Husa Anacapri Granada

... shortly after 4pm and caught a taxi to the hotel. Lucky for us, by Novemeber it is off season here in Spain and thus we were able to get a great, cheap rate on a great little hostel near the Alhambra. I am so used to staying in hostels with 6 to 8 other people in a room that it was nice to travel and have a private room with nice facilities. For only $15 euro a night per person, we were able to stay at a place somewhat equivalent to a nicer "Days Inn" or a low star ...

... tapas... wonderful. After a few of these, we caught the bus to Bobadilla, which is a 10min walk to the campsite, and conveniently has a typical Spanish (loud men, even louder women serving) bar, where we continued to consume beer and tapas; 4 rounds later, we had spend just Euros 7 per person and felt sated not just Alhambra (the local beer, very good) but the variety of hearty tapas. We walked back to camp for a well earned sleep.

... show I went to Jess, JoJo, Brandi, and Andrew to a bar. It was neat, free tapas again and there were all Spaniards...not a single other American. This was good news because as I heard from a maid in Madrid and from the study abroad office at CSU, Granada is full of Americans. I felt like everywhere I went in Granada there were American students. While you can learn Spanish and speak Spanish to all the locals, which there are hundreds of thousands ...

... how it is. Many teachers don´t like their schedules but they don´t ask to change it because if all the teachers wanted a certain schedule to fit their needs it would be chaos, yada yada yada. Then they brought up the fact that I had gone to complain about them to the Delegation of Education in the first few days and that my actions had consequences and that Maria Dolores had been calling them every week to see how I was doing... news to me!

The ...

... so when we come across a vegetarian restaurant, we never pass it up. We all shared a few dishes like greek salad, hummus, mushroom croquettes, and of course, patatas bravas (absolute all time favorite Spanish tapa).     The next day, we met up with Charlie's friend so she could give us a tour around the city. We walked through the big plazas to the Internation Market. It had a great variety of foods from Spain, Greece, France, Morocco, Jamaica, and others. It ...

... to the same commune which is actually called Beneficio and has a reputation amongst travelers !! brief discussion, compared some notes and then i left, in the hope of seeing the girls again somewhere along the trail :-) Coincidence or not >> It was roughly 4-5 hours later that day, i had made my way to the town closest to Benificio, i had befriend some people from the commune who were in town getting supplies, our intention was to hitch back up to the valley ...

... However, we managed to get our first tickets. This time. Grenada's main sight is the imposing castle and whatnot on top of the hill. As with everything else, it cost quite a bit to get in, and so we didn't. There was however a new media art exhibition in a free part of the grounds that I quite liked, except a few of the bigger more interesting exhibits weren't working.

... few good pictures. tomorrow is hiking after dora is done with her final, and then go to a club or two at night with her friends. Friday is beach, Saturday is Madrid to meet up with some friends from Santa Barbara, and Sunday is fly to Hungary. after that the rest of October is very up in the air. I think im just going to do a lot of trips all over Spain, and keep Granada as my headquarters. sorry for the long rant, but yesterday was a very difficult day.

... time for you. The Alhambra is probably my favorite thing to see in Spain. Pictures do not do it justice (especially mine). It is a feast for the senses. Visually you are overwhelmed by the carvings in the plaster walls, and audially you are delighted by the sounds of tinkling fountains and rushing water. You would have no idea looking up at the Alhambra of the treasures to be seen inside. It is on mine list of things ...

... which was all closed for the afternoon. Back to the hotel around 3:30pm for rest, reading, nap. In evening, Eduardo returned – he and Ann went to the convention centre (next door) to check on their set-up. It was after 21.00h when Ann was done. She and I then set out for town for dinner at a café. Very few people were out and about. We had a quick – inexpensive – dinner (no coffee), then returned to the hotel. Read until midnight. Sleep.