A little weekend trip to Granada, Spain

Hola a todos! So last weekend, some of us went on a trip to Granada, and let me tell you, it was such a good trip. There weren't many of us, because a lot of people couldn't go because they had already scheduled trips for that weekend. It actually made it better, because when we go places as a big group, we realllly stick out. As a smaller group, we don't stand out as much. When we got there, we checked into our hotel, which was kinda crappy in comparison to other ones that we have stayed at with CIEE. I was in a room with 3 of my friends, and at first, we only saw 2 beds that were pushed together, and we were like oooh man we have to fit 4 people on those!! But then we found 2 more beds, so it was all good haha. After resting for a little, we took a small tour around the city. It was really cool, because a lot of the buildings have different looks to them with different accents or decorations. Granada is very different than Alicante in that aspect. We went to the main plazas, as well as a cathedral that was huuuge. After that, we had a lot of free time to eat lunch and go shopping and explore. Everyone went to the same restaurant to eat, but my friends and I decided to split from the group to find another place. A well-known thing about Granada is that at some restaurants and bars, if you order a drink, you get a tapa. So that's what we were looking for. We found a cute place and the tapas were delicious. What we didn't know was that the tapas weren't free, but luckily they weren't expensive at all, so it was all good. Then we spent the rest of the time shopping and exploring. Another well-known thing about Granada is that everything is cheap. So I was able to score some great souvenirs at great prices. We shopped til we dropped and decided to rest a bit at the hotel. After some rest, we went out for dinner, and we decided to go to the place that everyone went to for lunch. When we got there, we noticed that there was like nobody there, but we sat down anyways and ordered some drinks and picked our tapas. When we got the tapas, our eyes got kinda big because they weren't that big, and we were planning on this being our dinner. So we decided to order 2 more tapas, and that filled us up for the most part.

Then it was time for the Flamenco show!!! We all got into our bus and we were all so excited. The little place was so cute and the dancers danced in the middle of everyone. I had a pretty good seat. The dancers were so great, and it was so much fun to watch. It is just incredible how fast they can move their feet and legs like that! When the show was over, we went on a night tour to look at La Alhambra, which is a castle/mosque. It looked really cool with the lights shining on it, but my camera just couldn't capture it. After that, some of my friends and I decided to go out and enjoy the night life. It was a really fun night.

The next morning we took a tour of La Alhambra, which was amazing. As you can see, I took tonsss of pictures. It was just a beautiful day at a beautiful place. Our tour guide was really cool and easy to understand. We spent all morning there walking around and taking pictures. Then we walked back down to the city and got some lunch. After lunch, we had some more free time to do some shopping. It was a really warm, sunny day, so before it was time to leave, we laid out in the sun. I liked Granada way more than Madrid, because it felt more authentic, and not like just another city.

On Sunday, I spent all day at the beach getting my tan on, and let me tell you, I now look like a Guido from Jersey. I got really dark really quick. It was so great because we haven't had really good beach weather in like a month. Everyone was outside enjoying the beautiful day.

I have midterms this week, and I've been really stressed lately because I've been having problems with one of my professors. He assigns us way too much work, and I have him for 2 of my 3 classes, so that means I have tons of work to do. Luckily, Paco, the main director of CIEE, is going to talk to him, so hopefully things will get better.

This weekend I am off to London!! I am so excited! I am definitely gonna talk in a British accent for 90% of the trip...100% probably...haha jolly good! Well, I miss everyone sooo much, and I hope you enjoy my Granada pictures!