Complejo Hotelero Los Cerezos Monachil

... what Madrid has to offer. Unfortunately Mom and Torrey took off on Monday night to head to Barcelona after 3 great days here in Madrid and thus, with them gone, Scott had no one to hang out with on Tuesday and was forced to come to campus with me so I could go to class. He spent most of the morning/afternoon in the library getting some work done while I was in class and luckily, I was relieved from my last class on Tuesday (from 5:30-6:45) so Scott and I were able to ...

... experienced to be believed.

The Architecture, art, landscaping, and history of the fortress and medina are beautiful, but nothing can match the palace. The mosaics, sculpture, fountains, views, and stories are incredible. This was the place where Islamic Sultans ruled for hundreds of years. After the Moors were expelled, it was also believed to be the place that Christopher Columbus convinced Ferdinand and Isabella to fund his little voyage ...

The train trip from Barcelona to Malaga, Spain took just about 5 hours on one of the super-fast trains in Spain. After having our passports checked and our backpacks x-rayed at the train station of Barcelona, we took the escalator down to the loading area. This was the first (and only) train we have traveled on that felt like an airport security check. Each train car had a host to guide us to our seats after checking our tickets ...

... the diagrams are fairly understandable. I bought a one-day pass to the ski-lifts and it cost me 40 Euro, plus a deposit for the actual card of 3 euro, that was refunded in a small machine next to the place where I bought the ski-pass. I guess that's all the practicalities that I had to deal with, and which took me a little while to figure out. Safe travels. Best, Eva Maria

... her husband is back in morrocco but she goes home every weekend to visit. I was really surprised by her independance. She served me a tea whose name translates as "dreaming of the Alhambra", which I'll hopefully be doing tonight. ___________________________ Just found out that the tea I was served is apparently an aphrodisiac...nice. Spent the morning at the Alhambra. It´s really hard to distil its beauty down to a few paragraphs, but suffice to say, it ...

... the idea. We checked out at noon, where we learned about a bus that left for Granada in 30 minutes. So we hopped in a taxi and sped off to the bus station. Taxi rides in Spain are an experience in their own. I knew the ride would be the same, whether or not I told the driver we were in a hurry. I decided to do it anyway. We finally arrived in Granada around 4:30, dropped off our bags at the bus station and jumped on a crowded ...

... never made it. Friday was a planned Granada Diez night, meaning our first stop was Tantra Bar to get the free passes. While we were there we were talking to a group of people, one guy in particular was really fruity. I actually thought of Dad and how much he would have torn this guy apart. haha A little later we met these guys that worked at Dolce Vita, weird because we were there last night! Anyways, we went back to their bar and ...

... to leave. Once Scott pried me away from there, we headed down to town for dinner. We found a self-serve restaurant with a lovely waiter that was more than happy to speak Spanish slowly for Scott so he would understand. You should have seen Scott go! He understood everything the waiter described and answered in Spanish too. I was super impressed, and I must admit, I purposely put Scott in situations where he had to use his little bit of Spanish. He did ...

... boy was it worth the 20 minute uphill slog. Words cannot do it justice. Not only is the entire complex massive but the palaces and gardens are so exquisite that you can appreciate all the tiny details while being almost overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place. And the tiles, Don´t get me started on the tiles. The only down side was that the Court of the Lions was being restored, so the featured fountain (with all the lions) was covered up. It was a little ...

... plant life centered around fountains and still pools. The gardens - at least in the growing season - contain jasmine, mertle, cedar, boxwood, cirtus and olive trees, and other plants endemic to the area, and they surround a smaller, more liveable palace, in which the sultan could live more simply when he chose. It is, undoubtedly, good to be the sultan, but our quick conclusion after strolling around the gardens was that it is even better to be the sultan when ...