We Are In Granada!

Today was another adventure and I'm writing about it in a whole new place. It was a long journey but we finally made it to Granada. Our charter bus left Guardamar at 9am and we, for the most part, passed out on our four-hour bus ride. During the first half, I dosed off for a bit and listened to my ipod; but during the second half, I talked with Edgar about a whole buch of different things. He has so much knowledge about, well, everything really. At least I feel that way. I ended up asking him a bunch of questions that he answered with the best of his ability. It was so interesting and engaging that the time passed by so quickly and we were already getting off the bus in Guardamar.

Granada looked so beautiful even from the inside of the bus. The only downer was that because of some miscommunication, the bus driver couldn't take us directly to our hostel so he told us in Spanish, "You don't have a lot to carry, you can walk there from here." We didn't know where we were or where our hostel was but with the help of a map and some wifi from Yoshie's phone, we eventually found our way to our Hostel. It was enjoyable since our walk became a mini tour/adventure through the streets of Granada. I took a lot of picture, for sure! The crazy thing was that even though it looked overcast outside, it was still extremely HOT. Hotter than Guardamar, even! I didn't wear sunblock for the first time today so I burned a bit.

We had an appointment at the Alhambra at 4:30pm so that was the first place we hit up as soon as we were settled at our hostel. Since the bus driver kinda-sorta abandoned us earlier, we were running late for out appointment - so, we had to BOOK IT. Eventually, we found out how to get to the Alhambra... along the way, we stopped at various shops where they sold all kinds of souvenirs, treasure chests, lamps that were made out of leather, vibrantly-colored dresses... basically anything and everything awesome. It was all so lovely! Aside from the scorching heat, of course, the walk up to the Alhambra was so green, lush, and beautiful.

So, the Alhambra... what can I say? It was incredible. We visited the Palace itself, the garden and the hedges. I couldn't stop taking pictures!! Holey smokes. The Palace's interior was absolutely amazing. I don't know how to accurately describe it. Would you believe me if I told you that every wall, celing, column, corner... was all CARVED by HAND in incredible detail?! Because... it was, oh, it was.

Afterwards, we checked out the gardens and hedges and marveled at ever water feature that was installed within the landscape. It is such a peaceful place to be.