This weekend we visited Granada with USAC. There are a few included excursions with our program and this was one of them. We left Friday morning at 10 am (yay for no school!) for our 5 hour bus ride to Granada. Granada is located near the southern tip of Spain, just north of morocco. However, it’s actually a lot colder than Alicante because it is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Temperatures during the weekend were in the 50s.

The drive into Granada was actually one of my favorite parts about the trip. The weather was perfect and we drove through the Sierra Nevadas. We had beautiful views of the snowy mountains the whole way into the city so that definitely made it a little less boring.

Once we arrived in Granada we had an hour to get settled in the hotel. I shared a room with Corey and Zoe.. the hotel was really nice and had the typical Spanish set up – one twin bed and a queen bed (aka 2 twin beds pushed together). After we got cleaned up we headed out for our walking tour of the city.

The tour led us up to el Mirador (“the viewpoint”) where we stopped for some beer and sangria and amazing views of the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevadas

Walking back from El Mirador

Palm trees AND snowy mountains

This weekend I also discovered one of the greatest food creations of all time: Kebaps (“kebabs”.. but different from the US) Kebaps are really popular in this area of spain (including Alicante). They are actually a turkish food but we have a pretty good mix of Mediterranean food around here.  You pick the type of meet you want (lamb, chicken or beef) and the toppings (usually lettuce, tomato and onion) and they top it with 2 types of sauces, one white and kind of like a garlic yogurt sauce and one red tomato/pepper sauce. They come in the form of pitas or platters and they are AMAZING. I am not even going to make public how many of these I had (they are huge.. and I had multiple throughout the weekend) but I am definitely not regretting it. I think I could eat them every day. I don’t know why I hadn’t tried them before Granada because they are all over Alicante (what was I thinking??) but I’m so glad I finally did. LIFE. CHANGING.

Saturday morning we went for our tour of the Alhambra, Granada’s most famous landmark. It was BEATIFUL. The Alhambra consists of 3 complexes – the fortress, the palaces and the generalife (gardens) Our tourguide was great .. a typical little Spanish woman and SO funny.

“Men from Granada like to sit in their arm chair and have their woman bring everything to them .They except women to always say yes, yes, yes. That is why I have dog instead.. because I say no.”

After the tour we were all exhausted and headed immediately for Kebap King, one of the best Kebap restaurants. We stormed the tiny place and devoured our kebaps in seconds .. so yummy. After a little siesta we headed out for Sangria and tapas.

Saturday night was probably the best part of the weekend. Some friends and I went to the Banos Arabes (Arab Baths). I don’t really know the best way to describe it but they are a series of pools inside a building (with Arabian décor). There are lots of candles, dim orange-y lights, aromatherapy, mint tea and massages. The whole place has marble floors and little water falls. After you shower, you go in the luke-warm pool. It was about 5 feet deep.. after soaking there for while you move to the hot pool (102 degrees), about 2 feet deep, then the small cold (VERY cold .. 68 degrees!) then repeat again. There was also a steam room, and hot slabs of stone to lay on (my favorite) you pay for an hour and a half session and since it was recommended my USAC we decided to check it out. It was AMAZING.. so relaxing and peaceful. It was basically silent besides trickling water and soothing music. I could do that every night. Cameras weren’t allowed but here are some pictures from the website.. its hard to really explain what it is without pictures but you can get the idea! 

Hot bath

Hot stones 

Medium bath

You can see more about the baths at http://www.hammamspain.com/ (Granada) they have a pretty good website with alot of pictures!

Hasta Luego!