Granada and Cordoba: Arabic or Catholic?

This weekend the whole group went to Granada and Cordoba. We left Caceres at 8 am Friday morning and had a 7 hour drive before we arrived in Granada at about 3 pm. We had had two stops in there to let the bus driver rest, and ate lunch on one of those. When we got to Granada we went to the Cathedral. It was really pretty, but also quite cold inside. It was really cool, though. One of our professors came with us on the trip, so he told us a lot of interesting facts and history of the places that we visited that we probably never would have learned had he not been there. We spent a few hours in the cathedral, and then had some free times. My friends and I were pretty tired, so we  went on search for Cafe con Leche, and found instead Churros con chocolate. It was a happy early-evening snack. After that we headed to the hostel where we also ate dinner.

After dinner, some of the group wanted to go out, but a couple of my friends and I just wanted to have a chill evening. We decided to buy a few drinks and hang out in the park near our hostel. It was, at this point, 9:45, and everything was closing at 10. We found out the nearest grocery store was about a mile away, and may or may not have run there. First we entered the wrong store (same name, but this one sold housewares, not food) so we had to run across the street. We got in just before 10, and were the last ones out 15 minutes later with some drinks and chocolate! We went to the park for awhile, then moved into my friend's room when it got a little chilly outside. We called it a night around 1:30 because we had to be up at 8 again the next morning.

The next day we had breakfast and then finally left the hostel an hour later than we were supposed to. We walked up to a lookout spot for a breathtaking view of the Alhambra (an Islamic palace/fort) and the snow-capped mountains behind it. It was absolutely beautiful, and probably my favorite part of the whole trip. After spending some time up there, we headed over to actually see the Alhambra. This, too, was very fun. Again our professor taught us a lot of cool things about it. The Alhambra was really impressive because of the incredibly intricate mosaic work. It is outstanding how they could have possibly done that.

After the Alhambra, we headed out for Cordoba: about a 3 hour drive. My friends and I had a good bus trip playing "truth or truth" the get-to-know-you-tamely cousin of "truth or dare." When we got to Cordoba we had dinner at our hostel. Again some people went out, but I was exhausted, and just called it a night.

The next day we started our Cordoba adventure by going to an archeological site that used to be an palace of an Islamic Caliph. It was pretty cool to see, but very very windy there! After that we had some free time for lunch. My friends and i had been craving pizza hardcore, so we found a pizza joint. It was so tasty! Then we went to a cathedral that used to be a mosque. It is the only mosque not built towards Mecca, which is really interesting. It was pretty cool because it was like this Arabic architecture with Jesus stuff everywhere. It was cool to see

After the mosque/cathedral we headed home. I ate dinner, showered, and slept like a rock. This week I finally got to talk to the boy again, which was amazing. He sounds like he's doing really well, so that makes me happy and helps me stay strong, too.

Love from Spain