Granada

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Granada with my program. We spent 2 days and 1 night there, and it was fantastic! The first thing we did was the Alhambra, the world-renown attraction that is a walled-in fortress containing the palaces of Moorish Sultans and some beautiful gardens. Since our bus was late picking us up from Córdoba, we almost didn't get to see the Alhambra, because we had missed our reserved time. Fortunately, we were able to use our connections to get in at a later time. However, since we were late, that threw off our entire schedule for the day. After the Alhambra we were supposed to see the Capilla Real, where Isabel and Fernando, the Catholic Monarchs (the Inquisition and all that) are buried, and Granada's cathedral. We did get to see both of those things, but our visit was cut short because some people wanted to go sit in the hotel rather than see stuff. That night, we took a walk in the Albycín, a neighborhood with small, windy streets that has a beautiful view of the Alhambra. Even though we got very lost on the way back, it was definitely worth it!


View of the Alhambra at night!

The next day, we went on a tour of Federico García Lorca's house in Fuente Vaqueros, which was really not that cool because FGL only lived there until he was 7. There was a cool exhibit there with some of his poetry, which was worth seeing. We then went to a park with some mini palm trees and pretty flowers and spent some time there. Then we had a very expensive and not very delicious lunch...and then we got very delicious ice cream...and then we got on the bus to go home...and that was Granada!


Generalife-one of the gardens inside the Alhambra

The rest of Semana Santa...and more!

Well Semana Santa was so long ago now that I hardly remember what happened! I shall just write the highlights in order to catch up.

Tuesday March 30: Last day in London. We went to Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, and had tea at this really fancy tea place that wouldn't let us take pictures. That night we saw Chicago, which was a mistake because Chicago is a very American musical and the Brits just don't have the accent quite right.

Wednesday March 31: Spent all day on the bus from London to Edinburgh. It was a 10 hour trip, but it didn't seem that long for some reason. It was really cool to see all the English countryside as we went by. We got to Edinburgh and checked into our hostel, which was a great find. Called Castle Rock Hostel, it was voted the #1 hostel in Scotland for 2009, and with good reason! The rooms and bathrooms were very clean, the people were very friendly, and the location couldn't be better-right at the base of the... rock...that the castle was on! That night we did a "Ghost Tour" which was a walking tour around some of the haunted parts of Edinburgh. Our tour guide was a crazy Canadian girl named Kate who told us lots of very entertaining stories.

Thursday April 1: We did a free walking tour of Edinburgh during the day, also with Kate the crazy Canadian. It was a 4-hour long tour but for some reason it didn't seem that long! We went all around the city and learned some really interesting things that I'm not going to recount because a) I don't remember a lot of them and b) I'm supposed to be just writing the highlights. I forget what we did that afternoon but I'm sure it was fun. That night, we did a tour of a "close," which is somebody's former house in an underground city!

Friday April 2: Started the day with a tour of Edinburgh Castle: definitely worth it, although the lack of student discounts was disappointing. Then we walked all the way down the Royal Mile (the main tourist street in the Old Town of Edinburgh that has the Castle on one end and the Palace of Holyrood House on the other) to go to the palace. As our luck would have it, we happened to be there on one of the 3 days that the Palace is closed during the year (Christmas, Boxing Day, and Good Friday), so we couldn't go in. Fortunately, I noticed a large mountain behind the palace that people appeared to be hiking up, so I convinced Courtney that it would be a fun idea to hike up a mountain instead of visiting the palace. She agreed, and we started climbing up the very muddy slope of what I later learned was an extinct volcano. The views of Edinburgh from the top of Arthur's Seat (the name of the mountain-volcano thing) were absolutely incredible! Plus, I was so tired from the hiking that I was more than happy to sit on the bus for another 9ish hours that night on the way back to London.

Saturday April 3: Got to London Victoria Station at about 6 am. Took a train to the airport, sat there for a couple hours, and then flew back to Málaga! All in all a very successful trip with no travel glitches like the last time!

Sunday April 4: Easter! Holy week (Semana Santa) in Spain is a huge deal, but Easter is surprisingly not a big deal. I went to Easter Mass at the "cathedral" in Córdoba (the Mezquita with the cathedral in it) because 2 of my friends who are not Catholic wanted to go to church on Easter and they wanted someone to go with them who would know what to do so they wouldn't stand out. They didn't really need to worry about that though, because most of the people there were tourists and quite a few of them were definitely not Catholic. Other than that, I didn't do anything Easter-like except eat a chocolate Cadbury egg that I had bought in London.

Semana Santa in London and Edinburgh!

I am definitely going to have to break up this entry because I have done so much in the past week that I cannot possibly fit it all in one entry. So Saturday I returned from my spring break trip to London and Edinburgh. I had a great time-met up with some old friends, made some new friends, and saw some really cool things.

Last Saturday, I woke up at 6 am, took the train from Córdoba to Málaga, then took a train from the train station to the airport, and then flew to London, where I met up with my friend Courtney from Mount Holyoke, who is studying abroad in Finland this semester! We stayed at Palmer's Lodge, which is a relatively nice hostel, though it was somewhat out of the city. Fortunately, there was a metro station really close by, so we were able to navigate our way around the city very easily. After we checked into the hostel the first day, we met up with Lynne, Claire, and Dan in Leicester Square for dinner and a show. Unfortunately, since it was a Saturday night, all the places we tried to go for dinner were full, so we ended up running around for an hour and finally grabbing a quick bite at Victoria Station before heading to the theater. We saw Wicked-I had already seen it, but it is one of my favorite shows, so I was only too happy to see it again. They did a really good job with it too.

The next day, we went to the Westminster area of the city to see Big Ben, the houses of Parliament, and the outside of Westminster Abbey. We didn't go in Westminster Abbey this day because it was Sunday, so it was mostly closed to tourists. We walked around this general area for a while, and then we went to the Cabinet War Rooms, the underground bunker where Winston Churchill and his government planned their strategy during World War II. Afterward, we did some more walking and met up with Lynne, Claire and Dan for lunch-we got to go to a real pub this time. It was called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, and it was an authentic, delicious English pub. We had to wait an hour for a table, so while we waited, we walked up to Saint Paul's Cathedral. Since it was Sunday, it was also technically closed, but if you say that you're going in to pray, then you can go in and see certain parts of the church. So that was a nice little visit. After lunch, we walked to the Tower of London, but by that time it was 4:30, and the tower closes at 5:30, and they recommend at least 3 hours to see the whole thing, so we decided not to go. Instead, we went to Harrods! Somehow, I left without buying a single thing except for a Diet Coke! I was very proud of myself. Then we went to Covent Garden, which is the Fanueil Hall of London. We sat outside and enjoyed a glass of wine while listening to a group of street performers playing various string instruments. We didn't eat dinner that night because we were still so full from lunch, so we just walked around some more-we saw the Royal Opera House and Trafalgar Square, and then we went back to the hostel.

On Monday, we had a plan. We went straight to the Tower of London first thing in the morning, spent the required 3 hours there doing the beefeater tour, seeing the Crown Jewels, and just walking the grounds of the Tower. Then we went to lunch at this little sandwich places that Rick Steves recommended-and it was delicious! Always trust Rick Steves-though apparently there was one restaurant in Rome that he recommended that people don't like at all! Anyway, after lunch, we went to the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Unfortunately, since it is an open air theater, they only have plays from April-October, so we couldn't see a show there. We did do the tour, however, which was pretty cool. Then we went to the Imperial War Museum for a little while, and then we went to dinner at this pub called The Lord Moon of the Mall pub. It was also Rick Steves recommended, and it was absolutely delicious! Good cheap food and cheap beer.

Okay, I think that's enough for one entry. Stay tuned for the next one!