Andalucia

Andalucia was a great time. The internet has been awful here, but I’m finally managing to get this posted online.

On the bus ride there we watched 2 movies and I read a lot. We stopped in Cordoba first and took a tour of their magnificent la Mezquita (Mosque). The design was influenced by Muslims, then Islamic and finally Christians. The architecture was very interesting to observe because each religion has their own style and requirements for a place of worship.

We arrived in Granada around…6ish. They gave us a lot of warning about Gypsies (Gitanos) and robbery but we didn’t see a single one.

The first night we went to a Flamenco performance which was very interesting. Not great though, mostly because the second group to perform for us was younger…about our age and looked like they were being punished by having us be there. They also were talking in Spanish about some weird inside jokes during performances and said it was okay because we didn’t understand…but we did. It was just kinda weird. The first group was older…one lady had arthritis in her wrists which made her dance difficult. But still the performance was fun and I was glad I had paid my 22 euros for the show/transportation and one free drink.

We crashed at our hotel. Katie, Liz and I shared a room. HOWEVER our room consisted of 2 bedrooms that were really nice, with a bay window overlooking the city. It was air conditioned and had amazing food. Katie and I shared a room but we each got our own bed. I guess other people just had 3 beds pushed together in a square.

The second day we toured the Alhambra. It was incredible. There were so many picture opportunities and just a gorgeous place to witness. I guess it is up for nomination for the new 7 wonder spots of the world. I would vote for it.

The rest of the day we just lounged by the pool, read and drank lots of water. At night our new friends Chris and Marcos took us out to some pretty local feeling bars and then to the place where Clinton said it was “The most beautiful sunrise in the world” but it was only midnight haha so we didn’t witness that. On the way home though we got utterly lost! It was the Arabic influenced neighborhood with really windy streets. Thank goodness for the boys and their map annnnnd Marcos is from Argentina so directions would have been easy if the locals hadn’t given us a million different routes to go. But still it was a long walk and we didn’t get back until 2 hours later.

We shopped on Sunday and then made our treck back to Toledo. Katie got heat exhaustion later followed by motion sickness. I felt so bad for her. But once we were through the mountains she was feeling a lot better.

Well that was my weekend in a nutshell.