Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh

Ok, first off, I'm sorry for the terrible reference in the title of this post...!!! I just had to fit it in here somewhere :) Which means that last weekend, I went to Granada!

Granada is, like everything else in Spain, absolutely beautiful. But Granada has its own unique characteristics that make it very different from anything else I've seen. First of all, it's situated in this little valley in between all these awesome mountains, but it's actually warm there. It was a little strange to see snow-capped mountains but only need to wear a light jacket, but hey, I'm not complaining!! And, the entire town is built around this giant hill. The hill was sort of like a giant nature reserve/forest, which is really refreshing since I've been living in the concrete jungle for 4-ish months.

The things everyone's GOTTA see at Granada are the Alhambra and the Catedral/Capilla Real. We saw those and went shopping in the Arab quarter, and got tea too! :) But I'm getting ahead of myself, I have to talk about the Alhambra first!!

The Alhambra was built in the 14th century by the Moors and conquered by Ferdinand and Isabel in 1492 (yep, the year Columbus sailed the ocean blue!) So, not only is this place gorgeous, but it's rich with history, too. This was the place were Isabel told Columbus she would fund his expedition across the ocean...awesome. The level of detail in the palace is just insane, it's like almost every surface has intricately carved stone. Even the elaborate wooden ceilings are still intact, so that was really impressive too.

The gardens were even more impressive (although Sevilla is still my favorite, don't tell anyone.) There were hedges and so many roses, and amazing fountains and pools...I was in heaven. I mean, sitting under the shade on an ancient Moorish terrace, looking at the snow-capped mountains in the distance is probably as close as you can get to paradise for me.

By the way, if you were wondering, I haven't changed at all:
OH MY GOSH AND DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE BEST PART? THERE WAS A BABY KITTEN THERE!! A BABY KITTEN!!!!! I'm sorry for shouting but IT WAS SO ADORABLE!!!!! IT MEOWED THE CUTEST LITTLE MEOW AND IT WAS SMALLER THAN THE PALM OF MY HAND and oh I have pictures of it:

So yes, my day was made, the Alhambra was amazing, and OH nerd alert! The fort at the Alhambra really seriously reminded me of this fortress in one of the Zelda games, and I felt really weird thinking that at the time. Actually that happens a lot here in Spain, like in Sevilla, I was in this garden and almost laughed out loud to myself because it reminded me so much of the castle gardens in Zelda 64. And yeah don't even get me started on the castles/churches! Ok nerd alert over, I promise.

The next day we visited the Cathedral and Royal Chapel, aka the place where THE Ferdinand and Isabel are buried. I even got to see their caskets...uhh yeah, that was a little weird. But the cathedral is just beautiful! For example:

Yeah, geez, they don't mess around when they build churches over here. The picture on the bottom is almost all solid gold, too.

I don't know if I can cram any more pictures into this post, oh man. I wish I could put all of them here because Granada was so beautiful and photogenic! I'm working on finding a website where I can just put all of my photos (I need to back them up anyway) so I'll put it on here when I figure that out, for anyone who's interested.

Anyway, I'm off to bed, and stay tuned for more! This week is the Festival of San Isidro, Madrid's patron saint, and it's pretty much a huge deal here. There's stuff going on all week, including the Madrid Symphony Orchestra playing a free concert in the park. Oh heck yes I'm in!

Besitos, miss you all!!

Ariel

(PS besito = little kisses :] )