Thanksgiving...Spanish style
Trip Start
Aug 30, 2009
1
15
Trip End
Dec 20, 2009
Granada, Andalusia, Spain and Canary Islands
Friday, November 27, 2009
Since I am living between my homestay and the hostal this week while everyone visits, Scott and I had to get up quite early so I could head back to my homestay to grab some more clothes and drop off Scott's larger bag. My homestay is in the opposite direction of the bus station so it ended up taking longer than expected. Luckily we built some cushion time into our schedule and thus we made it onto our bus safely but with only minutes to spare. The bus ride itself was faily uneventful, there is not much to see as far as landscape goes between Madrid and Granada so Scott and I passed the 5 hour trip talking and staring out at the vast, empty plains of Spain. We arrived shortly after 4pm and caught a taxi to the hotel. Lucky for us, by Novemeber it is off season here in Spain and thus we were able to get a great, cheap rate on a great little hostel near the Alhambra. I am so used to staying in hostels with 6 to 8 other people in a room that it was nice to travel and have a private room with nice facilities. For only $15 euro a night per person, we were able to stay at a place somewhat equivalent to a nicer "Days Inn" or a low star Marriott. Now that might not sound inviting more most people, it was a real treat after some of the welll...interesting hostels I had stayed in in the past.
Scott and I spent the early evening trying to figure out the internet situation at the hotel so that we could get in touch with Mom and Torrey before they left on their night train to meet us in the morning, Though it was a bit complicated, after an hour or so we figured it out and decided to rent a movie before eating dinner. We ended up renting "I Love You Man" through iTunes and allowed it to load while we headed to the main street near our hotel and ate some delicious kebabs. Ufortunately my banking situation has been totally screwed up this past week so Scott has had to foo bill for almost everything, though he commented that he did not mind paying for the kebabs at all because they were so simply delicious (the best I've certainly had in Europe). After dinner we went back to the hotel, watched the movie (quite funny) and headed to bed early again in anticipation of Torrey and Mom's early arrival.
Just as we had expected, Mom and Torrey arrived at the hotel shortly after 9am and after they took a brief nap we headed out for the day to see the Alhambra. Unfortunately it rained most of the morning and afternoon but regardless the visit to the historic site was still fun (although quite wet). It ended up talking over an hour to figure out which bus to take to the Alhambra, and after a bit of arguing and a lot of waiting, we finally hopped on the correct bus to get us to the site. Tour times for the Alhambra are scheduled for either 9am or 2pm everyday and due to Mom and Torrey's arrival after 9am, we opted to take the 2pm time slot, which meant we waited for another hour before we could gain entrance. Though there was a lot of waiting to be done that morning, it all ended up being worth it once we finally were able to see the beauty of the Alhambra. The palace was gorgeous and intricately decorated with interesting shapes and tiles. Though Scott and I enjoyed our time there very much, it was interesting to see the look on Torrey's face as she walked though the palace, a look of sheer awe. Its times like these that I wish I knew more about architecture and how it works because although the palace was beautiful, Torrey seemed to appreciate its awesomeness much more so than the uneducated Scott or I did.
Regardless we all enjoyed the palace very much, despite the rain and cold. Before we left the palace Mom made sure to snap a picture of the 4 of us wearing her famous "turkey hats" so we could at least feel some semblance of Thanksgiving here in Spain. We spent the later afternoon walking around the King's gardens outside the Alhambra and then headed back to the hotel so that Mom and Torrey could take another nap before dinner. Unfortunately, though we searched, we were unable to find any places serving anything remotely close to a Thanksgiving dinner, and thus the 4 of us headed to a local restaurant reccommended to us by our hotel for some typical Spanish food. Though it was not the traditional Thanksgiving dinner that I so greatly miss in the states, it was at least a wonderful thing to have Mom, Torrey and Scott there to share the holiday with. The night ended after a brief shopping trip to Zara (a chain European clothing store that Torrey likes) and we all headed to bed exhausted from the day (though minus the triptophan induced coma of a typical Thanksgiving sleep).
The four of us woke up early the next morning and raced over to the bus station to catch our bus back to Madrid. Luckily the night before Mom and Torrey were able to book the last 2 seats on the bus so we were all able to make ot back to Madrid safe and soundly. For Scott's last night here in Madrid we have been invited back to my homestay to eat dinner with my host mother and my roommates. I am extremely excited for Mom, Torrey and Scott to see where I've been living and get a better sense of what a typical day is like for me here in Madrid. Though I'm sad to see everyone head out in the next 2 days I have enjoyed my week very much. Its hard to believe that in a little over 3 weeks it'll be me getting on the plane to head back to the states. I'll write again soon!
