Gran Granada

Last Thursday-Sunday I spent a long weekend out of Madrid, in Granada and then Sevilla.

I went with a German friend of mine, Melanie, whom I met in Lisboa back in February.  On Thursday morning we took a bus from Madrid to Granada.  Our hostel there (White nest hostel) was wonderful.  The whole middle was an open patio without a roof, and with a great view of la Alhambra from the top floor:

"Patio"/commons room with the compys

Our 8-bed dorm room 

View of la Alhambra from our floor

The whole town was gorgeous.  

I now understand why everyone says you must go to Granada to see la Alhambra (Moorish palace and fortress constructed during the 14th century).  Thursday evening we had tickets to go see la Alhambra.   It was also neat to see because we had studied the palaces in our art class from the curso intensivo we had back in September.  A few pictures:

Palacio Nazaries

Palacio Nazaries

Palacio de Carlos V

 Jardín de Generalife

Patio de Generalife

View of la Alhambra from Generalife

Later that night walking around town, we stumbled upon a free flamenco show.  Apparently we had picked a good time to go to Granada - there was a festival until Sunday, and that's why there was the flamenco show.  It was actually the first flamenco I'd seen in Spain, and I rather enjoyed it.

F

Flamenco

The next day we walked through Albaicín, an area of Granada with narrow winding streets displaying its Medieval Moorish past.  At the top of a hill, there was a great look-out point.  We could see la Alhambra with the snow-covered mountains in the background.

Mel and I spent at least two hours up at this site.  Lied under the sol...

That evening we went to a couple different places for cañas and tapas, since she and I don't usually go out for tapas in Madrid.

That night we stumbled upon another flamenco show in the same plaza as the night before, so we sat down and stayed until the end.  

The next morning we headed off to Sevilla.  Granada is now, without a doubt, somewhere in my top 5 favorite cities I have visited this year.  The whole town was gorgeous, stuck in the past.  Green, green, green, with beautiful aged stone.

(And as always, you can see more photos on my shutterfly site.)