Granada...or where I continuously spilled water on myself

We will pick up where I left off, with Adrienne forgetting her purse on the train and sprinting back for it, then returning to the platform.

We took a taxi into the city and to our hostel. He let us get ready for the day in the bathrooms, even though our rooms weren't ready, then we headed out to get breakfast and explore.
I was listed as "Laurew" on the board. Perhaps he'd heard my nickname, "Lauren Lerew."

The pictures for Granada will be a little out of order, because I will be doing a purely dancing blog, and a palace blog (or 2), so this is the blog about everything else from both days in Granada.

Oh, and of course there will be a photobomb blog.





Day 1 in Granada was probably the best day of the trip. It started with us just wandering around town, then we witnessed a
cross-dressing bachelor at his bachelor party, then ended the day by stumbling on a group of older people dancing in a square together and having a blast. It was wonderful. The dancing will be in the next blog, but for now, here's the rest of the day 1 and 2.


Our hostel was right by the Placa Nueva, which is pretty much the center of the town. We stopped and got breakfast. We were served by a very nice waitress who called us "chicas" then wandered around town for a while.

We saw some people on segways, of course.

Here we are getting breakfast.

Here's Allison's "Ain't nobody got time for that face." I probably had just said something really witty.

Adrienne got chocolate crepes, of course.

Here's a fountain and statue of Columbus.

The nice couple who took this picture warned us about the dangerous pickpockets all over town. I'm pretty sure that I never saw a pickpocket, but as I'm sure I mentioned, I just make sure to always be really, really aware of my purse and belongings and I've never had to worry about anything being stolen. I'm also very aware of where the zipper of my purse is located.

Granada is an amazing city. It's so beautiful. There is wonderful architecture, cute shops and restaurants, beautiful squares and side streets. It's extremely colorful. It's definitely near the top of my "best places I've visited" list.

See! So much color!

A cute little side street.

This is the location of the future dance party.

Adrienne is getting ready to dance. Little did she know what was to come!

This is a shopping area in town.


We headed over to the cathedral.

The Cathedral was very beautiful.

The square outside of the Cathedral was also very beautiful.

The Cathedral wasn't built until after the Christians took over Granada again from the Muslims. It was built during the 1500 and 1600's. It took 181 years to be built.

Inside the Cathedral, there were some giant doors that did not open.

There were a lot of little chapels, each depicting the life of a different saint. This was Saint Michael's chapel.

Saint Trinidad (It's possible there's an English name for Trinidad, but I don't know it.)

There were 2 organs.

Here's a tiny hand.

So much color! and brightness! And wonderfulness!

Here's a donkey carrying things.

Some lions and dogs/dragons

We stopped back in to the hostel to check in. Our hostel owner was very sweet and funny.

The building on the left was our hostel.

The stairs of our hostel.

We continued our wandering and didn't entirely know what we were looking at.

But what we found was very intricately decorated.

More and more color!

This is on the street that you walk up to get to the Alhambra, the main palace in the city. I mean really, look at this color!

Here is a guitar on a door.

Part of the Placa Nueva.

There was a wedding going on here.

We wandered over here, which was just past the Placa, but seemed very quiet.

These houses were really cool. Built into the hill.

For some reason, I love this picture.

We got gelato of course. I got Kinder Bueno gelato.

We sat under a tree and just looked at the city and people watched. It was really nice.

This guy walked by with a parrot.

So cool

There was also a wedding happening there.

This is an 11th century door in the Zirid style.

Adrienne and Anna continuing to prepare to dance.

We walked to the end of the road, where you could see the outer walls of the Alhambra.

According to a sign, the square was one of the main places of entertainment in the 17th century. The tower was used by the judge, mayor and constables and Councillors to watch celebrations in the city.

These were the group of Northern European hippies, who apparently come from rich families but have chosen to reject wealth and just wander around Europe without money or shoes.

It was around 5:30 and I had developed a horrible heat rash. It doesn't look that bad here, but boy did it hurt. Adrienne saw my heals and said, "Oh my goodness! You have HORRIBLE heat rash on your heals!"


I did not, I've just had so many blisters that my heals are permanently red.

We headed back into town for dinner. I got paella, since I hadn't had it yet. It wasn't too shabby.

I got some water with my dinner and immediately poured all of it onto my lap. I had to ask for more ice. He asked why and I said "because I spilled all my water." He found that hilarious. Like bent over at the waist hilarious. He asked if that was a normal situation for me and I said "yes.." and he continued laughing.

As we were leaving, Anna knocked over the sign at the entrance to the restaurant. Of course, he looked over and started laughing. I'm sure he thought we were ridiculous.

Afterwards, we got desert. Anna led us to this restaurant, since she'd been there before. She referred to it a chocolate muffin fountain. It was amazinggggg. On the left is the chocolate fountain muffin. You stabbed it and melted chocolate came out. To the right is the ice cream and hazelnut powder. Yummm.

We continued wandering around and seeing cool things. This here is where the major Mosque of Granada used to stand.

Just as we decided to head back to the hostel, we stumbled upon the dancing older people. You'll hear about that in the next blog. It really was one of the best travel days. So many cultural experiences and great sites to see.

The night pictures.

 The next day, we went to the Alhambra in the morning, which will also be a different post.


We went to lunch. Anna fell asleep on the table and I knocked my water over again.

After a quick rest and purchase of souvenirs, we went to the Royal Chapel, where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried.

Their grave stone/statue is enormous. Their faces are supposed to be exact likenesses of their faces, since it was made from their death masks, though they were too tall to actually see.

Isabella on the left had a larger dent in her pillow, which they say is because her head was bigger.

 The alter piece you can see in the background was incredible. It was so intricate. Unfortunately you couldn't take a picture of it, but it had scenes of John the Baptist's life, John on Patmos etc. You can kind of see it here, but it doesn't really do it justice.

The museum was really interesting as well. It had Isabella's box, which is said to be the box she gave to Columbus, filled with jewels, for him to sell to pay for his journey. There were also paintings by Botticelli and other famous painters and Isabella's prayer book. Very cool.

We then walked around a bit more, found that cute church below, then headed back to get ready for the Flamenco show, featured in the next blog. It was another fabulous day in Granada.

Granada turned out to be one of the best places we went on the trip. I hadn't intended to go there until Anna emailed me and said, "You have to make time for Granada. It's my favorite place in Spain and you will not regret going!" And I am SO glad I listened to her.