Trip to Spain

Last Thursday I went to Spain to visit a friend who's studying abroad in Granada. Getting there from Aix took some time: I flew to Madrid, then took a bus from Madrid to Granada. It was by far the cheapest option, but it meant it took me the whole day to get to Granada. By the time I arrived Thursday night, I ate with my friend's Spanish host family, which was interesting—I don't know Spanish and they don't speak English.

People had told me to do three things in Granada: eat churros, try tapas, and visit the Alhambra. Friday I crossed off the first two. Churros are a type fried pastry that curl into long, twisted shapes—imagine a sausage made of pastry, perhaps. The Spanish dip churros into a big bowl of melted chocolate and have them for breakfast. They're delicious, but probably very fattening. Tapas is a surprisingly straightforward idea: you eat at the same time as drinking. Basically, they'd bring us tinto (a mix of red wine and soda?) along with little snack that you pick off a list. You can have anything from potato wedges with sour cream to mini cheeseburgers or calamari. Tapas is apparently really popular all over Spain: you get to eat and drink at the same time. Young Spanish people apparently go to until midnight, and then go out to a discoteca until something like 4 a.m.
Granada's a really pretty city but looks totally different than anything I saw in France or Italy. It's at the same time a big city with wide streets and fancy stores, and a pretty town entrenched in years of history. There's a region called Barrio Albayzin which is an old Muslim quarter from before Granada was Spanish. Inside the Albayzin region we saw the Mirodor de San Nicolas. It's a high-up vantage point by the church of San Nicolas. From it, you can see the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Alhambra, and all of Granada. There were lots of people taking pictures from the mirodor, which makes sense: it was a fantastic view.
We also saw Granada's giant cathedral, although it's hard to really take it in because it's surrounded by other buildings on all sides. It's still large and imposing, though. Because it was incredibly sunny and very warm (as in 25ºC), we went to a big park to the south of the town called Parque Federico Garcia Lorca. It's named after a Spanish writer and poet from the early 20th century who was murdered in the 1930s. Today, his former house is at the center of the park. Interestingly, the flowers and trees in Granada were already in full bloom, but are only just starting to emerge here in Aix.
Sunday was the day we went to see the Alhambra, so obviously it rained. Built in the 14th century, the Alhambra's a giant collection of buildings perched atop a hill over Granada, and was once the residence of the Muslim rulers of the region. But what's most impressive is the attention to detail: inside almost every room, the stone walls and ceilings are carved with minute, intricate patterns. The buildings often face out onto courtyards, which typically have elaborate fountains. And here's an interesting fact: ground-level fountains were functional, for bathing or washing, whereas fountains elevated on a platform were purely for decoration. Overall, the Alhambra is a huge complex and truly beautiful. We didn't get to see all of it because some rooms were closed for renovations, plus it was raining and starting to get late, but I was really impressed by what we saw.

Outside the buildings are expansive gardens, which are almost-always arranged in geometric patterns. Many of the trees and plants in the gardens aren't actually native to Spain, but were instead gifts from foreign rulers who came to visit. For example, the gardens have both green and black bamboo. The green already grew in Spain, but the black was a gift from a Japanese ruler who visited the Alhambra.

I spent Monday taking the bus and plane back to France. Mme G has two guests staying all this week: the daughter of one of her best friends, and the daughter's boyfriend. They're 20 and 22 respectively, and it's been really interesting talking to them last night and this morning. Today I'm going to try to do some homework before I leave tomorrow morning for five days in Dakar. See you next week!