Día de Andalucía (February 28th) and Día de Docente are two holidays that just occurred in Spain. My school has been in preparation for Día de Andalucía for a few weeks now. Murals have been put up, students have been making arts and crafts surrounding this holiday and the mother’s came in to give us all a taste of Andalucía. Our school was decorated with the green and white flag of Andalucía parading the halls in streamers, as well as a fan mural with all the eight provinces in Andalucía.
My school celebrated this holiday (along with many other schools all over Andalucía) the Friday before Día de Andalucía with and freshly squeezed orange juice. The toast also had a thin layer of olive oil or freshly prepared tomato spread. All of these elements are natural to Andalucía and kind of like “la comida de Andalucía” (the food of Andalucía). One of my teachers proceeded to ask me what food was associated with my home town and I stared in awe and said Chicago Style Pizza? Haha. I could not tell you what the food of Illinois is. How about the State bird? Enough with being sidetracked but … not only was the school decorated, but students and teachers dressed up in typical fashion with flamenco dresses and suits. I went a little camera happy snapping pictures of all the 4 years old in their flamenco dresses dancing around during recreo (recess).
I think she was scared of me :-) But so cute!
Dancing
Mother and Son
Directly after school, my friend Emily and I got a ride to Granada by one of our teachers. He was going to drop us off at the town past Granada because he was on a time crunch to get to his home town which was still another 2 ½ hour drive. However … being dropped off on the middle of the highway was not exactly my cup of tea. “I’m going this way and you guys just cross the bridge … I’m not sure where the bus is but ask around.” Yes, Emily and I were on the highway in Santa Fe. Well … we picked up our stuff and headed to across the bridge that ran over the highway. We stared at this bus stop that looked deserted like the rest of the town because nothing was open since it was “siesta” time. Great, just our luck. Thankfully a nice old woman crossed the bridge soon after and we asked her how to get to Granada. She was heading the same way, and so we walked and talked until we got to the station. She was very charming. As we also had no idea where to go when we got off, she led us in the right direction before heading to on her way. I have learned that the people in Spain are always willing to help. It took us about an hour and a half to find out hostel which was located in the middle of twisty streets, called Oasis Backpackers, and it was literally an oasis. The night we wandered around with a girl that lives in Granada and had a bunch of great tapas. Like Almería, in Granada you get a free tapa with your “cerveza” but this time the choice is theirs and you do not get to choose your tapa. If you aren’t a picky eater, like me, than this is no problem. Even vegetarians can ask for a vegetarian tapa. However, if you’re not so keen on food surprises than this might not be great the best choice for you. Among some of the tapas we ate were montaditos (small sandwiches), olives, Chinese, chickpea salad, cous cous salad and others. They were all delicious and I LOVED the Chinese food seeing as it has been over six months since I have last tasted it.
The following day we headed to La Alhambra … or so we thought. We managed to get half way up this dirt path until the Alhambra was behind us and I thought it would be best to ask if we were heading in the right direction. As we only saw one other couple walking along this “road” we asked and they laughed …. We were in the exact opposite of where we needed to be for the Entrance. Since we were supposed to be there an hour ahead of time and that was at that moment, we decided to hop on a bus in hopes of getting there faster. After taking a “vuelta” (circle) around the city, we arrived at La Alhambra. There was a huge line and tickets were sold out but luckily we had reserved them a day ahead of time. We passed right through and entered. We got a little lost as we were supposed to be at the Palace at four but because we were late we were able to bypass the line and go right in … so when they say be there an hour ahead of time, they really mean get their late so you can bypass everyone and not stand in line. Haha.
Palace
Arabic and the little detail all over!
Alhambra at Night
We toured the Palace where there was a lot of great architecture and design. At this moment I wish I understood Arabic as there were so many Arabic inscriptions all over the buildings and into the design but I had no idea what they were saying. However it was great to see the Alhambra and over look upon the city of Granada.
Alhambra at night
Granada
After finishing up the Alhambra, we headed back in the direction of the hostel for some food … aka tapas. One of the girls I was with got the stomach flu so she headed back to the hostel and me and the other girl meandered around the Albycin, which is an old neighborhood in Granada. We also went to a Tetería for some fresh tea. It was delicious! Afterwards we headed back to check on our friend and shower up before dinner. After looking for a Sushi place for over an hour in an area that was recommended, we gave up and went to one by the hostal. It was AMAZING to have sushi after such a long time! We then went to get more olive tapas.
Then next day we were going to go skiing but we didn’t think the girl that was sick (who has never skied before) would have enough energy and thus we once again walked around and shopped for goodies. I got a bunch of tea from Morocco, jewelry and a skirt. Then once again our food consisted of tapas. We had a variety and all were great! We soon found out that we would not be able to go skiing Monday either because the bus from the ski hill would not get us back to Granada in time to catch our bus back home. Sad times for Julie. The next day we went to Parque de las Ciencias before headed home to Vera.
The closest I got to the Sierra Nevada
At a park at the top of Granada
Butterfly exhibit at Parque de las Ciencias
Birds of Prey exhibit
My reaction when I saw grass for the first time in six months ... I didn't want to leave
Now as the week is already half gone, I am heading to Cadiz this weekend (like half of Spain) to celebrate Carnival. Apparently it is “una fiesta sin descanso”. Hope all is well!
Besos,
Julie
Beautiful pictures!!! Looks like Grenada was an amazing trip! Also I feel you about the grass thing ;)
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