Submitted by Daniel Bailey on the 2019 fall semester study abroad program in Granada, Spain…
This past weekend, I went with a few friends to explore the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. It was a nice change of pace to see life outside of the city. With only minimal confusion, we took a public bus to the town of Monachil, right on the edge of the mountains. Before we reached the trails, we walked past a few small, run-down houses with tin roofs and lots of land to grow food and raise animals. This type of life is so different from the one in Granada, and definitely from the life I know in the United States. Part of the reason why I love traveling so much is not always to see all of the big tourist attractions and take photos for social media, but to actually see and experience what life is like in other parts of the world. This may sound like a cliché, but doing so has helped put my own life in perspective and allowed me to see the privileges I’ve been given in life, and to not take them for granted.
We hiked for a couple of hours and took in the beautiful scenery of the mountains. The trail had all sorts of terrain, including muddy slopes along the river, long and shaky bridges, and narrow crawl spaces between rocks. This trip was a great break from the city life that I have become accustomed to ans coming back home to Granada after a long day feels like a sigh of relief. And as I had said in my last blog, Granada really does feel just like that: home.