Southern Spain 1

Successfully finishing my first semester at the Universidad de Cantabria, I think I owe myself some type of reward. How about a trip to southern Spain? Great! And how about you tack on a week to Italy? Sounds like a plan! That is exactly what I did for my two weeks in between first semester finals and the beginning of second semester classes.

First stop: MALAGA

From what I can tell, Malaga could be great in the summer. When we were riding the city bus towards our hostel we passed some great big old structures that looked awesome and the beach looks nice, well, at least in the dark. We didn’t spend too much time in Malaga. It was just a stepping stone to the real goal (well, the first goal) of the trip, Granada. We flew into Malaga, took a bus several miles in the wrong direction, walked several miles back in the right direction, slept, and saw the bus station. Good times in Malaga.

Second stop: GRANADA

After a short bus ride we arrived in Granada (literally pomegranate in Spanish, I did not see a pomegranate in Granada). After dropping off our stuff in the hostel we head to the Alhambra, the main attraction of Granada (and possibly one of the top attractions of Spain). According to a quick perusal through the Wikipedia entry, the Alhambra is a palace and fortress constructed in the 14^th century by the Moors and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (the first of many on this trip).

While accurate, this description kind of falls flat in comparison to the actual building. You may remember from my stint in Seville that the Moors kind of had a knack for architecture and carving. Well, while I was impressed with the Alcazaba in Seville, the Alhambra blew me away. The intricate carvings weren’t even the start of it. The attention to detail was astounding. The details had details. The gardens were perfect. The view of the city was astounding. The view of the Sierra Nevada was even better. I could have spent hours exploring the building and grounds. To make things better, the weather was perfect. We had nothing but blue skies and warm weather.

Following hours of exploring this labyrinth of gardens and buildings, Hillary and I were ready for something new. Unfortunately, we researched very little for Granada. We knew the Alhambra was the attraction of the city, but that was it. So we slowly wandered the streets and took in the truly peaceful day.While accurate, this description kind of falls flat in comparison to the actual building. You may remember from my stint in Seville that the Moors kind of had a knack for architecture and carving. Well, while I was impressed with the Alcazaba in Seville, the Alhambra blew me away. The intricate carvings weren’t even the start of it. The attention to detail was astounding. The details had details. The gardens were perfect. The view of the city was astounding. The view of the Sierra Nevada was even better. I could have spent hours exploring the building and grounds. To make things better, the weather was perfect. We had nothing but blue skies and warm weather.

While eating dinner we met a really friendly guy from Cordoba, Argentina. He invited us to go out with him and some other people from the hostel for tapas. A group of Czechs, Argentines, Brazilians, French, Germans and, of course, Americans headed out to the bars for real tapas. It was a lot of fun and was really interesting to see English act as the common link between so many nationalities. I am truly lucky it is my first language!

Early the next day we made our way to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. We were really looking forward to the trineo ruso or literally Russian bobsled. Apparently it is like a really tame rollercoaster, but in the snow. Well, upon arrival to the snowy mountains we wandered over to the kid part of the ski village. It had ice skating, snow bikes and yes, trineo ruso, pretty much anything I could want from a ski village. We approached the trineo ruso ticket booth and asked for two rides. Then we hit our first snag. The women replied to us that she needs workers there and that we would have to wait. Hillary and I, not entirely understanding, awkwardly wait around for a few minutes before deciding it would take more time for workers to arrive. Instead of having an awesome fun time on the bobsled, we go explore what the ski village has to offer. In short, it has ski rentals, clothes rentals (interesting), and their corresponding ski and clothes shops. We were momentarily intrigued by the Bumerang (we assumed it was pronounced bum, not boom) which was essentially a shovel for your bum which you could use to sled down the mountain. Fun! Wait, no! We came here to ride some Russian bobsleds and we will not be swayed by a totally awesome mini sled. Keep focused.

We continued wandering. We took in the scenery of the snow capped mountains and stopped in a place to eat and play Dutch Blitz (there was a lot of Dutch Blitz playing on this trip, A LOT). Finally we decided that the workers must be at the trineo ruso. We walked back over, only to be confronted with even more disappointment. This time they told us that it was booked up. Well, great Sierra Nevada trineo ruso people for ruining the awesome time we were going to have.

Mad as hell, or at least slightly disheartened, we purchased some very expensive gondola rides to the top of the mountain and absorbed all the snowy glory that awaited us at the top. More Dutch Blitz inside the ski lodge ensued and we descended the mountain to return to Granada.