Aqui nos encontramos: Another weekend, another adventure

Just reviewing my blog, I find it a little odd. I don't like the bullet point system so much, but I have been using it for efficiency. I felt like since there is so much to cover it would be easier for me to write and more likely that others would read it. However, I believe I'm just going to write from here on out, simply because one story is, to me, more interesting than 10 facts. So, this weekend was yet another venture out of Sevilla to a new city. I feel like that's happened a lot: I've spent maybe 5 weekends here and only 2 of them have not involved a trip out of Sevilla. This weekend was Granada.

Gimme Some Tapas--FO FREE
Granada is an absolutely beauttiful city in the Sierra Nevada mountains of southern Spain. Granada was the last Moorish city to fall into the hands of the Christians during the Reconquista, and as such it has a lot of history and retains a large Arabic cultural heritage. Once we arrived in Granada, it was lunchtime (2:30 in Spain), and some of us decided to leave our stuff in the hotel lounge (our rooms were not ready yet) and survey the local eating scene. Granada retains a most worthy tradition that is dying in most of Spain: if you go to a bar and order a soda or beer or some kind of drink, you get a free tapa (appetizer-size portion of food). This was most delightful, and, despite the fact that the drinks are a little more expensive, it makes for a wonderful way to get full and try different Spanish foods cheaply. We went to a couple of different places sampling grilled bocatas (sandwiches) and even some fried octopus (yummy).

How I Became Famous
Upon returning to the hotel, I found that my bags were not where I had left them. Needless to say, I was a little distressed, especially when I found that my roommates had taken the only key and left the hotel. I asked reception if they had seen it--no luck. I asked the people that had stayed to watch everyone's stuff, and they simply told me that everyone had picked up their stuff and there was none left. I begged to differ. I looked up and down for it. In the process, I had some Spaniards that were also staying at the hotel that were most inquisitive as to my frantic search and pre-occupied demeanor. I shared my plight, and they thrived on the mystery, giving all kinds of suggestions as to what I should do and telling all of their friends that there was some poor fellow who'd lost his bag and indeed it is that chap in the red Liverpool scarf.

Well, after some suspense, my roommates returned and informed me that they had thrown my bags in our room and, out of the kindness of their hearts, refrained from mentioning it to me. I am grateful that they did; a bag in the room is better than a bag in the lobby. However, the result of all of this was quite hilarious, and I shall proceed to tell.

What you see above is an image of the white-marble Cathedral of Granada, which contains the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabel in a connected chapel. We visited these places after the bag fiasco with the entire UNC program (about 50 of us). In a funny turn of events, so did almost all of the Spaniards I had met at the hotel and all of their friends that they had talked to. During our tour, it seemed like almost every one of them came up to me and started asking me (in Spanish) about my lost bag, proclaiming how happy they were that I found it, and giving the customary, friendly double-cheek farwell kiss. It was sweet, but my comrades were quite confused by how many people were talking to me (not all knew why) in this city I had never been to. I just told them that you can't help it when you're famous.

Tea and Alhambra
After the cathderal tour, we split up, and I went with a group to a Teteria (tea house) to drink some customary Arabic tea. It was quite good and a really fun time. I had Oriental Tea, which was black tea with milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and lemon. I've never been a hot tea connosieur, but that was pretty good stuff. The next day, we went to the Alhambra, which is a MASSIVE fortress/palace/gardens that was built by the Moors. It was a 3.5 hour tour (yeah) that saw everything from walls and towers to royal chambers to patios and fountains. It had marvelous views of Granada from the towers and some amazing Arabic architecture. I believe I will let the pictures speak for themselves in this case. Granada was, much like Ronda, glorious.