exploring. Alhambra, Albayzín, Monachil.

So the past week has been a lot of exploring. Me, both of my roommates (Jen and Becca), Maria, and Amanda walked around on Monday and Tuesday afternoon through Granada but mostly the Alhambra. You do not have to pay to get inside the palace walls but you do have to pay if you want a tour of the buildings. But since we are doing that with our school here, we just walked around outside. It is definitely a hike to get up there though, but on the way there are a lot of fountains and little waterfalls to look at. When we finally got up there though we were all just really overwhelmed with all the buildings...there were so many! And we have no idea what any of them were..but nevertheless here are some pictures!

walking up to the Alhambra...

some building once inside...

the view of the Moorish/Gypsy part of Granada from the Alhambra

this is an old tree stump!!

this is the view of Granada from the Alhambra Palace Hotel

so many hills.

On Thursday we had a tour of the Albayzín part of Granada. Which I am pretty sure I sad earlier that is the part of Granada that is the Moorish quarter. What that really means now I am not quite sure, but back in the day thats where the Moors lives. There were so many pretty buildings and a lot more colors than where I live. 

The Albayzín is also where Granada's only masque is. 

maria, jen, becca, me, amanda

view of the alhambra behind us!

the mosque.

a church wayyy up top... 

side note about this picture: behind the church there are caves in the mountains that people live in...yes, cavemen. no electricity or anything.

this is the sign for a crosswalk....i always think of the movie big when we plays the piano with his feet. haha

jen, becca, me. alhambra above. 

On thursday we decided to go to Camborio again. The discoteca that overlooks the Alhambra.. American fiesta again. Music was better, but there were only about 25 people there. kind of a bummer. However, before that we went to the Irish bar Hannigans...were my roommates convinced me to karaoke with them. NSYNC. 

OKAY. next topic. on friday night we decided to go to a play. it was called: LA CASA DE BERNARDA ALBA. and it was at TEATRO MUNICIPAL ISABEL LA CATÓLICA. This is the biggest theatre in Granada! The play was about 90 minutes long, with no intermission. Throughout the entire play, i probably understood ten words. It was definitely a beating on my spanish...but when i talked to everyone else, they also had no idea what was going on. I got the gist of it though and it basically went like this. Four daughters, one mother...three of the girls like the same guy...one of the girls sees him at the window, one at the door, and one actually goes out with him. Then the mother finds out that one snuck out of the house to see him....the crowd hears gunshots. Everyone thinks that the mother killed him. One of the daughters goes and hangs herself outside....But the boyfriend actually got away on a horse. People are sad. The end. 

In other news, I havent really been saying what I have been eating lately. This is probably because all of our meals have been repeats of previous meals. Except for one...... It was a a fish and egg salad. It was made out of mayo, peas, eggs, mashed potatoes, and fish. After we had lunch one day..she showed them to us and told us that it was our dinner-they were sitting on the counter...- it was just a big pile of this picture...and there was a face made out of peas and hardboiled eggs. Then dinner came...and we tried it...yikes. i think i had to pick three fish bones out in the first two bites.. Thanks god she didnt eat dinner with us that night..we had to throw them out and escape to burger king.... :( 

SATURDAY. We went to Monachil yesterday! Allison, Me, Jen, Becca, Maria, and Amanda. Monachil is a a town located in the Sierra Nevada mountains but it is still in Granda. We took a local bus for only 1.20€ each way. It was about a 30 minute ride. Once we got there, some lady knew that we had no idea what we were doing but she guided us to this hotel where the man working there gave us maps of the hiking trails. We hiked from about 9:30 to 13:30 and went to about 1495m high. Along the paths, there are so many different things to stop and look at. The mountains, rocks, trees, caves, different bridges, the streams, the rivers. It is really quite amazing. We didnt get to stay as long as we wanted to, so we are definitely going to go back! I think that so far, that was the cheapest thing that we have done for such a long amount of time. Perfect morning/afternoon. 

Just started the walk!

...a bridge.

dear dad, this is proof right here...that i was not near the edge of any cliffs...i was the photographer only.

the trail up the mountain...

the town of Monachil...

School this past week has been really great. I can really tell that I am learning a lot already. This upcoming week is our last week of the intensive course. Then we have a week off-IRELAND HERE WE COME- then back to school where the actual semester begins. :)