Climb every mountain

Trip Start Jan 27, 2008
1
8
40
Trip End Jul 23, 2008


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Where I stayed
Lola's

Flag of Spain  ,
Saturday, February 2, 2008

     Buenos Noches!  Today was a ton of fun, so luckily I didn't sleep in like I wanted to so badly.  We all met at the fountain and headed towards the Albaicin, which is the oldest part of the town made up of basically all white houses and mostly inhabited by gypsies.  We weren't exactly looking for anything, so we wandered around and found a lot of night places.  You could really see the Islamic, Arab, and Jewish influences everywhere.  Some of the doorways or paths would have the Star of David and there was a lot of green and red on doors, pottery, etc.  After wandering and finding some amazing views of the Alhambra, we found a path that led to the highest point that we could see, near a huge wall.  We hiked up the hill and found some breath-taking views (and not just because we were out of breath from climbing) of the city, as well as more mountains.  We aren't sure what the wall is for, maybe it was the old city wall, but there was a part that looked like it had been made recently with slabs of concrete or something layered, so that there were holes, but it was still sturdy
gran via
gran via
.  On our way down the hill, we saw some kids playing on the wall and climbing to the top.  Bravely, we attempted, but sadly failed.    
      We went a different way back down to the city and found a set of zig-zag stairs and walls that were covered in not-bad graffiti.  Graffiti is illegal here, too, but there is a lot of it.  Some of it is just words or not really art, but there are some real graffiti artists.  The "artists" don't do it on the churches or the historic sites, as the vandalists do.  I went back to Lola's for lunch, which was spaghetti with a creamy-ish sauce, tomato sauce, and hot dog pieces.  I was not really in the mood to eat a ton of food after all of that walking, so I had half of it and put the rest in the fridge.  When I saw her at dinner, she asked "Te gusta", without mention of the leftovers (which is one of the only things we can say to each other and completely understand, although I am understanding a lot more and trying to actually make conversation with her) and I said "Si".
       A group of us met up again to do some shopping.  I don't really need anything, but it's fun to look around and see more of the city.  We went our separate ways for dinner (I had a "bocadilla"- sandwich, mine was with ham, cheese, and tomato).  I watched some basketball on tv, which made me miss the Mary Wash team.  They were pretty fun to watch and I learned some basketball lingo in Spanish
me and the statue
me and the statue
.  I'm thinking about finding out if there is a basketball team at Universidad de Granada and maybe I can go to their games. 
      Once again, I am so glad that I didn't stay in and sleep this evening, like I wanted to this morning.  We met at this bar called "Reccas", which is pretty close to Lola's.  It was the place that we went to the first night we went out.  They have an outdoor area with high tables and stools, but there weren't any tables available, so we were pretty much standing around when a Spanish woman (probably about 30) and her 3 friends asked us to join their table.  So we went to stand by their table and they were really funny and could understand English, but told us to speak Spanish because we told them we were here to learn Spanish.  They were really funny and we stayed and talked with them awhile and also talked to some guys from London and Germany sitting nearby. 
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