Granada

This past weekend a few friends and I took a trip to Granada, a city in the south of Spain, just 4 hours from Madrid by bus.  On the way there, we found ourselves on some incredibly fancy bus called the Supra.  I got an individual window seat that fully reclined and was given free (pretty decent) headphones when I sat down.  Throughout the bus ride the flight attendant-like waitress served us bocadillos, drinks, chocolates, mints, water, hand sanitizer -- it was a full service bus.  Much more luxury than I would have imagined but I was definitely pleasantly surprised.  We arrived in Granada and checked into the White Nest Hostel which had some of the craziest decor I've ever seen.  A few of the lobby walls were bubble gum pink and others were rainbow stars and hearts, Lisa Frank style. Our room was hilarious also:

 Bright green walls, green curtains, green blankets, and gold stars! Danielle is also posing with her package of ham, casual Spanish snack.

 Camp Granada

Since we got there in the evening, we just walked around and explored a little bit before finding a good place for dinner.  We luckily found an amazing little tapas restaurant which had the most deliciousssss chocolate steak--yes, chocolate sauce on top of steak.  So good.

 Plaza Nuevo at night, the plaza close to our hostel.

 Marni, Alex, me, and Danielle 

 After dinner we took a different path home, through really narrow, winding streets.  The streets reminded me of Florence - cute cobblestone paths barely wide enough to fit a car. On one particular street we discovered, there was a long wall of hilarious graffiti/street art. Above is one example.

 Another face on a building.

 More street art.

 Granada has a ton of Muslim influence since it's so close to Morocco.  I was surprised to see how prevalent the Muslim population was even today.  All of the little flea markety stores had Moroccan merchandise, there were streets lined with hookah bars, and on every corner, of course, a King Kebab. Granada's main attraction is Alhambra, the enormous Muslim palace that overlooks the entire city.  It was home to the last Muslim rulers in Spain and the court of the Nasrid dynasty.  When Isabel and Ferdinand took over, Islam was outlawed in Spain so the palace was rarely used. It was just 'rediscovered' in the 19th century, which is when it was restored and transformed into the tourist attraction it is today.  We went to the Alhambra knowing very little about the history (and I still know very little) but I found that knowing all the history wasn't necessary.  The architecture, artistry, and detail in the palace, from an aesthetic view, was the most profound and meaningful to me.  I could appreciate it for what it was despite not knowing the historical facts.

 Entrance to the Alhambra.

Some of many hedges.

 Danielle and me in front of the Nasrid Palace.

 Beautiful view of Granada from outside the Nasrid Palace.

Courtyard in the palace.

Equipped with goldfish.

What was most impressive was the incredible detail that covered nearly every surface inside of the palace.    Because the Koran prohibits Muslims from decorating buildings with figures of humans or animals like we see in most churches, they adapted a different artistic style using geometric shapes and letters.  This style is apparent on nearly every surface.  Intricate patterns carved into the walls and geometric, colorful mosaics made the building so beautiful and awe inspiring. 

 Ceiling in one of the rooms.

 Mosaics on the lower half, detailed carvings above.

 Yet another beautiful part of the Alhambra.  This building and pond reminded me of a Sorolla painting, which might be a painting of this exact site.  At the Sorolla Museum there is a whole exhibition for his Granada paintings, many of which included reflective ponds and gardens.  It was cool to stand in the exact same place looking at the same landscape as Sorolla and know that he was inspired by this site enough to paint it.  Everything really was breathtaking.

 Me and Alex in the Generalife garden.

 View of part of the palace from the military watchtower.

 Granada.

 Me and Alex, and Granada.

 More gardens.

 Fall colors.

 On our way out we passed by some more amazing street art.  I love all of it!

 Fiddler on the Roof?

 Marni, me, Alex, and Danielle in front of a random statue. 

 There were tons of cute artisan shops in Granada like this one.  Apparently there is a big hippie population, which I am claiming just because I saw more people with dreadlocks than I've ever seen.  

View of the Alhambra from down below.  

In other news, Spain's elections were today! They were held a few months early this year apparently because they are in such dire need of a new president they couldn't wait any longer.  I don't think it has been officially announced yet, but all the polls say that Mariano Rajoy, the candidate for the Partido Popular (the conservative party) won by a landslide.  He was expected to win all along though, since Spain needs a more conservative leader to deal with their current economic situation.  Hopefully this will be good for Spain...