10-20-11 Trip Update

It has been a little while since I have written, but this time, I have an excuse. We have been out on the road for a few days now, and we have now seen Granada, Gibralter, and Morocco. I am going to talk about all I can remember up to now on the trip, so sit back, relax, and enjoy.

On the very first day, we rode 8 hours on the bus, and I slept for about 4 of them. We watched Slumdog Millionaire, and even though I wasn't paying attention for most of it, because I was doing something much more important with my time [sleeping], it looked like a very sad movie with a very sad ending; but of course, I wasn't paying close attention. We stopped at a gas station because many people needed to use the facilities, and I enjoyed very cheap entertainment as I walked straight into the men's restroom through a line of not-so-patient girls. Where we stopped, there was a mountain range that Christian, one of our teachers, told me was named "Sierra Nevadas". My first thought was, well that's original. He then told me that America copied Spain. Who knew?

We arrived at the hotel around 4 in the afternoon, and were given about an hour for lunch before the afternoon plans. I went to a Kebab place, which are a dime a dozen in Spain, and got a shwarma sandwich. Even though I was no where near Lebanon, and not at Zankou either, it was without a doubt the best shwarma sandwich on earth! The meat was fresh, the bread was piping hot, and the man put a special white sauce on it that just made the whole package heavenly. Another great feature of this sandwich was that it cost 3.50 euros. Maybe Arabic food is like Mexican food; the closer you get to the actual origin, the better it gets. After lunch, we all met at the hotel, and walked to many sites including a cathedral, a well, and the site of ancient Arabic floors. To get to all of these places, we had to walk through many streets dotted with small touristy shops with lots of Arabic stuff of Morocco for all of the folks who weren't actually going to Morocco [as I blow on my knuckles and wipe them on my chest boastfully]. Eric bought a huge Spanish flag for 6 euros.

After walking to all of the sites, it was well past time for dinner, so we all took to the streets once again looking for supper. A group of us found ourselves at a Chinese restaurant, and we all got a 4 course meal, including a drink and desert, for just under 6 euros apiece.

When dinner was over, we walked around some more, and met up with the rest of the group for our next item on the agenda; a show of Flamenco dancing. We have a class at the college of Flamenco, so that is a big area of interest with all of us. The show was great, but it started around 10:00 or so, and ended around 12:30, and we didn't make it back to our hotel until around 1:00am- we all went straight to bed.

We woke up fairly early the next morning, and went down for breakfast. They had 4 different types of bacons and sausages, runny eggs, cereal; the exact same kinds as we have a school every morning, many different fruits, and about 10 different breads with cheese and salami. We made do with what we had, which for some was only fruit and bread. At breakfast, Christian taught me a new phrase; "Hasta luego cara huevo", which means, "goodbye egg face". Even though it sounds rather rude, it is the equivalent of "see you later alligator" in the States. Our first stop to see was a monastery, and a rather creepy one at that. What made this monastery so creepy was that there were paintings of the murdering of martyrs everywhere; I mean everywhere. Not just  painting that conveys they idea of how they were killed, oh no, I am talking very graphic paintings in every place you could imagine, including the dining quarters. Wouldn't that make for a nice decorating scheme in your own church or home?

Our next stop was the Alhambra. Just in case you don't know what the Alhambra is, in short, it is an Arabian palace inside of a Roman castle. Sounds big, right? Maybe big isn't the right word here, maybe ginormous, humongous, or enormous would be more fitting. The guide told us at the beginning of the tour that we would walk 4.5 km around the castle and never back-track even once. We took many, many pictures of beautiful gardens, gorgeous architecture, and majestic views of the castle and surrounding areas, and you will be able to see them when I get a chance to upload them.

After the Alhambra, it was time for lunch, so Eric, Josh, and I went to a restaurant called Fresco. Fresco was recommended by our teacher, Ana Fernandez, and if Ana recommends it, it must be good. It  is set up exactly like souplantation, but Fresco is much, much better in almost all aspects. First of all, everything, from the salads to the fruits, to the pizzas, were as fresh as they could have been, and second of all, everything was done with olive oil, giving it that special taste. I was able to have tabbouli for the first time in a long time, and it was very, very good, even if it wasn't homemade the right way. For desert, Josh and Eric got soft-serve ice cream, or so we thought. Josh got chocolate, and Eric got vanilla; I had more tabbouleh for desert, even though I ended up trying both of the ice cream flavors. Josh's tasted like chocolate, but was very coarse and grainy; Eric's on the other hand wasn't coarse, but it sure didn't taste like vanilla. It tasted more like the plain yogurt we use for lebne. When we were done, we left, because that is usually what happens when you finish your food at a restaurant, and walked along. The way it was designed was that we would have from about 3 in the afternoon until about midnight for free time in Granada. We just walked, and walked, talked, and walked some more. Eric was able to buy his flag, and I was able to get a few postcards I really liked. We figured that we walked a good 10-12 km that day from the Alhambra, and walking around town, and we were all tired. I went up to the room, put my head on the pillow at about 9:00 pm, and didn't wake up until the next morning. I will continue with the next few days next time I get a chance, but it is now 1:30am, and we have to get up early tomorrow, so for now, ya esta.