I had an amazing weekend in Granada! The weather was perfect (about 17 degrees Celsius), the city and the Alhambra were absolutely breath taking! It reminded me of a mixture of Toledo and Madrid but unique. And the Alhambra is one of the most beautiful places I have been to in my entire life. I’m sure it’s 100 times prettier in the Spring so maybe I’ll try to go back later this year.
Friday morning I woke up bright and early to catch a 9 a.m. bus from Toledo to Madrid. After eating a sandwich and buying snacks for the road, our bus left for Granada at 11:30 a.m. I mostly slept, listened to my iPod and re-read the last Harry Potter book. We had a half an hour break at a rest stop so we arrived in Granada around 5 p.m.
We hopped on another bus, got off on the wrong stop, so we had to walk up to our hostel. The weather was really nice and we were able to see the city a bit so it wasn’t too bad. I roomed with Halle, Liz and Jess and our room was in a building across the street from the other nine girls. We actually had five beds but were only “allowed” to use four. It became a personal storage bed.
We walked around some streets near our hostel and found a small grocery store to grab some food. After snacking on bread, cheese and tomatoes, we all got cleaned up and ready to go out. We all went to a few bars around our hostel but I came back around 1 a.m. It was a long day and we had another long one ahead of us!
We had another early morning on Saturday as we woke up around eight to walk to the Alhambra to buy tickets for an afternoon visit. They only allow a certain number of people in each day so we wanted to be sure to get tickets, even though it is winter.
We returned to the Alhambra around 2 p.m. for the most amazing day ever. The buildings, gardens and views were absolutely breath taking. Though most of the gardens were bare because it is the winter, I could imagine flowers and green everywhere. Liz, Jess and I actually picked an orange from one of the many orange trees inside the walls. It looked so ripe and delicious but actually tasted like a lemon. At least we can say we ate an authentic Spanish orange from the Alhambra!
Unfortunately we were unaware that we were supposed to go to the palace at 2 p.m. so we missed our tour. Everyone else was able to walk around inside for the thirty minute allotted time period so I got to see their beautiful pictures. The three of us spent well over two hours walking around outside and I took over 100 pictures of the city of Granada and all of the impressive architecture and gardens in the Alhambra.
The people who work at the Alhambra leave cat food out for stray cats so they were all over the place. Apparently the tourists love them so we made friends with some cats. It made me miss mine at home!
Saturday night we walked around again, ate gyros for dinner and then most of us stayed in and talked, played card games, read and went to bed. This morning we had to catch a bus at 10 a.m. We arrived in Madrid at 3:30 so we had to take the 4 p.m. bus to Toledo. We had “lunch” at McDonald’s in Zocodover (the main plaza inside the walls of Toledo) and then I came home, unpacked, wrote in my journal and checked my e-mails. I should start on some homework now and dinner will be in about an hour (9 p.m.). I plan to go to bed early after dinner, school tomorrow!
I had an amazing weekend and I look forward to more weekend trips and our upcoming day trips. Hasta luego!
Friday morning I woke up bright and early to catch a 9 a.m. bus from Toledo to Madrid. After eating a sandwich and buying snacks for the road, our bus left for Granada at 11:30 a.m. I mostly slept, listened to my iPod and re-read the last Harry Potter book. We had a half an hour break at a rest stop so we arrived in Granada around 5 p.m.
We hopped on another bus, got off on the wrong stop, so we had to walk up to our hostel. The weather was really nice and we were able to see the city a bit so it wasn’t too bad. I roomed with Halle, Liz and Jess and our room was in a building across the street from the other nine girls. We actually had five beds but were only “allowed” to use four. It became a personal storage bed.
We walked around some streets near our hostel and found a small grocery store to grab some food. After snacking on bread, cheese and tomatoes, we all got cleaned up and ready to go out. We all went to a few bars around our hostel but I came back around 1 a.m. It was a long day and we had another long one ahead of us!
We had another early morning on Saturday as we woke up around eight to walk to the Alhambra to buy tickets for an afternoon visit. They only allow a certain number of people in each day so we wanted to be sure to get tickets, even though it is winter.
We returned to the Alhambra around 2 p.m. for the most amazing day ever. The buildings, gardens and views were absolutely breath taking. Though most of the gardens were bare because it is the winter, I could imagine flowers and green everywhere. Liz, Jess and I actually picked an orange from one of the many orange trees inside the walls. It looked so ripe and delicious but actually tasted like a lemon. At least we can say we ate an authentic Spanish orange from the Alhambra!
Unfortunately we were unaware that we were supposed to go to the palace at 2 p.m. so we missed our tour. Everyone else was able to walk around inside for the thirty minute allotted time period so I got to see their beautiful pictures. The three of us spent well over two hours walking around outside and I took over 100 pictures of the city of Granada and all of the impressive architecture and gardens in the Alhambra.
The people who work at the Alhambra leave cat food out for stray cats so they were all over the place. Apparently the tourists love them so we made friends with some cats. It made me miss mine at home!
Saturday night we walked around again, ate gyros for dinner and then most of us stayed in and talked, played card games, read and went to bed. This morning we had to catch a bus at 10 a.m. We arrived in Madrid at 3:30 so we had to take the 4 p.m. bus to Toledo. We had “lunch” at McDonald’s in Zocodover (the main plaza inside the walls of Toledo) and then I came home, unpacked, wrote in my journal and checked my e-mails. I should start on some homework now and dinner will be in about an hour (9 p.m.). I plan to go to bed early after dinner, school tomorrow!
I had an amazing weekend and I look forward to more weekend trips and our upcoming day trips. Hasta luego!
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