When I first arrived in Spain, all I saw was the Madrid airport but I was incredibly excited. I remember landing and being really worried about being able to make my connecting flight but that worry was almost masked by my excitement. I had a pretty long layover so I was able to walk around and look through the airport and honestly, it felt like I was still in America. There was a Starbucks and a Victoria's Secret and it was basically just your average airport except it was beautiful and on top of that beauty was the fact that I was in a new country. The rest of the airport experience was normal. I waited at my gate once they posted it and I waited for the plane. Once I got on the plane, I fell asleep and the next thing I knew we were on the ground.
When I got off the plane in Granada, I went to baggage claim and waited for my luggage and then I walked through the gate and I saw my study abroad advisor. I got in the taxi with him and another boy who was in my program and we were on our way. Pretty soon, we were stopped beside an apartment building and my advisor told me that this was my stop. As I got out of the car, he told me that my host mom would kiss me on both of my cheeks and then he asked me THE question: do you know Spanish? At this point, I honestly thought that I did so I responded with a solid "somewhat". We walked into the building and I met my host mom, Mati. It was in that moment that I learned the she spoke no English whatsoever. I don't know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn't that.
The first day we had an orientation with the students who were just arriving and our advisors. They basically explained some of the distinct differences between the United States and Granada and told us about the culture in Spain. The best part, however, was meeting my fellow students. I realized that all of the fears I had the first night were gone because I had other people with me who (spoke English haha) and could relate.
That night I walked around the city with one of the girls I had met and we tried to get situated and figure out our surroundings. During this walk, I realized that there was a park right at the end of my street called the Federico Garcia Lorca Park and I was ecstatic. I love to be able to sit outside and relax after school and this park is the perfect place to do that. First of all, it is beautiful and second of all there is some amazing people watching to be done there. Everytime I've been since, there has always been loads of people walking their dogs or doing yoga. It's truly amazing.
Parque Federico García Lorca
For my third day in Granada, I actually spent most of the day out of the city of Granada because my program had planned a trip to the Alpujarra Mountains. I did not expect much on this day because I had no clue what kind of mountains we would see or what we would be doing but holy cow! They were amazing and honestly one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.
The first place we visited was Pampaneira. Our first stop was a museum that had information about the mountains and their history. We also had a tour guide with us for the whole day (who only spoke Spanish so I apologize if any of my facts are mistranslated) who taught us all about the location as the day went by. We walked through the city and got to see the streets and some beautiful. They have lots of small markets and shops that sell all kinds of items. They also have an amazing system throughout the streets that channels water.
One of my favorite parts of the city is a fountain where you are supposed to drink if you want to get married soon. I didn't drink from it however I strongly considered it.
From there, we took a short bus ride up to Capileira which is the highest city in this particular region that can be reached by public transportation (so I am extremely glad that we didn't hike up there although many people do, it is a great area for hiking). If you go to any higher location, you have to hike because vehicles are banned from going any further. We went straight to a beautiful lookover point where our tour guide talked about the culture and history of the area.
From there we headed to Bubión, which is another town in this region. In Bubión we got to visit a museum which was an old home from the city. We were able to learn about life in that time and city and it was really interesting. I, unfortunately, took zero pictures in the museum but here is one of the town's squares.
After Bubión, he hiked back down to Pampaneira and saw some AMAZING views.
We had lunch in Pampaneira and stopped at an amazing chocolate shop called Abuela Ili Chocolate (if you visit Pampaneira, definitely stop there! The have tons of free samples!) After that, we headed to Pórtugos to look to see a waterfall and learn about the "special water" (that's what I'm calling it, not it's official name). We got to go to Fuente Agria and taste this water (which supposedly has healing powers or something-once again, my Spanish is awful so something is definitely lost in translation here). The water was disgusting and tasted like metal but I gave it a nice shot.
After that, we headed back to Granada and the day was basically over.
My third day in Granada was actually my birthday (21! Wooo!) and it also happened to be the day of a procession for the patron saint of Granada. There was a market filled with treats and the procession itself. There were people everywhere and I was an amazong sight to see. I (once again) didn't take any pictures so I can't show you but you'll just have to use your imagination.
Because I was my birthday, a few of the girls and I decided to get tapas and walk around the city in celebration and we had an amazing time. We even got the opportunity to go inside the Granada Cathedral which is one of Granada's most popular and most beautiful locations.
The next day we had our placement test for the University of Granada to see which classes we would be placed in and that ended up taking most of the day. It was exhausting and ended with an oral section. I was so nervous leading up to it, but it wasn't bad at all, just long. At the end of my speaking section, the proctor looked at me and told me that she had no clue where to place me because my reading and writing skills were wonderful but my speaking skills were almost nonexistent and I couldn't help but laugh because it was so true.
The next couple of days we spent doing tours and getting to know the area before classes started. I'll insert a few pictures here to show how incredible beautiful Granada is.
This bell tower was once part of a mosque but when they converted it into a church, instead of tearing down the tower, they just added a bell and voila!
This is Sacromonte which is an area in Granada where many of the homes were built in caves.
And
finally, the pièce de résistance, La Alhambra. La Alhambra is
the most visited location in Spain and it is without a question, one
of the most beautiful. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site which was
made to be the way it is now by the Moorish emir, Mohammed
ben Al-Ahmar. It was converted into a royal palace by Yusuf
I, the Sultan of Granada but after the Christian reconquista,
Ferdinand and Isabel made in into their Royal Court. It was even the
location where Christopher Columbus received endorsement for his
expedition.
It is amazingly beautiful so I'm going to finish this blog post with about 1,000,000 pictures of La Alhambra and Generalife. Get ready.
And finally, some views from the top.
Thanks for reading,
Kelly
No comments:
Post a Comment