Andalucía!

 Mile count: 894

Day One: Granada

7 am came real early once again, as we had gone out the night before.  It’s OK though, my last minute addition to my luggage was this neon green microfiber squishy pillow thing, and it was quite possibly the best thing I packed – it’s a LIFE SAVER on the bus.  I put that bad boy in the corner and put on my “Nap” playlist on my Bose headphones…lights out.  Four hours later, abra ca dabra, and we are in Granada.  Andalucía was a trip of Cathedrals and Palaces.  Don’t get me wrong, it was cool to see, but we saw three cathedrals and three palaces in four days…they get somewhat repetitive.  

Anywho, the Cathedral in Granada was neat, my favorite part was the obnoxiously big organ set they had, it was GIGANTIC.  

The ceiling was pretty cool, but other than that it wasn’t anything to phone home about. 

Our Flamenco dinner was another story, it was legit!  The restaurant was in Old Granada, which is what you would imagine when you think of Spain – small streets, cobblestones, old little houses, Rolling Hills, the whole bit.  The Flamenco place was literally in a cave. 

First, the meal was obscenely huge, as are all the meals here.  Thank God I have Only put on five pounds thus far, I have no idea how.  

Zuchinni Fries! With syrup type sauce

so. good. 

I think it’s because we literally do not snack here, only meals, and we eat alot for those.  Anyways, the meal was great and as we got our dessert, the Flamenco started.  Talk about intense!  The guitar player and singer were both like something I have never heard.  The singers voice is really tough to describe, but I would liken it to an Indian tribal voice, but singing in Spanish about this really sad story.  There certainly was a story line, but we couldn’t follow it since he was singing it.  

Singer

Whole group, on the left are the dancers/clappers, and the singer and instrumentalists are on the right.

There were four dancers, one male and three female – and they were all in peak condition, Flamenco-ing for 20 minutes a piece, straight.   One would dance, and 5 other people would clap a rhythm (not simple, very complex, each would be on a different beat) while the guitar player and singer both did their things – I can’t imagine how much practice it would take to be as good as they were.  

The women had on the most intense, “I am going to kill you and eat your baby” looks on their faces, like the black girls on step team when they step, except this was WAY better than step team.  They moved their feet so fast and were so into it, it was one of my favorite things yet.

After flamenco, we ended up having a bro night out – Tim, Glenn, Carl, and I went out to meet up with one of Tim’s friends who was studying there.  It ended up being alot of fun, we first went to this place that I could only liken to a huge skate park where there were literally hundreds of people congregated and drinking – it was just a huge pregame.  

View of La Alhambra at night!

Then we went to this really cool disco that had an all glass dance floor, that went out to a huge patio which had a view of La Alhambra that was breathtaking.

Solid day one.

Day Two: La Alhambra in Granada and Córdoba

So on day two our wake up call came EXTREMELY early, but the shower had great water pressure so that woke me up.  We made our way to La Alhambra, which is an Arabic Castle in Granada that was taken over by the Spanish when they reconquered Andalucía in 1492 (it was a good year).  This was pretty cool, unlike any architecture I have ever seen.  They had some gardens that were pretty damn cool, but we have seen lots of royal gardens, and they are starting to lose their luster.  

What did not lose it’s luster was the really pretty reflecting pool that was in one of the buildings, as well as the fantastic views of Old Granada. 

View of Old Granada

On to Córdoba.

Córdoba: Here we saw the Mezquita, or Mosque turned Cathedral.  It’s the oldest Mosque in the whole of Spain, even though it’s not really a Mosque anymore.  This was probably my least favorite because it was architecturally exactly the same as what we had just seen at La Alhambra hours earlier.  Boring.  We went out again in Córdoba, which was alot of fun.  

We started out in this little local bar with house music, which sadly only played for like ten minutes after we got there.  Still cool.  Then we went to some discos, and I was really excited about asking for a beer and being served Budweiser.  

Excited about budweiser in Spain!

To top it off, because we were from the states, the bartender gave us free shots of Jack Daniels...God Bless America.  I love going out in Spain because it is a totally different scene, and for some unknown reason, it is somehow easier to understand and speak Spanish after having a few drinks.  I suppose I am not worried about sounding stupid or being wrong or being perfectly grammatically correct, so I just speak and don’t worry about it.  As for the listening part, I can’t explain it, but everyone is in agreeance it is easier to understand after having a few drinks.

Day 3:  Sevilla

This day started out even earlier, and even more struggling.  When in Spain...

It also started out with another Arabic royal palace.  Once again, neat, but it got a little boring.  There was however some really intricate tile work and paint schemes in this palace. 

Lion tile work, it was like this all over the place.

Cool tile work

The most ineresting fact about this particular royal palace is that Spanish Royalty still stays there when they come, and we visited the room where Coloumbus was initally denied permission to go explore and find what turned out to be America.  Any explorer who wished to get funding from the king and queen had to pass through this room – very cool. 

The gardens outside where a lot like the others, except there were WILD PEACOCKS just walking around mingling; it was quite odd but pretty sweet.

Peacock Chillin

Onto my favorite cathedral, the Gran Catedral de Seville.  It is the third largest cathedral in the world, and there was some ridiculous number of masses on Sundays, something like seven or eight.  The stained glass windows were incredible – detail to the nth degree and just beautiful.  

Unbelievable stained glass

So bright!

Thank you firework mode on my camera, it got some very very clear pictures of the stained glass.  Also, the remains of Columbus’s son, as well as, Christopher Columbus himself were both in that church!  Kinda creepy yet pretty freakin cool says the history nerd inside of me.  Lastly, there was a tower about 50 stories high that we could go up in, and there were some absolutely wonderful views of Sevilla from up there. 

Lots of rooftop pools and restaurants which is a great idea, there should be more of those in the US.  I did not go out in Sevilla – I had a few glasses of wine and watched “Jerry McGuire” in Spanish and crashed.  The “HELP ME HELP YOU” scene, is even funnier in Spanish, incase anyone was wondering.

Day 4: Merida

Merida, Spain is close to the Portugal border, we had about a 2 hour busride from Sevilla to Merida, then another 4 from there to Salamanca.  We log some serious time on that bus.  We have the same driver, David, who is hilarious and always wears sunglasses, a shirt and a tie – we joke that we think he is a secret agent.

Anyways, in Merida we visited the Roman theatre and ampitheatre – they were straight out of gladiator.  Built by the Romans to hold 25,000 people, the ampitheatre was huge.

Gladiator style

It had the places to hold animals, the Royal box, and the moat they would fill with water to have little boats fight.  It was dam cool.  I can’t imagine walking into an arena fileld with 25,000 people know that I am either going to kill someone or be killed.  The adrenaline rush would be out of this world.  Right next to the ampitheatre was the Roman theatre, which was also dam cool.  

Very old roman Theatre

The natural acoustics of it were pretty unreal; we could here people talking in regular voices on the stage from probably 300 or so feet away.  The Romans were some smart freakin people that’s for sure. 

All in all, the Andalucía trip was a success.  Cantabría is still definitely my favorite trip thus far, but I have many more to come.  Team Flacco no Sacco (my fantasy football team) is struggling, currently on a 3 game losing streak.  Oh well...This blog was a long one so I probably won’t blog again for a week or so.  Thanks for reading!