Muffinnuggins and Tinselfingers go to Granada

GRANADA

Hello there blog followers, let me tell you about last week!

I had most of my finals/final papers last week, but now I am ALMOST done with school stuff!!  I just have one more when I get back from the land of the Celts.

Anyway, so on Tuesday, Real Madrid and Barca (two v.v. important Spanish fútbol teams DUH!) played and Real Madrid lost miserably.  I watched this in a bar with some rowdy fútbol fans.  Unfortunately, Rachel did not attend because she assumed that we were all going to the real game (which was in Barcelona) and didn’t think her finances could handle that.  But we really just watched it in a bar.

On Thursday Rachel and I went out for tapas with Felicia, her dad, and some other friends.  And then we went to CASA DE CERVEZA! (sans Felicia’s dad).   We were feeling very international and so we ordered beers form around the world.  My fave was Delirium Tremens, which hopefully I do not get after this trip. 

The following morning, Rachel and I boarded a bus at 7am, (still recovering from the DTs) and went to GRANADA!  It had snowed that morning so the scenery was quite beautiful.

Here is Rachel at a snowy rest stop.

We got in at 12 and headed to our hostel.  We tried to take one cab, but we were promptly kicked out (who knows why).  The hostel was a little sketchier than we were bargaining for, but it all turned out to be fine. 

We took a bus up to the Alhambra where I fed my lunch to some cats.  First we went to the Generalife Garden.  This is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen.  Rachel and I decided that we liked this garden even more than those of Versailles. 

We then toured the palace, which is also super cool.  The views of the city were incredible.  We met up with Felicia and her dad; they were also in Granada.

Granada

The Sierra Nevada mountains

 It was windy, I promise

Here is a side note on my shabby personal appearance.  Although it looks like all of the pictures of me in this blog were taken on the same day, they were not.  I just do not have very many clothes with me. And this is starting to become a problem because almost all of them have holes now. (ie. Both pairs of jeans, sweaters, shirts, a skirt, my coat, a scarf, some socks, my gloves, my shoes, my boots, my backpack and even my wallet are all ripping).    I am not really sure what I to do except wear all of my holey clothes at once.  Hopefully they will not fall completely apart in the next two weeks. 

Anyway, after seeing the Alhambra, we got ice cream.  This sounds like a great idea, but really I have never been so cold in my life (even though I was wearing all of my holey clothes).  So Rachel and I ran back to the hostel and got under our covers.  To distract ourselves from our hypothermia, and the eerie piano music drifting from the ceiling of our creepy room; we made up stories.  Which was tons o’ fun until we realized we were having a conversation as Mr. Potato Head and Muffinnuggins the Christmas elf.  So we quickly got ourselves out of there, clinging to the shreds of our sanity.

We went out to dinner with Felicia and her dad.  There was quite the scare that there might be brains in Felicia and Rachel’s entrees, but luckily this was a miscommunication and they were really mushrooms.   After dinner we had the most delicious star fruit mojitos in the entire universe, and then went to bed.

The next day we did some souvenir shopping and, of course went to a cathedral!  We saw the tomb of the Reyes Catolicos (Isabel and Ferdinand). So cool!  We have seen the tomb of every Spanish monarch since the 1450s.  The cathedral was also very impressive and huge.   We also ate a granada (pomegranate) in honor of the city.  We used my house keys to cut it!

After getting lunch, we boarded the most crowded city bus I have ever been on (there must have been 60 people on that bus) and then boarded another bus back to Madrid.  Luckily we were entertained by Never Been Kissed and… High School Musical 3!  These movies only get better when dubbed.   And so, although we were only in Granada for 26 hours, it was certainly worth it. 

Sunday was a day of work, but I finished my paper and am even closer to being done with UC3M and the convoluted Spanish education system!!!

That night, we went out for the most American thing in the world.  Beer and football (no, not soccer).  It was GREAT!

Today we went out for Indian food for lunch and then llaollao (like yow yow) for some frozen yoghurt.  Unfortunately I have not been able to accomplish anything because everywhere is closed, even the supermarkets!  Today is a celebration of Spain’s constitution.  I need to print some tickets, get $$ on my phone, and buy a blanket before tomorrow.  But as that is unlikely to occur, I will have to walk from the airport to Jerilyn’s apt, and I guess sleep in all of my holey clothes.

Tomorrow I am leaving Madrid and Rachel for Ireland where I will be visiting my friend Jerilyn for a week.  I am so so so excited!!!!!

Hasta la vista,

Hilary