Granada, Spain

---

Thursday April 12, 2007 - We got into Granada about 9am after a 12 hour overnight train from Barcelona. That was one of the worst train rides I have had because we were in regular seating and had to sit up straight the entire time and the chairs did not lean back or anything. It was hard to get any sleep on that train, but it saved us some money so we didn’t have to get a hostel for the night.

We found our hostel pretty easily and walked around for a little bit before we went to meet two of our friend from Drake, Libby and Lauren. They are studying in Granada for the semester and we wanted to see where they are living in Spain.

They each live with a separate seniora. Their seniora cooks all their meals for them, does all of their laundry and helps them with whatever else they need. It is like having a mother away from home except for the fact that they speak no English at all. This makes Libby and Lauren’s Spanish so much better because they’re forced to speak it on a daily basis.

Lauren showed us around the Alhambra which is an amazing fortress on top of a hill which was residence to the Muslim kings of Spain. Now it is a museum and is in the running for being voted in as the 8th wonder of the world.

After that we met up with Libby again and went out to a tapas bar. It is a bar/restaurant that serves you a free, large orderve after every drink that you order. It was very common throughout all of Spain, but Granada is one of the only cities left that has these places.

The next day we took a walk around the city park which was filled with flowers palm trees and green grass and bushes. After that we walked up to the Albicin. It is a neighborhood in Granada built on a hilltop where all the houses are white. They are all white because it is cooler during the summer that way. It is a common place for hippies to hang out and many people just sit up there and relax and listen to someone playing the guitar.

I had some time to myself and went to see the church where Isabel and Ferdinand are buried. It was really neat to see that. Unfortunately my pictures are pretty blurry because I couldn’t have the flash on.

Granada was a very clean and beautiful city. The weather was a little rainy the first day and a half but it cleared up the day we were going to leave. We left at night so we had at least one good weathered day there. We took another 12 hour train back to Barcelona so we could catch a cheap flight back to Vienna. By then we had been living out of a backpack and a duffel bag for more than 2 weeks and were ready to get back.

---