean clothes to change into, we all took some hot showers and made the best of our time in the hotel. The Mont Blanc staff were very friendly and we even got a "free" breakfast with our stay. The next morning it continued to snow but the bus did come! The rude bus company employee did not honor our tickets from last night claiming the bus came sometime late at night, but who knows if that is true. We bought another 4.75 euro ticket and boarded the bus to finally return us to Granada. We all relaxed in the hotel and didn't get up until late that afternoon after recovering from our snowed in adventure. More posts to follow on our Granada exploring!

Futbol, Playa and the Mestalla

The last week in Valencia has been yet another entertaining experience in a new culture and city. A week ago today, a large portion of our group navigated our way across Valencia to spend a day at the beach. After much deliberation and consulting many maps/metro routes, we decided taking the tram to the beach would be the best option. The Valencia tram is a large "street car/trolley" system that winds through the city and stops at the places the underground metro system does not. It reminded us of the monorail at Disney world as we snaked through the crowded streets until we reached our final destination at the beach. The Mediterranean was calm and quiet that afternoon and we found a nice spot on the beach to sit, relax, take pictures and, play a few games of pick-up football (never soccer here). The sand was very fine and provided for an interesting experience when playing football on the beach. January is not a big tourist season here in Spain and it was refreshing to have a large and spacious beach to enjoy ourselves. After a couple of hours of relaxation and socializing, some of us decided to sample the local cuisine. Several little restaurants were nearby and we assumed they would have good paella/seafood. Paella is a Spanish dish and is also closely associated with Valencia. A smaller group of us (Nikki, Ryan, Grace, Chelsea, Hope, Greg, Ryan, Diego, Lauren, Joe, Sean and, myself) broke off from the main group that went and we searched for a moderately priced place to eat some paella of some kind. Since it was only 6:45 most of the restaurants were closed/had not opened yet for dinner. The place we choose was opened and the waiter explained all of the specials to us right as we requested to see a menu to look at the prices. After some discussion and comparing our lack of other options we decided on this place (I forgot the name of it.) We wanted paella and the only way you could get it at this restaurant was to order it family style. The waiter informed us that the kitchen would have to specially make our order for 11 people. He said it would only take 45 minutes (which we didn't believe). Most of us thought it would take about an hour, no longer than that. Little did we know that it would end up taking more like 2 hours. The waiter would tempt us that it might come out by repeatedly telling us that it was almost ready. Or he would periodically bring out the plates, then come back with the silverware, then another time with the cast iron plate to hold the paella dish. At one point, some of us took out our iPods in the hope of distracting ourselves from the God awful service and constant lies we were being told. When the Paella Valenciana (rice, chicken, rabbit, chick peas and, green beans with saffron) finally came out, it was like Christmas morning for us. We marvelled at the size of the dish and took pictures and then proceeded to pile it on our plates and feast.

Paella Valenciana

After our beach adventure concluded, it was time to get ready for another week of classes. All of us have been assigned different dates for presentations and homework is slowly becoming a regular occurrence, unfortunately. Some of the the highlights of the cultural activities from this last week were Churros y Chocolate and the tour of the Mestalla stadium. On Tuesday, our activity to learn more about Spain and Valencia required us to sample churros. These fried tubes of sweetend dough are a great afternoon snack to enjoy with some nice conversation. To compliment the churros, each person received a melted cup of chocolate served in a coffee mug. This decadent dessert is typical of a light delicacy here to hold oneself over until a late evening dinner.

On Thursday, the afternoon activity was a tour of the Mestalla stadium. The Mestalla is the name of the staduim where the Valencia CF team plays. CF stands for Club Futbol. The Mestalla is about 90 years old and definitely shows its age when seen from up close/behind the scenes. Nevertheless, the tour was a great way to see parts of any professional sports facility that even the best seats cannot show. For only 5 euros Diego, Ryan, Sean, Taylor, Dave M, Greg, Leah, Rebecca and Ally got to see the locker room, chapel, trophy room, the press room, VIP seats/boxes and, go down to the pitch. The tour guide told us about the players and how most of them are very short. We noticed the small number of sponsors of the club and quickly found out about the financial problems the franchise was having. The facilities paled in comparison to the Real Madrid stadium but it was still a very fun tour of a place not many people get to see.




After our tour of the Mestalla, we were so excited about the stadium that we purchased tickets to go watch Valencia play Real Vallodolid this past Saturday. 20 euros got you into the nose bleed seats but that was fine with us because a large group of us wanted tickets and we wanted to sit together. The only bad part to the game was that we didn't all arrive at the same time so some of our seats were occupied. The very unhelpful and incompetent security/usher staff did nothing to help us out in our predicament. They either told us to sit down and kick the person out or to find another seat without moving up towards the vacant seats (which for some reason you could not sit in). The morons then complained that we were not sitting even though they were the reason we were blocking the aisles. Despite these problems, we eventually found places to sit and enjoyed the game and all the crazy fans that were there. Valencia triumphed over Real Vallodolid 2-0! Just another week in Valencia!

Karaoke Night in Valencia

So what better way to import our American culture in Spain than to go out and find a karaoke bar and belt out some classic staples like Sweet Caroline. That's what a large group of us decided would be a fun way to spend last Friday night. The nearest karaoke bar was not really that close to the Colegio Mayor where we are staying so we flagged down three cabs and proceeded in a motorcade to the pub/bar. The taxi ride was very reminiscent of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disney World. The driver seemed to think that getting to the bar was some sort of emergency because I could have sworn we drove up onto the curve at one point. When he stopped to ask for directions, he "forgot" to turn off the meter. Despite this cheap tactic to get more money out of us, the total fare was only 8.85 euros. Since there were 5 of us, the cost per person was not too bad.

The bar, as usual in Spain, smelled of smoke and was very tiny for the amount of people inside.
The stage could only comfortably fit 5 people and there were only two microphones. I only think one worked because the singing just turned into yelling at one point. Immediately we requested the DJ to play some American songs by bands like Queen, Neil Diamond, Alanis Morissette and, of course Britney Spears. The first requested song was the bar staple Sweet Caroline. Ryan, Sean, Eliza and, Taylor (from left to right in the photo) did Neil justice in passionately leading the rest of the bar patrons in a rousing chorus of everybody's favorite song to enjoy at any drinking establishment. By the rest of the bar patrons I mean the other members of our group who were busy laughing, filming them or, enjoying the spectacle on the stage or the looks on the local's faces.

The next performance came from Hope and David G (below). They chose the catchy 2003 hit Toxic by Britney Spears; someone every American hopes foreigners associate with the US. The two managed to impress the crowd and never fell behind on the lyrics. At one point, I think the DJ decided we shouldn't be granted our requests anymore; every song thereafter was either someone elses choice or the DJ's. However, that did not stop us from having fun or providing ourselves with entertainment. We think that karaoke night might become a regular event on this trip. I look forward to other small adventures in Valencia that will make this trip worthwhile and memorable.