My first week in Spain has come to an end and I’m trying hard not to think of it as one-fifth done, but four fifths to go. We’ve done a lot of walking tours this week to get familiar with the city and there’s a lot to see. On Saturday, we went up to the Albayzín, which is the oldest part of the city and was a Muslim quarter for awhile after King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle made the city’s religion Catholic. We kept walking up and up and up these narrow, winding streets until we got a pretty priceless view of the Alhombra fortress. As we were on our tour, our guide was telling us about the nuns and how they support themselves financially by baking cookies and other sweets. We got a chance to talk to a nun (through a wooden doorway of sorts) while purchasing food from her and heard a little bit about her life. Religion has shaped the architecture and history of this town in a way that is so obvious and unique, and probably makes me sound like a dull encyclopedia to people back home who can’t witness it. While walking up, we saw the church where the first Catholic mass in the city was held, in 1492.
1492 is a really important date to Spaniards. They are so proud of Christopher Columbus and his destruction of native cultures-I mean, discovery of America. In every tour I’ve been through, Ferdinand, Isabelle and Christopher Columbus are stars of the show. They really transformed Spain from an Arabic nation to a Catholic one, and turned most of the mosques into churches. What was interesting to me was how we could walk ten minutes and have just seen a Catholic convent, then up the hill we toured a mosque. Everything is just so old. America’s historical monuments are just babies compared to the sites that we have seen.
On Sunday, we took a day excursion to Sevilla to see the cathedral, royal palace and Plaza de Espana. Sevilla had more of a tourist-y feel to it as everyone travels to see the great cathedral where Christopher Columbus is actually buried and the bell tower. We were supposed to get to Sevilla around noon but as luck would have it, our bus broke down while we were at a large rest stop area and we were stranded for a good hour and a half. It was a good bonding/homework time for us so it could have been worse. Attached below are some photos of the Plaza de Espana, royal palace and my view from the bell tower. Not bad, right?
As for day to day living in Granada, I’m learning more about what’s usual and what’s not. For example: hot milk and room temperature water. Ice isn’t really a thing here and when people eat cereal or drink coffee, the milk is hot. The other morning I wasn’t used to hot milk, and decided to pass on my warm corn flakes. Also, I’m subconsciously picking up the “lisp” that Andulusians have where they pronounce a lot of “c’s” and other letters as a “th” sound. I catch myself saying “Grathias” instead of “Gracias” as my host mother does. Meals take a lot longer than they do in America even though there isn’t necessarily much more food, but conversation is stressed more heavily at the table. Today at lunch, I got the unique opportunity to compare what foods I eat and what TV shows I like to watch compared to my Spanish host mother and the French girl that also stays with us.
Perhaps the most surreal moment of this week (besides being in complete awe of how big the cathedral was) was actually meeting up with one of my best friends from home, Taylor (blog shout out!). She was studying abroad in Cordoba this summer and when we realized she was visiting Granada this weekend and I would be here, it just seemed too ridiculous of a circumstance to pass up meeting up. After many failed attempts on the phone to find a place that we both knew how to get to, we met up late at night in front of the cathedral in Granada. The fact that it actually happened was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I haven’t really gotten homesick yet but she had reached the point where she was missing Delaware, so it was nice to talk about home and relate to our mishaps in Spain. My favorite moment was having her VCU study abroad group meet up with UD’s briefly.
This week, I’m taking a flamenco dance class and going to Cordoba so another week of fun,homework, and more great blog posts are to come!
1) My View from the top of the bell tower on top of the Cathedral of Sevilla (the largest Gothic cathedral in the world)
2) The Royal Palace. The first floor is traditionally medieval Arab design whereas the second floor was constructed awhile later in the sixteenth century and features traditional Renaissance architecture.
3)Plaza de Espana, which contains a small tribute of sorts to all 52 Spanish provinces.
