miercoles, 12 de junio

The dreaded morning had come…it was time to leave our Valencia home.  Our alarms woke us up bright and early at 6:45 to be ready to leave by 7:30.  Our parents told us the night before they would help us with our stuff in the morning but we were a little weary about that when they went out the night before.  So as 7:30 approached there were zero signs of movement coming from their room…we knew they weren’t going to wake up.  Not exactly morning people, but we waited til about 7:34 while making noise in between to see if they were going to get up and we made the executive decision to leave without seeing them.  It was sad at the time because we wanted an official bye but we kind of had one the night before and we didn’t feel comfortable knocking on their door.  Even though we didn’t get an official Adios, it was kind of better that way because I knew I would’ve been a wreck on the bus.

Our room

The bus left at 8:00 on the dot and we began our 6-hour journey to Granada.  I checked my phone messages around 2 o’clock at one of our stops and our host mom sent us the sweetest Facebook message apologizing and said we are always welcome at their house and we are their daughters.  So it was nice to get a little something from them, and not to mention it was sent at 1:30…aka when they probably woke up from being out too late; definitely our host parents :) 

When we arrived in Granada we settled into our hotel rooms.  Ours had two beds that were literally side-by-side touching each other, which was a little strange but we were fine with it.  We cleaned up a bit and then headed out with the group to tour the Cathedral in the city.  This was one of my favorite places so far because it was where the Catholic King and Queen, Isabel and Ferdinand were buried.  I got chills when I saw their burial tombs because they were underground and you could walk down and see into the window.  It was really neat for me because I have learned about them in many of my Spanish classes, and to witness their final resting place was creepy yet kind of amazing.  The Cathedral was a magnificent building with gold plated items all over and just gigantic everything.  It was one of the prettiest Cathedrals I have seen.

After the tour, we hurried back to the hotel to spruce up for our Flamenco dinner.  A bus picked us up at the hotel and we literally weaved in and out of tiny, narrow, cobble stone streets.  If the windows of the bus opened I could’ve put my hand out the window only 6 inches and would have touched walls.  How the man managed to maneuver the bus through the streets was crazy.  He dropped us off at a quaint restaurant for our dinner…which was interesting.  We were al expecting a good ole appetizer first and dinner plate second but we dined on tapas.  The first round was a salad, which was a nice change, but then came the interesting items.  We had calamari (which I really liked), then bread and olive oil (my favorite), a plate of meats and cheeses, and then an odd plate of french fries with lomo (pork back) meat on top all drenched in some sort of broth. The meat was literally grey…yuck.  The dessert was probably the best part because it was just plain vanilla ice cream.

The Flamenco restaurant

When dinner was over we walked up the street a bit to get a good view of the Alhambra at dusk.  We all took pictures and wandered around to waste time before the Flamenco show.  While we were all hanging out, a toddler came out on her patio in her diaper, which she was clearly too old for, with her shirt hanging off her head yelling “HOLAAAA, HOLAAAAA.” So we all shouted “Hola” back and she just kept back and forth.  The kid looked just like Honey Boo Boo but the Spanish version so we all got a kick out of that.

The Flamenco show was next on our agenda and it was where our dinner was.  There were two sets of performers so we got to see both, and it was very intense.  All the dancers were very good and seemed to know their stuff.  They were all pretty young except for Grandma, and she performed with the little hand clapper things which was pretty cool to see.  Our bus picked us up after the show for a short walking tour of the old Jewish neighborhoods that overlooked the Alhambra.  We got to see the palace all lit up at night and it was very pretty.

Flamenco dancer

Flamenco dancer

"Grandma" Flamenco dancer

Alhambra behind us at night

After the tour the bus brought us back to our hotel where we quickly got ready for bed.  I have never felt so tried at night before then and we quickly went to sleep for another busy day ahead.