Spain and Beyond

Daily Drena: Nos gusta explorar (We like exploring)

Today’s afternoon activity was a run for me and a nap for Lorena. I was finally feeling well enough that I decided to go explore some green areas of Granada, so I took off and ended up heading north out of the city, up through San Miguel (the church on the hill that we visited last week), and found a trail heading up some hills to the north. I followed it for awhile and it dead ended on a road. I looked around and spotted an old dirt road, but I didn’t see any other connecting trails nearby, so I wandered down the dirt road, but it said off-limits, so I went back up to the main road. After a little while I got bored and thought I saw a trail down below, so jumped over the railing and started bushwhacking it down the side of a hill. The surrounding hills are kind of set up as stepped terraces, so every 10 feet or so, there’s a somewhat flat part of the hill, so I followed that for awhile, but didn’t see anything that resembled a trail nearby, so eventually bushwhacked it back up the hill to the road. Continuing along the road a short ways I came up to a military installation that had off-limits and no entry signs everywhere, so I decided to take the cautious approach and headed back the way I came, hah. I found another trail that veered off eventually and came out behind San Miguel so I wandered around in those hills for awhile which eventually brought me back to San Miguel through the cave house dwelling section outside of the city and back to home after 10.7 kms.

I felt fairly safe out there running, but there wasn’t a single soul that I met along the trails at all – very odd. And back in the city, I get the strangest looks from the inhabitants as I run by – it’s as if running is just not a normal activity to do around here. I’m not quite sure how the locals stay fit, as we hardly ever see them out and about on trails and I wouldn’t call the food all that healthy. However, they do tend to cook at home a lot and postre (dessert) is typically fruits at home; no cake, or ice cream, or cookies, so maybe that’s the secret. Plus, it’s definitely a walking city, not a driving city, so perhaps everyone just walks a lot to burn off the calories.

Lorena ended up going for a run as well, after her siesta in the afternoon. Some work, some dinner, and then homework concludes the evening! Hasta mañana (until tomorrow)!

Daily Drena: Fast Feet

Today teased us with a beautiful sunny and warm day to start the morning, but by the time we headed home for our break between classes it was grey and cloudy out again, alas. However, by Friday it is supposed to be warm (68 degrees F) and sunny, huzzah! Should be a good weekend for hiking somewhere, possibly Las Alpujarras.

After class, we headed home for a siesta, but we weren’t tired enough to sleep, so I watched some Olympics and started some work, while Lorena decided to go take a walk around town in search of an art store. Her search turned up two stores online, but alas, the one didn’t actually exist and the second looked somewhat permanently closed, although she couldn’t really tell whether it was just closed for siesta, for the day, or permanently. She also took a peek inside the Catedral Metropolitana de Granada (see photos below). And, true to Moorish form, an entire cart full of tea! The Moorish influence has left lots of teterias (tea rooms) in the area where you can go for some tea, light snacks, or smoke a hookah (I don’t think either of us is brave enough to try those out …) in a very bohemian, relaxing setting.

In the evening, after a rush to finish both of our current work emergencies, we raced down to Plaza Nueva to meet up with our fellow classmates for an evening of Flamenco. We wandered up the street next to the river to a little place called Le Chien Andalou and journeyed down into the earthen cave (in actuality, a renovated water cistern, but very much in the true style of the cave homes of Andalucia) to sip some drinks and exchange conversation while waiting for the show to start. The lights dimmed and we were treated to a raw, live performance of cantar (singing), tocar la guitarra (guitar playing), y bailer (dancing). It was an exciting evening and something truly Andalucian.

Daily Drena: Delicioso

Another rainy day and evening in Granada, Spain (what happened to the 300 days of sunshine they get a year, yeesh… ;)). This evening’s activity was meant to be a Flamenco show, however, a private event was scheduled at the Flamenco bar, as we learned from our guide for the evening down in Plaza Nueva while getting rained on. But, not a problem, we all simply went out for tapas instead! This was our first time for tapas and our guide took us to a bar near the school where one of her friends works. The premise behind tapas is that you purchase a drink, and for each drink that you purchase, you get a tapa to go with it. The tapas are free, you simply pay for the drinks which are generally about 1.5 to 2 euros each, so it’s actually quite a good way to eat, as long as you don’t mind what you eat, because you don’t choose the tapa – they simply come out of the kitchen with what they want to give you! This evening, we had some ham and cheese sandwich concoctions, olives (of course), bruschetta-like items with salmon on top, and a vegetarian version of the bruschettas as well. I devoured two of the ham and cheese concoctions, which were delicious, while Lorena tried one of those and one salmon bruschetta. We ate, drank, and chatted the evening away until it was past 11:00 and we decided to head home and call it a night.