Spring Break Part 1: Girls in Granada

My Spring Break started off bright an early, as we had to catch the 6:30 am train to the Pisa airport. Not my favorite way to start the day, but it would end up being totally worth it.

This is what Siena looks like at 6 am

After landing in Madrid with friends from IES, I set off on my own from the bus station. 5 hours later, I arrived in Granada where my lovely friend Liz is studying for the semester.

We immediately went out for tapas

My hostel- Triple bunk beds...

Tapas are this really awesome Spanish thing where you order a drink (in our case, it was almost always Tinto de Verano- red wine mixed with sprite- yum) and you get some sort of side dish/food with it. It can be anything from ribs, pasta or pizza to hamburgers, spring rolls or dumplings. We've had them all.

The next day, Liz took me exploring.

Market!

Cathedral

Stopped to buy cool looking chocolate

Lots of dogs wander around

OM NOM NOM Churros.

We saw a wedding!

you can see the Alhambra behind me

A mosque 

There's a little zipline thing in the park!

delicious frozen yogurt. A nice change from
the gelato I ALWAYS eat

More tapas- croquetas and some sort of
popcorn chicken thing

Hamburgers that were actually chicken burgers

Liz and I also spent a ton of time trying to watch a bootleg of the Hunger Games since it came out the day I left for Spring break (March 23rd- also my 9th Phanniversary!) and it won't be released in our respective countries until late April or May. Liz has slow internet sometimes, so this took FOREVER, but we did get through the whole movie eventually!

The next day we explored some more:

We ran into Ithaca students from Sevilla! Small world...

 We hiked up to the Alhambra, which is like a giant palace on a huge hill. We didn't go inside cause you need to book tickets months in advance and they're expensive. But we wandered around the outside, saw the gardens, the museum and the Arab baths.

The entrance to the Alhambra

Liz explaining Arab baths to me

Hiking up and down hills sure works up an appetite, so we headed to a bar that Liz knew served brunch. American. Brunch. Like pancakes. YES!!!

American style brunch

We wandered around Granada for the rest of the day (after finishing the Hunger Games) and just hung out like old times. It was nice to have a friend from home to visit, even though I couldn't understand a word of the Granada accent. I eventually was able to respond to Liz's host mom, but the first day I just stared at her like O.O when she asked me something. They are not very clear speakers... Oh well.

After getting more Tapas, we took a night stroll.

The Alhambra at night

My bus left early the next day so we called it an early night. Liz is coming to visit in less than 2 weeks, so we won't have to be apart for long! It was great to see where another study abroad student is living, and to see how different Granada is from Siena.