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This weekend I went to Granada with the rest of the students in my program. Granada is one of the most visited cities in Andalucia. It is famous for its mixture of three cultures: Christian, Muslim and Jewish. Granada was first settled by native tribes in the prehistoric period and was know as Ilbyr. When the Romans colonized southern Spain, they built their own city here and called it Illibris. When the Arabs invaded the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century, they gave the city its current name of Granada. It was the last Muslim city to fall to the Christians in 1492 at the hands of Queen Isabel and her husband Ferdinand of Aragon.
We left Saturday morning and traveled the three hours to the city. On Saturday we did a walking tour of “Alhambra”. It is a former Moorish palace. The entire thing was decorated immaculately with Spanish tiles, stucco, gardens and fountains. It was truly beautiful. There were amazing views of the city from Alhambra as well because it sits in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, overlooking the town. The mountains are really interesting because there is snow on them and they look really close to the town,
but Granada was actually around 100 degrees. It just looked and felt weird to see snow in the middle of a desert! After touring the palace and the gardens all day, we hiked down the mountain into the city and had delicious tea and sweets at Teteria Alfaguara. On Sunday we walked through the Barrio del Albaicin, an old suburb of the town with narrow streets and beautiful houses. After we walked to Capilla Real and saw the Reyes Catolicos’ graves.
We all had so much fun together. After being here for six weeks now, when we go on trips together it just feels like going on vacation with a huge group of best friends. It was a great last weekend trip with everybody. I am going to miss them all so much!
I only have 3 days left in Sevilla. It is crazy how fast this whole experience went! I definitely had my moments of culture shock and wanted to go home so bad sometimes, but I am so glad I gave the city as many chances as it deserves! The past few weeks especially I truly fell in love with the city of Sevilla and my life
here. I am really excited to start my travels through Europe with Lisa though. SHE GETS HERE TONIGHT! I think the next thing to do on my education to do list is to learn Italian. My friend Christina is finishing the program on Friday as well and is traveling with Lisa and I for a few days in Barcelona before heading to Rome for another study abroad with her Italian class from last semester. If my family ends up traveling to Italy in two years, I might look into coming early or staying late to study in Rome for a few weeks. We’ll see where life takes me…
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I agree! Granada is a great place to visit! I visited here once. I strolled around the city and it's lovely! Thank you for sharing this! :-) http://www.traveladriatic.net