A Trip to Granada

June 3-5, 2022

For my second week of weekend traveling my friends and I booked an Air BnB in Granada! Granada is a city in southern Spain about 3 hours from Madrid. There’s a famous religious palace called the Alhambra, churches, shopping, different types of restaurants, bars, and clubs. This was the perfect quick vacay for a group of young college kids!

We got up at 5:30 a.m to get ready to head to the train station. The ride went pretty quick and smooth and before I knew it, we were there. For some reason I didn’t think I needed a carry on suitcase when I came here, so I had to pack almost all of my clothes into a backpack, luckily Maddie let me squeeze some of my things into her suitcase. We hauled our suitcases (and backpack) through the streets to our rooms. Our apartment for the weekend was the perfect size for us and had lots of memories and laughter made in the living room.

The First Night

After we got our things settled, we were starved so we headed downtown to explore and find something good to eat. We chose a restaurant close to down town called Rollo. It was a cute little breakfast food and tapas stop. I had the best food I’ve had since being in Spain so far. Eggs and jamón, yummmm. I‘m going to try to make this meal when I go back home. As we were eating, we we got to listen to live music outside, and cool off with some water. Here unless you order tap water, bottled water is not free. Which is different from home because sometimes waiters bring you water without even asking for it!

After lunch we shopped around and looked at all the stores. I love the cobble stone streets, but having to dodge cars coming every few minutes from what seems like nowhere gets a little annoying! For dinner we went to a restaurant called El Cepillo and ate on the patio. We had a three course meal again, my favorite because I love trying new things! I had spaghetti, Hake fish, and flan for dessert because I’ve never tried it before!

Alhambra

The next day came the most beautiful part of the weekend. After having Venetian coffee, which is coffee with whip cream, sugar, and cinnamon on it and a Spanish omelette for breakfast, we headed to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is an Islamic architecture with a beautiful overlooking view of Granada. It was used as a royal residence and a court but now it is a tourist attraction.

The hike to it might be the worst one of the trip, and that’s saying something! The hill we climbed was so steep I think my calves are rock solid now. Once we reached the top, the views were just beautiful. I could see the white buildings of Granada and a mountain outline right beyond them. The walk to the palace took us through a luxurious garden. There were perfectly cut shrubs and skillfully placed flowers and plants everywhere.

The palace was very different because I’ve never been inside a mosque before. There was intricate designs around columns and pretty tile and pools of water, which are to remind you of the importance and value of water.

My favorite part of the Alhambra was the garden right outside the palace. It really left me speechless. I love the pools of water that look like a sheet of glass just reflecting its surroundings. The views by the garden are just gorgeous and no picture can capture the beauty of it! I love taking pictures and videos because no matter how hard you try, you can’t exactly remember something so intricate.

Italian in Spain

Dinner time! My favorite meal time, actually I love every meal equally <3 I can’t pick a favorite. But we had been craving some Italian food the whole trip, so we went down to the plaza to eat at an Italian restaurant. I had a calzone which was HUGE, but don’t worry, I had no problem almost eating the whole thing. After dinner we played some card games in our air bnb, and headed to the club Mae West. Whoo hoo! I swear it‘s party time every night in Spain. We had a fun time we got back super late, or maybe we were just early birds!

Granada was so pretty and there was quite a bit to do there. I’m moving the weekend travel we get to do. This trip has been so inspiring to me. I can’t wait to see more of the world. It‘s a gift to be alive, and we should all take advantage of that.

Stay tuned for details on my trip to Seville!

Adios!

Morgan