Weekend: Cordoba y Granada

Recap of FRIDAY: i was at the ISA office like all day...had two exams and think i did well. Not much happened. That's all

Saturday: Cordoba y Granada
We left Sevilla at 9am for Cordoba y Granda! I met Alli at 8:15ish am at the bridge and ended up walking with her and a bunch of other kids from ISA.  We got to the meeting point and just talked to everyone until we boarded the buses. We got on the bus and we were on our 2.5hr drive to Cordoba. On the way to Cordoba, I was reading my book and listened to music. When we got to Cordoba we go off the bus and went to go meet our tour guides :)! We met our tour guides at the mezquita (mosque) now turned into church. Our tour of this mezquita was not until later so we went on a tour of the city. We chose to have our tour in Spanish, so we can hear it and understand. We left our mezquita area and went through the streets of Cordoba. Our guide took us through some shopping streets and we went through this one street that is known as a romantic spot (it's romantic during the night) because of the flowers on the walls.  The little plaza that the path leads into, is quite small but pretty. The homes in that area are well up to 1,000,000 Euros, and fit up to 15 people in them...who wants to chip in and buy one ?!?! After we walked through the old Jewish quarters. Cordoba is a city that was influenced by the Jews, Muslims and Catholics.  We saw the older quarters and learned a lot about them. Man you can get lost when you are traveling these streets. After our tour on the streets of Cordoba, we went into the Mezquita. OMG!!! It was breath taking. The muslim was gorgeous...the way that the catholics kept the mezquita the way it was besides the center was amazing. I learned about this place through some spanish classes; and the information that the guide told us related to what I learned. the heart of ths mezquita was AMAZING. I loved the Catholic influence in the mezquita!!! It was amazing...wouldn't mind getting married at that alter one day (in my dreams...but a girl can dream...lol). It was so nice. The pictures of Cordoba are on Facebook...so check them out!!!  After our tour, we said thanks to our guide and went to get lunch. Madi, Morgan, Alli, Elise and I tried to find the others but we took the wrong turn to Subway (YES, there is a subway in Cordoba). We ended up going to this nice restaurant called El Olivo we had some fried calamari, swordfish and steak...we shared all of this. This did fill us up and we felt like we needed a siesta after! After lunch we ended up looking at some shops. I got some postcards.We met up with the others in front of the mezquita because we were going to be leaving for Granada. Cordoba is gorgeous!!! Now on to the 2.5hr bus ride to Granada

Saturday Later on!
We checked into our hotel, Hotel Melia. It was very nice :) and we got wifi :) My roomie for the trip was Aries...she was my rooms in Madrid and Toledo. She is a very nice girl. The rooms were nice too. When we checked into the hotel we had about 2hrs to spend as free time. The girls and I met downstairs in the lobby 20minutes after we checked in. We walked to Plaza Nueva (yes, there is one in Granada too). We ended up going to a nice place for tapas and a drink before our AWESOME Flamenco show! We each got something to drink and there were FREE tapas. Some were chicken and patas (potatoes) and some other one. We also ordered a seafood pasta for 4 of us to split, this was our dinner time because we would not get out of the Flamenco show til late. The flamenco show was amazing!!! Before the show we climbed this big mountain to see the Alhambra from a different view...omg...it was a WORKOUT!!! The view was amazing though. I also was able to get my name written in arabic and artistic. It was cool. After that long hike up, we went down to the show. The flamenco show was really good...i mostly took video of it all not pics but i did take pics. Afterwards, we decided to go out and find  a discoteca...well Taryn, Cortney Aries and I wanted to go and we walked around for like a good hour and we couldn't find it :( but we saw very pretty parts of the city. After walking for a while we met up with the others and some of us ere not ready to go to bed yet or we were tired. I went off with madi, alli, jessica and morgan to this bar...which was like a Mcfaddens on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night. It was my type of place..we had fun people watching and such. We were there for about an hour then left and walked to the hotel, which was like 50ft away.

Sunday:
well we did not have to wake up til 9ish today...we did not have to meet until 11...latest we had to meet EVER. So i slept in til about 9am. I got ready and went down to breakfast. Arie and I sat together and had some breakfast...my tummy was feeling better so we at good. After we rested up in our room for 20 minutes then came down to the lobby. At 11 we met our tour guide for our tour of Granada. We had a very small group and again we chose spanish. We walked around...learned more about the city. We visited the cathedral in Granada, saw where los Reyes Catolicos were buried...the place was very interesting. After that we had time to explore. We explored a bit and shopped in the Medina of the old Granada. I bargained in the Medina for Jess...I was quite proud of myself :) We enjoyed our time and then we got hungry...with all the walking us girls go hungry. We went to a nice restaurant and got some food. Alli and I shared a veggie pizza, it was good. Jess, Madi, Morgan, Elise and Shelly got the Menu of the day, 3 courses (appetizer, main and dessert). and Bekah and Cortney shared a pasta. Taryn wasn't that hungry so she just got water. We had some good conversations at the table and enjoyed ourselves. After lunch, we went back to the hotel to relax before our trip to the Alhambra. We were all sittin in the lobby and I called my daddy and wished him a Happy Fathers Day...i event tweeted and facebooked it...and told him my present was to post pictures and blog...so that is what i am doing. I also skyped with Phi and we talked..it was good to talk and see him rather than on phone. At around 4:30, we loaded the buses to go to the Alhambra. The trip to the Alhambra was not long, but within those 15-20min i took a small nap...i was so tired from all the things we did before...walking. We got to the Alhambra and got into 4 groups of 30ppl. Our tour guide was Nacho...nickname for Ignacio. He was very nice. We were given an audio set so we could listen to what he was saying about the Alhambra. We first started in the gardens and they were gorgeous... you could see downtown granada and everything. It was an amazing view. We made our way to the summer palace and that was quite pretty. The Alhambra has been taken care of very well and there is still a lot to uncover, Nacho said. It is interesting to learn about the arabic lifestyle, i have learned about the romans and it's nice to hear some new things. The architecture of the Alhambra was amazing, so different. after the summer palace, we made our way to more gardens, then the old city within Alhambra. There are two hotels in Alhambra, and we saw the old medina. We were on our way to the main palace. The palace was HUGE. So many rooms and such beautiful ones too. we made our way through the entire thing and I could not stop taking pictures. I really enjoyed the Sultan's primary wife's quarters..it was GORGEOUS...loved it!!! Definitely a place where to go again!!! After our tour, we headed back to the exit. We had a 3hr bus ride back to Sevilla. We got some food, from the local vendor, a sandwich and such and then loaded the bus. I enjoyed myself in Granada very much and maybe will come during summer 2...who knows!!! Well I'm off to bed...GOOD NIGHT!!!