During the day while we were there it was gorgeous and warm, and we got to visit many of the historical and important buildings there including the palacio, catedral, torre de oro, and torre de giralda.
catedral
me in front of one of the portadas at the catedral
marisol, paige, oresta, alex, me!
I don't know if you can spot Hector/Mauricio in here or not, but he got to go to a family reunion and visit a bunch of his primos! (cousins) His favorite primo, Manolo, got to come live with us :)
Flamenco dresses
me at the Torre de Oro
El palacio
me at el palacio
Hector/Mauricio marking our spot in Santander on a tile map of Spain :)
His first time trying Sangria
He really enjoyed it...
That night it torrentially down poured for a few hours, which was a little miserable, but we found a great Mexican restaurant, the only one I've seen in Spain thus far, and had a great meal while we waited for the rain to stop. Luckily it did and we got to go out and enjoy the dancing at the fairgrounds before we had to get our bus to Granada late that night :)
If you ever find yourself in Spain - be sure to go to Sevilla and spend a couple of days, it's GORGEOUS!
We went to Granada late Saturday night and arrived around 3am - after our taxi drivers got lost we finally arrived at our hostel around 3:45am. We were exhausted and crashed for about 4 hours before we got up at 8. We planned to get tickets for La Alhambra, since that's the whole reason we went to Granada, but by the time we got to the ticket booth (after climbing up a giant hill to get to it) they announced they were sold out of tickets for the day. I was crushed - seriously crushed. We had already booked a hostel for Sunday night in Málaga and we were supposed to spend all day Monday and Tuesday morning there until we flew out. We decided to just walk around and see some of the gardens and the few buildings you didn't need a ticket for, but it just wasn't good enough for me. I figured, hopefully I'll come back to Europe several more times in my life, but you just never know, and being AT La Alhambra and not being able to see it is like having tickets to a movie and then standing outside the entire time it plays. Needless to say I decided to eat the cost of my hostel for the night and told my friends I would be staying in Granada another night and waking up bright and early the next morning to get my ticket :) they all stayed too! Other than my friend Marisol who left her itouch in another city and took a bus back to pick it up - we missed her! But the other 4 of us stayed, and I am so glad we did.
Side note: our hostel was THE nicest one I've ever been to or heard of, and I slept like a baby and felt like I was in a nice hotel - I even got to sleep in a full size bed...so blissful :) we also met some people at our hostel and went out with them Sunday night. People are just so friendly in hostels!
La Alhambra has been the most influential and special thing I have had the pleasure of seeing so far in Spain, and I would encourage anyone to add it to their list of things to see in Europe. It is breathtaking, filled with beauty everywhere you look, and so interesting if you do some historical research. One of the reasons it was so important for me to see is because I have been learning about it in my art history class, and pictures just don't do it justice! I will always treasure my photos and memories there and hope to return again at some point :)
Me and Good ole Hector/Mauricio
Patio de Los Leones (the coolest piece of La Alhambra I learned about) under reconstruction/preservation - SO sad :(((
How phenomenal are these lions though?
Hector/Mauricio and I enjoying the view together
Me and the little guy :)
After we finished our morning and part of the afternoon at La Alhambra on Monday, we took a bus to Málaga to meet up with Marisol and spend the afternoon and evening there. Tuesday at midnight was Marisol's birthday, so of course we decided to start celebrating the night before and ring it in at midnight :) Once again we met a bunch of great people at our hostel and we all went out on a pub crawl in Málaga in honor of Marisol. Needless to say, she had a real good time :p
Andalucía, the region of Spain we were in, is known for it's gorgeous sunny weather, especially this time of year. We got lucky to have the sun peak through for a bit in Sevilla, a bit in Granada the second day, and of course as we were LEAVING to get on our plane from Málaga back home, but the rest of the time it was hideously cold and down pouring - que triste! But all's well that ends well - we left the warm and friendly people, and drinks that come with a free tapa (appetizer) of Andalucía after a very eventful 5 day journey there, and can't forget about Morocco :p
I have many more adventures to report - if I could just stop enjoying the sun so much I could get more blogging done!!
No puedo esperar para verlos a todos :) xo
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