SPAIN!

We are in Granada, Spain right now. Raf is presenting a paper (with the other author) at a conference, and since we were traveling to the east coast anyway for the holidays, I tagged along...yay! This is our second Spanish adventure together. We visited Madrid and a few surrounding cities in 2010. I was able to see and stay with some old Spanish pals on that trip, so we were really given the most amazing, authentic tours from locals--which is the best way to travel, in my opinion.

Here in Granada, I am exploring a lot on my own, as Raf is doing the conference thing during the day. My Spanish is pretty rusty, but I am remembering words and phrases more and more. It really has been fairly easy to communicate. Granada is really quite breathtaking, as it has a lot of old world Spanish architecture (and Moorish), narrow, cobbled streets, and an incredible view of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The only bad thing I have noticed is that there is a TON of dog poop on the streets. I have seen a lot of stray dogs rambling around the city, and up in the more residential areas where it is quieter, there are plenty of dog owners, and plenty of dog poop. Everywhere. I am being serious, I have never seen so much... Enough about that though, sorry. Sheesh.


It is lovely to be here during the holiday season as there are beautiful lights everywhere and people are hustling and bustling around buying Christmas presents. There are traditional Christmas sweets everywhere too--and they are so good! One funny observation is that most of the stores play American Christmas songs (think Maria Carey, Elvis, Bing Crosby, etc.) in English, and most of the stores I have been in are playing American music in general. I saw some store employees rocking out/singing along to a hip hop song, but she wasn't able to speak with me when I asked her a question in Spanglish. :) More soon!

Cool grafitti.

Cool new buddy John.
Cool view.

The Alhambra behind us (which we will be getting a tour of on Thursday!).

View from the gypsy hill. This is where serious gypsy folk live in these cave/houses that are built into the hillside. John read about it and apparently most tour books recommend you DON'T visit this part of town, but we were very curious and it was very interesting...

One of the cave/houses.

This gigantic wall surrounds the hillside of the city. We were speculating that it was for protection at one point in time. This was a view down the thin walkway between the two parts of the wall.

Just a couple of dudes on a gypsy hill near a big wall.

Flamenco joint. Flamenco happens mostly up near the gypsy village.

Pretty old houses and walls.

There are a number of vendors selling bulk spices and teas and dried fruit on the old cobbled streets of the city. The sun was perfect that day. I just couldn't get enough of how beautiful it all looked...

Okay--going out to enjoy more Granada! xo.