Day 12, 13 - Sevilla, Granada

---

Tuesday 6/2
On Tuesday, I woke up late around 10:40am and bummed around the hostel taking care of things and what not until around 2pm. Then, I went to the cathedral and Alcazar. The cathedral is really beautiful and impressive from the outside. However, I wasn't that interested inside. The climb up the tower was tiring, but the view of Sevilla at the top was definitely worth it. Alcazar was nice although I almost don't remember what it was like on the inside thinking back on it a week later. In the gardens of Alcazar I met these study abroad students who were mostly from Penn State. They were studying for a test in their flamenco class.

In the evening, I went on a tapas and flamenco bar tour with the hostel. In my opinion, the tapas place we went to couldn't really compare to Jose Luis, the tapas place I went to the day before. Also, the group was too big, around 25 people all sitting at one table. I had a stuffed eggplant and a beer for 5 euros compared to all that I had the day before for 7 euros. Since I didn't have such a great impression on the tour, I left to return to the hostel before they went to the flamenco bar. I took a shower and then met up with Lourdes and her friends Ayesha and Megan. Haha not the ones from Clear Lake High School.

We headed towards Calle Betis, the street along the river with all the clubs and bars, and there, we met up with Christen, Parita, Troy, Biz, and this other girl I forget the name of. We first went to this "International Party." I don't know. It was a really nice location, right on the banks of the river, and the weather felt great at night. We were the first ones there and drinking their free sangria. Although, I'm pretty sure it was just fruit punch and without any alcohol. After a little bit, more people started to show up, including surprisingly, some of the study abroad students I had met earlier in the afternoon.

We didn't stay much longer, and soon we were at this cool bar that had free Heinekens for half an hour. I managed to get one and after the half hour was over, I bought another one for only one euro. Hahahaha I also got around two free shots of tequila. A bartender had been standing on top of the bar and getting girls to get on top with him. He would then proceed to pour tequila into their mouths from the handle he was holding, sometimes sticking his tongue into the cascading stream of alcohol. After a couple of girls, he motioned me to get up onto the bar, and of course, I couldn't turn down free alcohol so I did. Hahah for me, he poured from two separate handles at once. The next bar we went to wasn't as eventful and we soon called it a night.

Wednesday 6/3
The next day, I left at 11:50am and arrived in Grenada around 3pm. The train was fucking terrible. It was hot; the train wouldn't stop shaking; and it was loud as hell. From the train station, I walked through the city and started my uphill trek towards Alhambra. Since Alhambra is so popular, you usually need to make a reservation for a 30min timeslot in which you can enter the palace. My reservation was at 5:30pm, and I arrived at 4:30pm. However, it wasn't until 5:35 that I realized I needed to get my ticket at the office, a 15 minute walk away, and then come back before 6pm, when my reservation window would close. So I quickly ran as fast as I could to the ticket office and then ran back to the palace, getting back just in time at 5:55. Overall, the palace was nice but not tremendously impressive, but that is probably because my expectations were built too high from everyone telling me how great it was. For dinner, I had tapas, Grenada-style. In Grenada, if you order a drink, they give you a free tapas. Pretty cool.

---