The Alhambra

As you saw from a previous post, the Alhambra was on my list of places that I really wanted to see before I left Spain. A friend of mine had told me that I should buy tickets in advance so that I could be sure to get in. Chris and I didn't have a lot of internet access and by the time we got around to buying the tickets online, they were all sold out! (The government limits the number of people allowed inside per day to help preserve the monument) I was disappointed, to say the least. Once we got to Granada I talked to the tourist office and they said that I should try calling the office to see if they had other tickets available. Unfortunately they were all sold out as well but the lady I talked to told me that they reserve some tickets for people who come the day of. She said that the office opened at 8, but that I should go early to make sure I got tickets. So our Alhambra adventure began. We woke up at the crack of dawn and took a taxi to the ticket office. Unfortunately there was already a line, and since I didn't know how many people they were going to let in, I was worried:

The a million more people showed up:

And we were less worried:

And then the ticket office opened and . . .

We got tickets!! I was very excited!

Castles and Palaces oh my!

While in Spain I wanted to make sure and do some touristy things. I had never been to Europe before and I wanted to be able to experience the history of Spain by visiting everything ancient that they had. I quickly realized that when it came to Cathedrals and churches (with the exception of the Sagrada Familia) it was basically, you've seen one church, you've seen them all. SO my new focus became Palaces and Castles. What little girl didn't dream of living in one of these when they were younger?

Our first stop was the Aljefera in Zaragoza. It was beautiful on the inside, decorated first by the Arabs (which is where the awesome architecture comes from) and next by the Catholics (which is where the awesome ceilings come from).

Next we went to the Castle ruins in Jatavia. This one was mostly destroyed by the French invasion and an earthquake in the 1700s, but it was still really cool to see.

You can see it behind Chris, we had to hike up a hill to see it (or we could have taken a tourist bus, but we were feeling adventurous)

the view from the top was awesome

of course the toilet was still in tact :)

Next up was the Alhambra in Granada. This was one of the reasons I switched our last destination from Malaga to Granada, I really wanted to see the Alhambra in all of its beautiful Arabic glory. Getting inside proved harder than I anticipated, but that story is for another blog. The Alhambra is more than a palace or a castle. It is a mini-royal city nestled in a hill behind HUGE castle walls. There are two palaces (one built by the arabs and one by the catholics), a fort for the soldiers, some AMAZING gardens that surround the place, it is literally a maze of gardens, and a garden palace. Unfortunately by the time we got the gardens we were STARVING and didn't really take many pictures, but we got some of the other parts.

the entrance hall to the Nasarid Palace

On a terrace

There were so many interesting pools like this inside and outside the Palace

The Charles the 5th Palace

And our only picture of the gardens, it definitely does not do them justice!

Next up for me was a palace that had been on my list ever since I bought my guide book to Spain. It is one of the first pictures in the book and its caption explained how it was the palace that Walt Disney fashioned Cinderella's castle after. Any girl who has ever imagined herself a princess couldn't miss this one! The Sunday that Chris left proved the perfect day for me to go visit it because it was in a small town on the way to Salamanca from Madrid. It was my favorite Palace by far, it was so beautiful and they had furniture from the time inside, which made the experience even better!

The Throne Room

The bedroom, with sheets woven with gold!

the garden from the terrace

And a view of the back of the palace

Week of Spain

I'm home! And now it is time to share some of my travels with you. Here is a little preview of what is to come:

You'll see some food that we ate:

And some Roman ruins:

Also some pretty sweet churches:

And many amazing palaces and castles:

You will also be introduced to some of the awesome friends I made while in Spain:

It should be lots of fun!

The Rain In Spain . . .

. . . follows me to the beach! Well, kind of. Our first day in Barcelona we decided to hang out on the beach. After about 5 hours it started to rain, and when we got back to our bed and breakfast we discovered there was forecast for rain almost the whole time we are here! Lucky for us the sun came out today and it looks like the forecast will be good from here on out, good thing the weather people are wrong sometimes!

I am finally at a computer where I can upload photos, and as luck would have it, I left my USB cord in Salamanca! Oh well . . . the photo anticipation continues.

Zaragoza was an awesome town to visit. The Roman ruins were amazing, their central plaza was a great hangout spot, and for being a large city, it was rather quiet.

Barcelona is packed. The beach is packed, the tourist buses are packed, every thing is packed! I am loving it here, the sites have been great and I have enjoyed some sun, but I think the smaller cities are more my style, good thing our next town is tiny, and our bed and breakfast has a pool just for us!

Chris is coming!

I am very excited because Chris is arriving in Spain today. I am so excited to travel around with him, I just know he is going to love Spain. I am also excited for him to have some vacation time to relax . . . Spain style!

Since I am leaving school for the next two weeks I am not sure what my internet availability will be like, so I thought I would give you our itenterary so you at least know what we are doing.

1st Stop: Salamanca for 2 days. I wanted a chance to show Chris around the city that I have been staying in so he can fall in love with it too.

2nd Stop: Zaragoza for 2 days. This is a city a bit north of Madrid. I planned this stop because the trip from Salamance to Barcelona was so long and I wanted to break it up a little. However, it turns out that this is an amazing city in and of itself. When I told my teachers my itenterary today they both said that they loved Zaragoza and that it was very beautiful!

3rd Stop: Barcelona for 4 days. We are staying at a really cool bed and breakfast in the middle of the city. I can´t wait to see all of the sites and spend some time at the beautiful beaches.

4th Stop: Xativa for 3days. Xativa is about 30 minutes away from Valencia, and it is a pretty small town. We are staying at a bed and breakfast that is kind of out of town a bit. The house has a pool and one of the owners is a massage therapist! We probably won't do many touristy things here but instead we will spend some time relaxing.

5th Stop: Granada for 4 days. This was a last minute change. We were planning to go to Malaga which is a beach town in the south of Spain. Malaga proved hard to get to from Valencia and so many people I have talked to told me that Granada is their favorite town in Spain. So I found a hotel in Granada and cancelled the one in Malaga. Granada is home to one of the most visted castles in Spain and I am so excited to go there!



Next we will spend the night in Madrid and Chris leaves the next morning. I have one more week in Salamanca and then I will be home as well! I'm sure the time will fly by, but hopefully not too fast!

Finally Good Food

Although I had good food in San Sebastian, I had yet to find any in Salamanca and it was making me sad. There is this girl named Jessica that I met here, she is from Colorado. Jessica, like myself, was in great need of some good food. Altough they were a bit more expensive, we decided to start going to some of the restarants that are in our traveling books to see if they were any good.

First we tried a place called Bambu. It was amazing. We got stuffed peppers and a salad and some calamari. It was so delicious! I was so happy to finally have a good meal.

Next we tried a place that I cannot remember the name of. Jessica's book stated that it was a favorite of the locals so we figured that was a good sign. The food was, yet again, amazing! So amazing that I made a reservation for Chris and I to eat their on Saturday night when he arrives.

After that some of our classmates found a little cafe close to school that sells churros and chocolate. They put the churros on the side and then give you a thick hot chocolate to dip them in. They were awesome.

We also found a convent of nuns that sell sweets. I will be bringing some boxes back home for everyone, the sweets are that good.

I think we have been successful in finding good food, but as always, the search continues . . .

San Sebastian

Sorry that I am being a horrible blogger while in Spain, I will try to be better. It looks like you will all have to wait for pictures, unless I can figure out how to transfer some of my friends pictures from facebook to here!

This past weekend I took a trek with my roommates to San Sebastian. It is a coastal town in the north of Spain really close to France. The goal for the weekend was sun and beach, and then more sun and beach! However, when we got there on Friday night it was raining :( Despite the rain (it was more like a light drizzle) we decided to walk over to a free concert on the port that someone from our hostel told us about. It was amazing! The traditional language in San Sebastion, along with much of the north of Spain and the South of France is Bosque. I had never heard of this languge before so it was amazing to see it written all over the street signs. The concert was of traditional Bosque music. It sounds alot like Irish jig music. It was amazing because every song they played seemed to have a dance to it and all of the locals would start dancing along. It was pretty basic jig type steps, so after watching a couple of times we started dancing along, it was so fun!

The next day it was still raining so we did what one always should do when it is raining, we went shopping! We found some good stuff but eventually we grew tired of this so we decided to take a hike in the rain. They have a statute of Jesus up on a mountain that is overlooking San Sebastian and the Ocean. It was a long and treaterous (maybe I am exaggerating about that) hike, but eventally we found Jesus :) It was a fun way to spend the afternoon. At night we went to this tiny, packed, local mussel restarant. We were packed in like sardines and after you finally get a chance to order they just give you your order on the bar and you eat it and leave, no seating required! I LOVED the mussels, which means they must have been pretty good because I usually don´t like seafood. After we went around eating some more tapas (I finally found good food in Spain, these tapas were amazing!!!) we decided to call it an early night because Anne and I´s allergies were flaring up.

The next day it was beautiful and sunny, so we spent the day lounging at the beach.

It was a great way to spend my first weekend in Spain!