Weekend trip is over and we are now back in Madrid, attempting to study for our massive test tomorrow. It's going to be rough. Yesterday we spent the day in Granada and stayed at a beautiful hotel that was on a hill that had an awesome view of the city. We spent a lot of the time driving and got there after lunch, but had an awkward hour of nothing to do.
So, Julie, Robyn and I decided to do a little exploring. However, all we came upon was some really really good graffiti. Like, it could have passed for an expensive piece of art. But the rest of the town seemed like ghost town. No one in sight. What did we do with grafitti? Find crazy pictures and imitate them. Quite fun in the little break we had before a tour. These are some of the results of the photo shoot...
Next stop was the Alhambra, which is a mosque slash palace. It was beautiful!! It had the most gorgeous gardens I have ever seen. It was fun just exploring it because it was huge and taking lots of pictures. And we ran into two college students from A&M doing the same thing we were doing. Crazy how we found them and found out the connections we had! (gig em hunter!)
This was the view from one of the towers at the Alhambra. Granada!
So, we decided to reinact how exactly it happened. See, these men from Columbia come and get on crowded metros, sneakily hide their hands under mysterious jackets, and snatch your wallet! We are now the most protective tourists on the metro!
After that tour we were given free reign to do whatever in Granada. We went back and most of us ended up taking an extended siesta. (They just get so addicting!) We basically just went out to dinner that night, later regretting the extended siesta because we missed out on some prime shopping. Anyway, dinner was an experience. First of all, we all have to whip out the spanish-english dictionary when we go out to eat because we don't know what half of the stuff on the menu is. After finally figuring out what all we want and how exactly we order it, its almost like a disaster because its just so hard communicating with these spaniards!
We got our food, and it was lets say...interesting. Some of the group ordered paella, which is a traditional spanish dish that includes some form of meat, rice, vegetables, etc. This particular paella included lots of seafood and it ended up including shrimp that looked like it had been cooked then plopped straight into the pan. No cleaning it, removing of the wiry antennas, eyes, or legs. It was DISGUSTING! (We made for quite a show with all ours gross exclamations at the sight.) However, it was funny watching my friends attempt to eat it. I ordered simple pasta with mushroom sauce that tasted like the cook washed their hands with a plethora of soap, forgot to rinse off the soap, them mix the pasta with their soapy hands. More helado later that night to make up for that meal...
The next day was 'drive back to Madrid day' with only one stop at wind mills that had to do again with, Don Quixote. It was up on a hill and it felt like we were in a tornado with colossal winds.
We thought this picture looked like we were blowing off the mountain from the extreme windstorm.
Julie had the bright idea of filming a short film on Don Quixote, in honor of the great man. I was elected to be Don Quixote and Julie was my horse. I wish I could post the video, because I'll have to be honest, it was hilarious. I knew exactly how to reinact the story because of an episode of the tv show "What's the Story Wishbone" that I watched as a child. It was pretty accurate.
On the long bus ride back I made several observations of the Spanish cars:
1. They are all this small unusal shape that kinda looks like a bug.
2. They feel no need to flaunt which school their child attends, whether or not they are on the honor role, what religion they believe in, or what club they are apart of because I have seen NOT ONE bumper sticker. Its just weird.
3. They like to honk their horns...a lot!
4. They don't use their blinkers, hence the honking of their horn
5. Despite their crazy driving, I have rarely seen a wreck. Only 2 since I have been here (and one of those was on the news) It might be because they also don't do anything while they drive, like no eating fast food, talking on their cell phone, etc. Americans, we should take note!
Well thats all for now!
Maria
No comments:
Post a Comment