It was tough waking up Saturday morning, and I was still feeling pretty under the weather. I finished packing, got ready, and made the hour walk to the bus. The Sunrise on the river was incredible, and without the crowds to fight through on San Jacinto, I was first to arrive at the bus stop. For 2 seconds I thought I had the wrong time, but people showed up soon enough. I sat with Caitlin on the bus. She was really sick and barely had a voice at all, which, oddly, didn’t stop us from chatting for the first hour.
At the halfway point, we stopped at a big service station that had a few venders in a big building. Following Cory’s lead, I got scrambled eggs, toast, and café con leche. I paid a good bit for it, but that breakfast was absolutely divine. They even had salt! It was great. I played with a stray puppy outside until it was time to continue. We slept almost the whole way, and when I next opened my eyes, I saw a big white cloud in the distance, Except, the cloud didn’t change perdpective as we kept going. That’s when I realized that the ‘cloud’ was none other than the snow-capped top of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was stunning. I watched the mountains grow bigger until we were in Granada. I knew right away that I was going to like it.
When we got to the hotel, I was thoroughly impressed. It was quite fancy, and I was assigned to room 117 with these 2 girls Megan and Katie Grace, both of whom I knew, but had never really talked to. We picked our beds and excitedly went onto our balcony. Since we had had key trouble and didn’t get in until ten minutes late, the girls next door had already succeeded in balcony-jumping to steal our chairs and were eating their lunches. We brought our sandwiches out and got the sassy ginger who is the other girl in SAI, to steal more chairs for us. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the balconies were a perfect spot to hangout.
After that, Megan put on her swimsuit to go to the pool, and we went down to sit with her. However, the front desk said that it is still winter here. WE got our things ready and Katie Grace, Megan, and I, went to eplore while Caitlin took a siesta in her room. WE walked down a few roads until we came to the main plaza. It was very nice and much calmer than Sevilla. We took a right and walked for a while. We didn’t see tourist shops, but we had about 7 icecream places to choose from. I decided to be adventurous and not just get something super chocolately. It’s always so hard to choose because Spanish icecream is beautiful. It’s not just a tub, but rather it looks like a ribbonly, fluffy cloud of perfection. There is always a display of cookies, fruit, or whatever the flavor is based on, displayed on top. It’s a showcase, a production of iceream, and I love it. I ended up settling on half mint chocolate chip, half raspberry. It looked like a watermelon, but the combination was actually quite tastey. We walked a bit more before returning to the hotel.
Once there, we headed back to exactly where we had just been to see the Capilla Real and Cathedral. They were very beautiful and historical. WE even saw the coffins of the Catholic Kings. The cathedral was very bright and open. I liked it a lot, especially all of the displays of massive neumatic musical chant manuscripts. It was so cool. I swear the one was in my MRB textbook. I could’ve fallen over. We were in there for about an hour, and when we left, we just happened to exit the cathedral as a huge procession was going down the street. There were church leaders in front, leading the way for the big float with a sculpture of a man in red. It was very elegant, and the men carrying it were so in step, you could almost think there were wheels below the drapery instead of people. Government and military people followed, but nothing was as impressive as the band. All brass players and percussionists, dressed in red and black uniforms – they were so legit and put out SO much sound! It was incredible, as was their marching. I was so glad to see some women in the band, too!
Once the parade moved on, we had time to do some shopping. I haven’t bought any souvenir-type things yet, so I kept my eyes open and did find a few things to bring home for decent prices. There was a lot of neat stuff, but I’d prefer to do most of my shopping back in Seville. Caitlin, Katie Grace, Megan, Rebecca, and I finished shopping and headed toward the hotel. We were stopped by a guy giving out coupons for a drink and 3 tapas for 1.80E, which is an incredible price. We had planned on going after dinner, and even though we didn’t, the guy had been very nice. Seeing us struggling to get a group photo, he offered to help and then stood and talked to us in Spanish for a good 15 minutes or so. He was very impressed with our language skills, and it is so nice to be able to communicate better with people.
Dinner at the hotel was very fancy. I tried all of the strange vegetbaly salads, including the tentacles one, soup, bread, and a little of about 8 different types of meat. Some were better than others. We certainly ate our fill. Everyone was tired and I could barely walk for the shin splint in my left leg, so we decided not to go back out. Instead, we crept around the top floors of the hotel for a while and then chilled in our room. Megan kept throwing her socks at me, and I put them in the trashcan. Then she threw her bra and so I hung it from the balcony. Katie Grace and I had a good laugh. Eventually a girl from next door came and told us to shut up. It was only 11:15 and half of the things on tv were in German, so we were making our own fun. So sorry. We talked for a long time, showered, and went to bed feeling half-clean, as the only showering product was a ‘shower gel/shampoo’ scrub. Oh well, it was only one night.
I had a hard time sleeping. The beds were comfy, but I was hot and couldn’t stop coughing. Megan was sick too, though, so at least I wasn’t the only one making noise. Breakfast in the morning wasn’t bad, but we had all been a bit too hopeful for a nice pancake or something. The bacon was about 4/5ths fat, and I wasn’t about to touch the sausage. The kiwi and pineapple were grand, though, and I could get past the squishiness and wateriness of the eggs. My favorite part was the drink machine which had a lovely ‘Café con Leche’ button. I was going to have 2, but decided that, for the sake of keeping the new friends I had made, I’d better not.
We packed up our things and went to the bus for our visit to La Alhambra, the last Arab fortress during the reconquest. When we got there, the guide gave us each a little radio pack with an earpiece, which she spoke through to commentate our visit. A lot of people complained about this, but I LOVED it. For once I could actually hear! The palace was pretty amazing. One part was very much like a castle, the church had a huge circular arena with columns, the courtyards were fantastic, and the gardens breathtaking. I really enjoyed the whole thing, and the 3 hours were gone before I knew it. I got a lot of pictures and enjoyed walking around in the sun.
Afterward, we returned to the hotel for our final meal. There were more strange meats, but at least I didn’t have sardines this time. Megan and I sat upstairs in a sunny little room that felt like the beach, until it was time to go. I sat in the very back of the bus with Caitlin’s roommate, Katie. The tourbuses here don’t have bathrooms, and there are 5 seats lining straight across the back. It’s so much comfier than the other spots! I watched out the big back window for 40 minutes, wanting to look at the Sierra Nevada as long as I could. Then I slept. I almost bought cookies at the rest stop, but thought better of it, a decision I regretted during the hour walk home.
I arrived home around 8, and Brittany was out. It was nice to relax for a while and talk with my mom. We had a dinner of my favorite soup and some egg side dish. It was really nice. I spent the rest of my night putting up pictures and bumming around. It had been a great trip, and I was very tired.
This morning I woke up around 10, had breakfast, got the laundry together, and then had a strange inclination to go for a run. So I did. I ran the way we had thought was the way to get to the Centro our first night in Sevilla, ya know, 12 years ago. I went about a mile out and ran back, but I didn’t stop there. I jogged the other way out to the park and ran a few of the paths til I was tired. I laid down on my tummy in a nice sunny patch of grass, listening to the birds and the wind. A dog came to visit me, and a while later I opened my eyes to a noise that was a grandmother helping her baby grandson walk. He had stopped right in front of me. I looked up and he smiled. Then he wouldn’t leave. He kept walking in circles around me, holding his grandma’s hand, and he made silly sounds when I talked to him. I could tell the abuela wanted to get going, but he plopped himself down right in front of me. This baby was SO cute. He wasn’t happy to be carried away, and I was sad, but I had also run out of Spanish things to say to him to show his grandma that I wasn’t scary.
After watching the orange trees for a while, I got up and walked to a bench. I had planned to leave, but I couldn’t just yet. The day, the sunshine, and the park were just too glorious. I chatted with God for a while and hummed a few tunes. This is where God is, not in some freezing stone building constructed on a foundation of corruption, the cost of which could probably have fed the poor for 50 years. A flock of white pigeons settled in a nearby tree, and they kept flying around in different formations. It was amazing to see.
My foot kept me from jogging home, but when I got there I showered and had garbonzo lunch. I was in a fabulous mood. Then I walked to the center to practice piano, but there were a lot of people in the study, so I decided to do this instead. Have a great week!