Andalucia--Granada, Sevilla, Italica & Cordoba

Our final large excursion of the trip was to Andalucia. Andalucia is a region in the south of Spain.  We spent 5 days in the cities of Granada, Sevilla, Italica & Cordoba.  We left last Wednesday at a bright and early time of 6:30 a.m.  After a 7 hour bus ride, we made it to our first city: Granada.  We settled into our Hotel (Hotel Los Tilos).  I roomed with Libby, Amy & Alexa.  After settling in and getting a little bite to eat while watching Spanish "Next" and "Fisica y Quemica", we headed out as a group to explore La Capilla Real and walk through Albayzin which is "a fascinating labryinth of narrow streets and whitewashed houses with beautiful secluded gardens" (thank you to Brian's itinerary for that one). 

Anyways, so after that, my roomies and I just explored Granada in the rain.  We ended up finding an Ash Wednesday mass so we went to that and after we had a little feast of cheese and crackers in our room and stayed in and had a movie night. 

Erinn, Me and Alexa at the Alhambra

The next day, we headed to the Alhambra which is a big Muslim-inspired Palace in Granada.  It was just beautiful.  After we walked around that for a couple hours we headed off for Sevilla.

It was a three hour bus ride to Sevilla.  We arrived at our hotel (Hotel Baco) aroun 3 p.m. and ate lunch.  I roomed with Amy for this part of the excurison.  The rest of the day we had free time.  We took a siesta for a while, then we got up and explored the city.  Dana, Libby, Anna, Amy and I found the Jewish Quarters and a beautiful garden called "Los Jardines del Alcazar."  It was so beautiful.  After that we checked out the cute little street stores and sat down to test out "Vino de Naranja" (A Sevillan classic vine--which ended up tasting like liquor, but was still nummy).  After that we went home and got ready for the night. 

We ended up going to an Irish bar called P.F. Flanerty's and then a three-level discoteca called Buddha!  It was so much fun! We all danced the night away!

Sevilla sunset--exploring down by the river

Catedral at night

Friday, we woke up to breakfast in bed (yup, we got breakfast in bed at this hotel), got ready and then left to explore La Capilla de San Jose (a church that is one of the small gems of Sevilla), Alcazar and La Catedral.  All were completely beautiful.  The Alcazar (or palace of the Spanish kings at the time) was never-ending.  Amy, Libby & I might have pretended that we were princesses for a good chunk of the visit--it felt like we were in "Aladdin."  Then we went to La Catedral which is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world.   After that, we had some free time so we went home, took another siesta, woke up and Dana, Anna, Libby, Amy and I went to check out the Plaza de Espana.  This Plaza was my FAVORITE part of the whole trip.  It was simply amazing! A huge building (I think it's used for goverment and military purposes today) with a small canal in front.  We just hung out there and took everything in. 

Amy, Me & Libby rowing :)

Saturday we woke up, had breakfast in bed again (yes, be jealous), and headed off for Italica--the Roman ruins about an hour outside of Sevilla.  It was a very cool place. My favorite part was the gladiator arena.  After getting home, I went on a run with some of the girls along the river and we ended up getting lunch outside in the sun right by the river.  I got the best salad in the world!  After getting a bite to eat, we headed to the Plaza de Espana again to see what it was like in the day.  We got there and ended up renting row boats to row in the canal surrounding the Plaza.  It was so much fun! Once that was over, we took a walk through some of the parks around the area and then headed home.  We ordered Dominos that night.  Then, a small group of us girls went to a free Flamenco dance performance! It was great! The Flamenco dancer was a very serious, determined (at times mean-looking) woman who sweated passion! ha. It was a great experience.  After that, we went and celebrated Monica's 21st birthday at Buddha again!

Sunday we left for Cordoba, our third and final city of the excursion.  Once we got there, we visited the Mezquita (a mosque turned into Cathedral) which was very beautiful and fun to apply something I learned about in Pilar's class to real life! After checking that out, we took a 7 hour bus ride back home. 

Andalucia was great.  San Sebastian is still number one on my list of favorite places, but Sevilla might just be number 2! 

Now it's time to do some homework (something I have not done for the last 5 days!)

Besos, xo

Katie