Granada: Day 1

I have successfully returned from my adventure in Southern Spain!  I just realized that not everyone may realize exactly what that journey entails so I included a map for your enjoyment.  I went all the way from point A to point B (a 13hr trip).

We boarded the bus at midnight (Weds night) in Oviedo and traveled down to Madrid (a major bus station) in order to transfer down to Granada.  We got into Madrid at 6:00am only to discover that we had to wait for two and a half hours for our next bus at 8:30am.  Needless to say we were feeling a little cranky, tired, cold, and hungry as we waited in the freezing bus station, but we made it onto our next bus with no problems.  With intermittent sleep we eventually arrived in Granada at 1pm on Thursday exhausted and ready to find our hostel.  First we met up with Meghan (my friend from high school) at the bus station (she had traveled from Sevilla) and set off, directions in hand, to locate our cheap yet hopefully lovely hostel.

The thing about traveling around a strange city in a group of 5 girls who are utterly spent and just want to get into bed is that it can very easily take a turn for the worst.  It started when our directions were horribly written.  We got off at what we thought was the right bus stop, and ended up wandering around Granada for TWO HOURS trying to find "Hostal AB."  Finally, we stumbled upon it and just about collapsed with joy and exhaustion.

The hostel was pretty nice I must say.  We were only paying $15 a night and had comfortable clean rooms with a private bathroom (and free wifi).  It would be hard to ask for much more!  The people were very nice and spoke both English and Spanish and accommodated us with anything we needed.  Initially our two rooms were separated but they rearranged it so that we could all be right next to each other, an effort that did not go unappreciated.

After a quick rest, we set out to explore the city.  Since the day was more than half over, we had decided to save the Alhambra for Friday in order to fully enjoy it.  So, with our hostel map in hand, we headed in the direction of the Monastery of San Jeronimo, observing the city as we went.  I am actually very impressed that we pushed through.  Another group may have been too tired to function, but since we had so few days to enjoy the city, we rallied and saw as much as we could.

The monastery was very picturesque.  Only Meghan, Anna, and I decided to go all the way inside but I was very glad that we did.  My theory for travelling is that you need to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible, even if it means spending a couple euros to enter a beautifully simple monastery.  Although clearly a tourist destination, the monastery is still functioning and we were able to see some brothers wandering about the halls.

But instead of describing the look of it I will show you:

Me, Meghan, and Anna

After the Monastery we wandered around a bit more, until we found the Arabic Market.  Originally we were using it just as a place to kill time, but we discovered a wealth of interesting and unique souvenirs and gifts.  Eventually we got too cold and wandered into a great little cafe for some tea and cafe con leche.

We then met up with some other friends from the Oviedo program to try out some Tapas.  In Spain, but especially Granada, if you order a drink of any kind you are served a free tapa, or snack, with the drink.  So, instead of having dinner thursday or friday night, we hopped from tapas bar to tapas bar trying all of the different food options.  It is a very cheap way to taste all of the different kinds of food.  For example, we had calamari, roast beef sandwiches, croquetas (which are like little balls of mashed potatoes with a fried shell), chicken wraps, and I am sure I am forgetting what else.  It is a very relaxing way to taste a lot of different kinds of food and was quite tasty and enjoyable.

We called an early night because the next day we got to explore the Alhambra...