Andalusian Nights: Arrival and Day 2!

I've made it to Spain!

Here's how!

I left Minneapolis on a 7am flight to La Guardia where my uncle and cousin picked me up. They took me back to their house on Long Island where we went out to lunch and relaxed until they took me to JFK for my flight to Madrid. When I was sitting in the gate waiting for my flight I had a mini breakdown and texted Ruth Ann but she calmed me down. I barely got on the flight but the champagne I received in business class sure helped calm me down.

I arrived in Madrid and after a ~~lot~~ bit of confusion made it to my next flight to Granada! After I landed and even more confusion I met German who took me to Adela's house. She is so nice! She was so welcoming and I could actually understand her (mostly)! Her apartment is so lovely, has art hanging everywhere and has two balconies!

The rest of the day I rested and unpacked and later that night, Adela took me out to get hot chocolate and churros! So delicious! Then we did some shopping and it was so crowed! It was the Friday before El Dia de los Reyes, The Day of the Kings, which is when Spaniards exchange their Christmas gifts so everyone was out shopping. Then we met up with her son Alejandro and his friends for drinks and tapas. Everyone was very nice and understanding of my lack of fluency. There was only one time I had no idea was someone was trying to ask me which led me to accidentally telling her I have been to Barcelona. Oops.

Saturday:

German invited me to come hiking in the mountains with the group of students that are still here for the winter break session. So I woke up early and met them along with Tess who is a student in my program who also arrived early. The hike was beautiful and a lo of fun. It started out by our group coming to a fence that wasn't suppose to be there and after German couldn't find a way around it, he told us to just climb over it! Then we came to another fence which wasn't climbable but did have a way around it that required swing on this tree in this muddy, rocky ditch thing. It was quite an adventure which is the whole reason I came on this trip!

After the hike, Tess, another student Wes and I went out to eat in the Albaicín district which is the old Moorish part of town. Its is so beautiful and definitely my favorite part of the city so far. We ate at a Moroccan place and had tea. On our way back we stopped to listen to a group of street performers who were just incredible.

Wes had to go back to his place so I went to Tess's house with her. She lives over in the Albaicín and it took forever to find her place because the street are such a maze over there. her house has a bedroom that is an actual cave carved into the stone, an adorable enclosed patio (that's between the house and the cave) and an amazing terrace with a breathtaking view. We ended up talking and loosing track of time so we missed the Dia de los Reyes parade we told the other students we would meet them at but walked back down a little later and saw some of the festivities. The streets where so incredibly crowed but I finally made it back to my place with very sore feet.

Jasmine my roommate was here when I got back so we had dinner and passed out. We went to bed around midnight and woke up the next day at 2:30pm so we got 14 hours of sleep. Guess I needed it! Here are some pictures of the hike.