Walking..walking..and more walking.

This week, for the most part, we had class and didn't do anything very exciting. Monday and Tuesday my roommates and I went and explored some of the city. We went to parts of the Alhambra, which is in the Moorish part of town, and other historical places around it. We weren't exactly sure what the significance of some things were because we were giving ourselves our own tour.

We found a little place to hide. peek a boo!

We came across these four men who seriously spoke every language BUT Spanish asking us if we knew where the Alhambra hotel was. We felt bad because we didn't know where it was and then later stumbled upon it. Also, this is a funny story. Down one of the streets we were walking on there were these little shops where people sold nicknacks and native things of the country for very cheap. My roommate saw this really cute strapless "dress" that she was really excited about buying. It was only 10 euro. Well, when we got back to the apartment she wanted to see if it fit and how it looked. It had a place to put your legs. This was not a dress, but a pair of Aladdin pants. I laughed so hard. Spain:1 ..Jen: 0. We should have known though because they were selling "magic" carpets and the guy who sold her the "dress" told us that there wasn't a flag of just Granada so that we would buy a different flag when we only wanted the Granada flag.(and there is too just a flag of Granda) Shady. On Thursday we actually had a real tour. It was of the Albyzin. The Albyzin is one of the levels of Granada. Granada is made up of many levels due to it being built on hills. Various people leave on each level as well as certain places. The hike up the Albyzin was a struggle, but a good exercise. We went to this place where people were hanging out and it had the most beautiful view of the Alhambra and the Mountains.

The next place we visited was the Mosque. It is the only Mosque in Granada. And until 5 years ago, the Muslims had been fighting for 30 years for a  Mosque to be built. Our tour guide was saying that Granada has a lot of strong influence with Catholicism and the Muslim faith. I think I understood this coorrectly when she said that Granada was the first place the Muslims had lost power and the last place the Catholics conquered.

The Albyzin is more of an older area. I guess during the weekends its crowded with a lot of people because there are many Tapas bars bars all along the road. From where we were standing we could see a church way up high on the mountain located on the level called Sacrementon. That's the level where all the Gypsies live and behind the Iglesia is where people live in caves. And I mean real caves. They don't have running water, electricity, or any of our every day needs we take for granted. I really want to go there even though it might be a little scary. I'm curious as to how these people live and I want to see it with my own two eyes instead of just imagining it.

This is just a picture of one the streets we were walking down.

That night we went to Hannigans and the Camborio. I love Hannigans and we became friends with all the owners; Gary, Ross, and Jose. I also get the same drink every time we go; Strongbow Cider. I'm addicted. It was karaoke night. Yes, I participated.

Nothing really exciting happened at Camborio. It was fun except some of those spanish boys are really annoying. I can't even tell you how many times I've heard the phrase " I love you" or "You are the most beautiful girl in the world". Maybe those are the only two phrases they know in English because we all hear them over and over again and that's just annoying..like stop..please. Since we didn't go to bed til 4 in the morning that night, getting up for school was muy dificil... for many reasons. I'm not going to explain, it should be implied. Thank goodness we were watching a movie that day "El Otra lado de la cama" (The other side of the bed) It was a musical, I understood it. Go me! but only because it had Spanish subtitles. I can read Spanish no problem but when I have to listen and try and understand a foreign language at 9846785 miles per hour with a different accent, sorry no can do. At least not yet. Here in Spain they are very open about sex and express it A LOT. For example the title itself gives away a lot of what the movie is about. Let's just say if i were still in high school I would need one of those signed sheets by my parents giving me permission to watch this movie. After sleeping our lives away after school that day and only waking up to eat lunch and dinner, we went to a play at the most famous theatre in Granada; Teatro Municipal Isabel La Catolica. The play was called "La Casa De Bernarda Alba". No, I rarely had any clue what was going on the whole time and neither did anyone else. It was an experience and I don't think I will be attending another one any time soon . There was only one setting for each scene and the actresses changed on stage...yeah..? Also, when they changed they were wearing almost the exact same thing as they were wearing before. So really that was just unnecessary. Overall, I'm glad we went and got to experience it, even if we couldn't even write a synopsis about what the play was about.
Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to take a bus to Monachil to hike in the Sierra Nevada's. When we were on the bus we weren't too sure where to get off at. We saw these 13 year old girls that looked like they were going to the same place as us, so we got off at the stop that they got off at. Apparently that was the wrong stop because the bus driver knew where we were going and told us to get back on. It's part of the experience and those girls were probably laughing at us. We were laughing at ourselves. A nice lady on the bus took us to this hotel to have someone show us on a map how to get to our destination. We are so lucky that the people here are so nice and willing to help us. We weren't exactly too sure where we were going when we first started out, but we found the right paths! There was this long bridge we were excited about seeing and crossing but when we got to it we were disappointed because it was really short... and not as cool as it looked in the pictures. However, miles later, we found the real one. (Los Cahorros). Walking across it wasn't scary at all. It shook a lot and it bounced you a little bit when you walked across. I think because I was having so much fun walking across it, it took away my fears.

The path was really skinny and at times there were big boulders that you either had to awkwardly crawl under or hang on to the little handles and the rock as you walked on the side of it. There was literally no room on this path. The river next us had clear, blue water straight from the Sierras flowing down it. It was incredible. We each took a stone out of the river to bring back part of the Sierras with us. There were caves at certain parts of the paths and some of the rocks we were climbing on were really smooth which made it hard to get a good grasp on, making it a little unsafe. At some points I think we made the trip a little more dangerous  than it had to be due to where we decided to take pictures and going out of our way off the path to get to them so we could make it even more adventurous.

The hike was just amazing and just to think that we were in the Sierra Nevada's is..I don't even have a word for it because I'm speechless. We were really high up and to look out and see everything from such a high point and knowing that I walked all the way up there made it that much better. I had never done anything like this before and I plan on doing it many more times before I come back to the states. There were a lot of different paths you could take while hiking so there's sure to be more and more sights to see each time we go again. Thankfully we didn't see any Mountain Lions, but I think we saw their poop. We walked about 12 miles today, and it was the best and the only 12 miles I have ever walked at one time before. And even better, the whole day cost me 2,40. :)