Granada: Land of the Gypsies

We are always so busy here its hard to find time to write!  By the time I get home I'm ready to go to bed.  This last weekend we went to Granada which is an awesome city.  I wish we would have had one more day there!  First we went to the Alhambra, which is very similar to the Alcazaba that I talked about in my last post...I think the Alhambra was based of the Alcazaba or the other way around.  Either way, the Alhambra was awesome!! Absolutely beautiful with a ton of gardens and fountains and neat buildings.  We had a really good tour guide and it was nice because we had earphones to listen to him with, so we didn't have to be right by his side to hear him. It really made the difference because you could hear the history and see at it the same time, where on some of our tours its really one or the other.

another one of those places where it feels pointless to take pictures because it doesn't do it justice!

View of Granada

close up of some of the decoration inside the buildings

200 year old orchid tree if my spanish is right.

these little things are at the entrance to a lot of the buildings and they put fragrances in them so the wind would waft the fragrances though out the house/dwelling area

another view of granada

another pointless picture.  ceiling of one of the buildings.  crazy beautiful.

That night, we went to a "surprise."  It was a really, really long walk, all up steep cobble stone streets, on a hot day.  First, at the top of the very, very long sweat journey, we were able to see a pretty sweet view of the Alhambra at night.  I don't have the pictures right now because my camera died, but I will try to remember to post some of Amber's with my next post.  It was hard to get good pictures of it, so you're not missing much.  Then...it was on to the surprise...
Flamenco Dancing!!

It was a lot of fun and cool to watch.  I had trouble getting into it at first though because it was a bunch of people in this really long narrow (hot) room with only one small exit door and my claustrophobia was kicking in hardcore.  I almost thought that I was going to have to leave at first, but after getting a much needed glass of water and the show starting, I was able to enjoy myself.  Once again, I don't have pictures quite yet, but Amber took a lot of videos and we don't have any plans tomorrow so there should be time for me to et them from her.
After the flamenco dancing our little group of friends went back to the hotel.  It was fun to just have a night in hanging out and talking!  We ended up staying up realllly late though and were really tired the next day.  Oh well, it was a good time!!  (Oh by the way, it was GREAT to stay in a hotel again, I took a really long bath/shower and had hot water the whooole time.  ahh yes...I can't wait to take another long shower this weekend in Sevilla either!)

The next day we toured the cathedral.  I know this is horrible but I honestly can't tell you too many details about it.  We go on so many tours and its really hard to remember everything, especially when you can't take pictures (and when my history is so bad to begin with).  ooo wait I do remember!!  It's where the two Catholic kings are buried and Ferdinand and Isabel (monarchs of somesort in Spain? ...I need a history class, because they are really really important in Spanish history, all I know is Isabel is the one that sent Christopher Columbus to Amberica) and you actually get to go down and see their tombs and their giant elaborate grave markers.  It was definitely interesting.
After the cathedral we just had free time for a few hours before getting back to our bus.  We wondered around and did some touristy shopping.  In Granada there is like a million gypsies who wonder around and shove rosemary in your face and try to let them tell you your future for some random amount of money.  They are very persistent and annoying, I mean they'll literally shove it in your face!  One guy got grabbed and somehow had to pay 1.20 euro or something like that to be told he had a strong heart.  It was a really hot day so after walking for awhile we finally found a cool place to sit and just relaxed.  We got back to the bus around 3:30 and headed back to Malaga.  It was a fun weekend and Granada is muy bonita!

I have a half written blog of a few of this weeks adventures that I promise I will try to finish along with pictures/videos from Amber's camera tomorrow!!  

Love and miss everyone very much!