Granada y La Alhambra

Solo Vaction No. 2! This weekend I hopped on a bus and went to Granada. It´s a five hour bus ride, and Granada is located in the south of Spain.  I stayed at a hostel again as I did in London. However, this hostel was a whole different story. It was AMAZING! I had such a good time. First of all, I stayed in a girl´s room this time which turned out to be really cool because most girls who would request a girls only room are travelling alone which means they´re more likely to talk to the random people they´re staying in a room with. I met some really cool people and we ended up going out to dinner together and hitting up a flamenco show which was an incredible experience.  On Saturday, I went to the Alhambra which is an Arabic Castle that remains fully intact since the time of the Moorish Empire. On my hike up to the castle, I asked a girl to take a picture for me and I found out she was from Tennessee. I asked if she was also traveling alone, you know, just making small talk, and she said she came with her boyfriend then busted out in tears and said he just dumped her and left her at a restaurant and got on a bus back to their university.  I gave her a hug, and she kept me company while I explored the castle for awhile.  I had a really fun time listening to people this weekend. You´d be surprised the thing strangers will tell you if you just listen to them.  In the palace, you can only go during your half hour slot in an attempt to preserve it because only so many people can enter per day.  I´ve never seen a more incredible display of architure. I learned later all the details of the walls are different Arabic poems the pretty much decribe the beauty of the palace.  The detail was simply breathtaking.  The gardens went on forever and led to a country palace which is just a little bit farther up the hill from the city. From about every spot at the Alhambra, you can get a great view of the entire city of Granada.
 I got to see a far off look of the Alhambra from the Mirador de San Nicolas which is a very famous overlook where Bill Clinton, apparently, said he saw the most beautiful sunset in the world.  I wasn´t there in the evening because I could hardly walk anymore, but I bet it´s incredible.
Granada is also famous for it´s tapas which are basically a free ¨snack¨ with a drink order. So, for lunch on Saturday I went around to a couple of tapas bars and got a juiced wine for 2€ then they brought out a big sandwhich for me at one place for free and at another place they brought me meat on a stick with a bunch of fries.  The concept just seems so friendly to me. For dinner, as I said before, I went with a girl that I met, who is from Indiana, to an Arabic restaurant where I had the best food ever! The flamenco show was a little later at night, and by the time I went to bed I was absolutely exhausted. It was a day of doing a lot of typical things from the city of Granada, and it had a great addition of sunshine to add to the already really relaxing and friendly atmosphere.

The following morning, I went on a walking tour that the hostel provides for free through the Albaycín neighborhood which is the original Moorish city. I had walked through it on Saturday, but didn´t really know what I was looking at, but this girl gave us a whole history lesson of the city and it was incredible.  The girl from Indiana came with me to lunch, again Middle Eastern food. I had a really good time meeting new people and hearing a bit about their lives and where they´re from and why they´re there. Having such a pleasant time in this city just made me more excited for more visits throughout Spain.