Tapa hopping and so much more.

     You know how last week I told you I was glad I decided to study in Barcelona? I may have possibly changed my mind.  This past weekend I went on a trip with two of my friends from here in Barcelona to Andalusia, the southern-most region in Spain.  We started out in Sevilla and then went to Granada for the last part.  I absolutely fell in love with Granada. I could have stayed there the rest of the semester and not had any problems.

          This was my first time flying on RyanAir, Europe's premiere budget airline.  It was an incredibly nerve-wracking and stressful experience.  Their flights are incredibly cheap, but they're infamous for their horrible service and tacking on ridiculous fees if you do anything wrong.  They charge you 40€ to check a bag, so naturally everyone tries to only bring a carry-on.  But the carry-ons can only weigh ten kilograms and they have to be able to fit in these medal containers to ensure that they're not too big.  Mine fit the weight requirement, but I was sure that if I was asked to put mine in the medal containers, it wouldn't fit.  People were literally cramming their bags in there just to ensure that they wouldn't have to pay.  Luckily I managed to hide my bag as I was boarding the plane so I avoided being asked to put mine in.  They also seem to manage having such cheap prices by attempting to sell you everything under the sun while you're on the plane.  There were announcements every five minutes trying to sell us food, perfume, lottery tickets, more food, drinks, and anything else you could possibly think of.  While I'm grateful that I was able to get to Sevilla and Granada cheaply, it's not an experience I want to repeat anytime in the near future.

    The first thing you notice about Sevilla is the massive amounts of orange trees that are growing everywhere.  You cannot escape them.  We took a free tour on Thursday when we first got there and during it our guide asked people to try the oranges. You're free to pick them and eat them if you want to, however, I guess they're really sour and gross and no one actually wants to eat them.  

Orange tree. Yellow house.

    One thing I noticed being in the south of Spain was that there was a lot of attention focused around "Los Reyes Católicos" (The Catholic Kings, Isabella and Ferdinand).  These were the king and queen that sent Christopher Columbus on his voyage that eventually resulted in him bumping into the new world.  Since Columbus set sail from Sevilla, it became an extremely important city after 1492.  

A statue to honor Isabella and Ferdinand.

     I think I'm going through animal deprivation because every time I see an animal, whether it be wild or someone's pet, I get really excited.  I think I just miss Storm and Albus.  On this trip I saw a lot of ducks and cats.  And a peacock.

Me and the peacock. At one point it started making these really loud squawking noises that were answered by a peacock that was out of sight.

On our tour we were taken to a place built as an apology from Spain to Latin America.  It's called Plaza España (which is confusing because we have a Plaça Espanya here in Barcelona) and it was absolutely gorgeous. In fact, it is so gorgeous that when George Lucas (of Star Wars and Indiana Jones fame) saw it, he fell in love with it, and had Anakin Skywalker and Padme walking through it in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.  You can youtube it.  As a major Star Wars fan, this just made my day.

You can see how George Lucas fell in love with it, it was absolutely gorgeous.

     Flamenco originated in the south of Spain and everywhere you looked there was some sort of flamenco attire.  We went into El Corte Inglés (their version of Macy's) to find me pajama pants (as I had completely forgotten to pack any) and what we found was row upon row of flamenco dresses.  I can't imagine actually owning one of these. They're so brightly colored and loud.  It's crazy.  

They're insanely expensive too! These were all around 400€.

     I think I'm on beauty overload.  Everything in Europe is so gorgeous and ornate that after a while it feels like I can't take in anymore beauty.  I start to forget what I've seen or I remember what I've seen, but I can't remember what it is.  There was a point in Granada where we had the option of going into the cathedral but opted out of it simply because we didn't feel like spending the 3.5€ to get in when we had already seen what seemed like every other cathedral in Spain in the past month and a half.  It's all gorgeous, but it's starting to blend together at this point.  I feel like I need to go somewhere really ugly for about a week so I can come back and truly appreciate this all again.

Sadly, I can't quite remember what this is, but it was beautiful!

     One of the amazing things about being in the south of Spain is that it was inhabited by the Moors from 711-1492 when Los Reyes Católicos finally succeeded in re-conquering all of Spain.  This means that there had been plenty of Moorish architecture built all around Spain in those 700-odd years.  Luckily the Spaniards recognized how beautiful the architecture was and instead of destroying it, they simply turned it into Christian buildings instead of Muslim.  La Giralda is a tower right next to the cathedral in Sevilla that was originally a minaret but was turned into a bell tower.  You could climb up it and get gorgeous views of the city from the top.  Interestingly, there is not a single stair in the entire tower.  The man that would have announced the prayer times would have had to climb up there five times a day, which would have been extremely exhausting.  Instead he rode a horse up to the top, hence the ramps and not stairs!

Gorgeous city!

     Granada was a fascinating city to be in because it has so many different, distinct neighborhoods.  The first part we went to was extremely Arabic.  There were tiny little stores filled to the brim with all sorts of knick-knacks, tea shops, and kebab shops everywhere you could see.  It was absolutely great.  One of the girls I went with, Brianna, has been to Morocco before and she said it was just like being back there!

This was one of the stores we went into. Everything was so cheap!

I got some chai tea at one of the tea shops. It was probably the best chai tea I've ever had!

     We walked up to a look out point on Saturday night where we could see the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Alhambra all lit up.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  On the way back we decided to take a bus so we could get closer to our hostel.  It was the most hilarious bus ride of my life.  It was a tiny bus absolutely packed with people.  We were flying down tiny little streets with only inches on either side. We kept falling over and I didn't think there was anyway we were actually going to make it back in one piece. But our bus driver was definitely the right guy for the job as he got us back safe and sound!

It was absolutely impossible to get a good picture of how tightly packed this bus was.  This was the best I could do.

     Granada is one of the last places in Spain where you can still get tapas the traditional way.  Traditionally, you're supposed to get tapas whenever you order a drink (alcoholic or not), for free.  We decided to take advantage of this and went around to a bunch of different bars to sample all of their tapas.  My parents have been pressuring me to try an olive here in Spain and I finally decided to go for it as they came with one of the tapas.  They are just as disgusting here as they are in America.

This is a picture to prove that I really did try an olive. And hated it.

     If you go to Granada, you have to see the Alhambra.  It's one of the most visited sights in all of Spain and it's absolutely gorgeous.  Someone told us that it gets nine thousand visitors a day.  Although for getting so many visitors, it was strangely not that crowded. It's an absolutely huge place to visit.  Around every corner there was something more and more beautiful.

     In our wanderings of the city we saw a ton of ice cream shops.  While it was a little cold to be eating ice cream, who were we to say no to good ice cream?  We finally gave in on Sunday afternoon and went to a little shop to get some delicious, cold ice cream.  

I had a big craving for some chocolate so I got "Chocolate Negro".  It was darker than zanzibar, the darkest chocolate we have at Paradise Island! I couldn't even finish it!

     Flamenco originated around Granada so we thought it would only be appropriate to go and see a traditional flamenco show!  It was in this tiny little room that once again was packed with people.  It never fails to amaze me how little personal space the Spaniards seem to need.  I don't know if they have fire codes in Spain, but if they do, we were definitely in violation!

They all seemed to be having so much fun!

     Originally we were supposed to leave Granada on Monday morning to go to spend the day in Málaga before flying out of the Málaga airport but we decided to spend more time in Granada rather than make it all the way to Málaga and have to figure out what we were doing there, how we would get there, and what to do with our bags.  It all seemed like too much work and we were loving Granada, so why not spend more time there?  We went up to the gypsy area which was absolutely gorgeous, but there really wasn't much to do up there.  We wandered around the city for the rest of the day before we had to get on a bus to Málaga.

The gypsy neighborhood!

     It was an exhausting day of traveling.  We left for Málaga at 2 in the afternoon and I didn't make it back to my apartment in Barcelona until 11:45 at night.  Exhausting, but so totally worth it.  I loved every minute of my time in Andalusia and I'm so glad I was able to spend some time there!  Unfortunately the weather wasn't the greatest when we were there, we froze the entire time.  Going to the south of Spain I expected it to be warm and sunny, but I was utterly disappointed.  Oh well, I'm hoping it will warm up here in the next couple of weeks so I can actually spend some time on the beach before leaving Barcelona!

     On a side note, tomorrow (March 9th) is my dad's birthday, so if you happen to see him or talk to him, make sure to wish him a happy birthday!  He's the best dad in the entire world and I am so very proud of him and everything that he does.  So happy birthday Dad! I love you and miss you so much!