granada

so on wednesday i left sevilla for granada. i took the train and it was slow and stopped everywhere and was bumpy... i've been spoilt by the trains in france obvi. anyways, i get to granada and find my hostel, which was a little difficult because 1)i don't speak spanish (obvi) and 2) i'm by myself at this point and 3) the streets in the part of granada that the hostel in is cobblestones and uphill and twisty and wind-y and not really labelled. anways, i get to the hostel and see my friends from sevilla! we go up to the rooftop terrace because its gorgeous and warm and we all like the sun. so we hang out up there and meet lots of people, which is good for me because at 8 pm that night they left me!:( they had a night train to catch to barcelona so we really just had the afternoon together.
anyways, we met lots of people, and i hung out with these people all night. they were all really cool and we had a lot of fun.
the next morning i woke up and decided i was going to go on this free walking tour the hostel offered before going to the alhambra. so that is what i did. it was a pretty good tour, i was sad i didn't get to stay for all of it because there is a specific time that you are allowed into the alhambra and if you miss it...tough luck. i also booked this ticket like.. two weeks before i even left for spring break because you can't just go up to the alhambra and expect to get tickets...its that popular. (and they limit the amount of people that can go in..)
anyways, the walking tour: we went up the albacyin (i'm not really sure how you spell it) but its another hill in granada (a hill the overlooks the alhambra) and this is where all of the regular people lived back in the day. it was really pretty. i learned a lot of fun stuff too, like when the christians finally captured granada they didn't build one new thing, they just put christian stuff over top all of the muslim stuff, so mosques became chruches, and you can really see this because the minaret became the bell tower and there are always 3 brass balls on the top of the minaret and these weren't taken down, a cross was just added. its very interesting. our guide also pointed out the only mosque in granada, which is very new, i think he said 2005. crazy! our guide was crazy and i really enjoyed him!
then the alhambra:
so the alhambra is a bunch of old palaces of rulers before the fall of granada. i didn't really learn much there to be honest. i got the audio guide, but it was really poorly done, and it was really hard to get a sense for things in the rooms. don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, but a little overrated in my opinion. i think if you go you should try to get a guided tour. one of my friends summed it up pretty well: i liked the views of the alhambra better than actually going into it. i sound so cynical, there were just so many people (in this instance i'm going to digress for a second: the french usage for lots of people fits so much better in my opinion: beaucoup de monde: lots of the world.. i legit feel like lots of the world was at this place with me!).
anyways.
that afternoon i then did some shopping in all of the moroccan themed (i think this is the right word?) shops... bought a fair amount of stuff... all for so cheap! loves it.
then i chilled on the rooftop terrace again, and then hung out with my friends from the night before, went on a tapas tour: delicious. legit, probably some of the best food i have ever eaten was at one of these places. probably helped that i was STARVING...
so that was granada! it was a very pretty city and i had lots of fun! which is good cause i was a little worried about being in a city by myself...
anways here are some pics:
view of the sunset from the rooftop terrace at the hostel:
view in the opposite direction from the rooftop hostel: those are the sierra nevada mountains!
the alhambra from the valley in between the hill its on and the albyacin (again, sorry for the spelling)
some of the decorations in the nazarin palace:
water was very important for the rulers who lived in the alhambra: for obvious reasons, they were from north africa where, in case you hadn't realized, they lived in desert conditions (shocking, i know). so they really celebrated water in granada: