First Weekend in Spain

Hi all! Sorry I haven't posted in a while but here's an overview of how I spent my first weekend here in Spain (with pictures)!

Saturday morning was uneventful, I slept late (I thought I had overcome jetlag but even five days in, I don’t think my body has fully adjusted; still very tired!) and had lunch with Belen and Adriana and spent the morning/afternoon at home. Later that afternoon we all met up with Teresa and walked to a part of the city called the Albaicín. This is the neighborhood next to the Alhambra. It is full of hills and lots of steps and small tiny roads that cars should not be going down (like many of the streets here in Granada) but nonetheless, beautiful. As we walked up we had an incredible view of the Alhambra as well as the entire city! Here are a few pictures from the trip.

 La Alhambra on the walk up.

 Another view of la Alhambra from higher up.

 First (very) awkward solo shot of the semester. This is at the end of our walk up to the top of the Albaicin.

 On our way back down. The Albaicin is a really cool area but there is a serious problem with graffiti there. Here's a shot of some steps we went down on our way back. Super guay! (very cool!)

A view of Granada.

The walk up through the Albaicín was very cool and the sights were beautiful but it was quite a hike and my legs were most definitely sore for a while afterwards!

In Spain, Sunday is a day for rest which means that basically all of the stores and stuff are closed and people just spend the day at home. However, since we knew the weather would be beautiful, Brittany, Kelsey and I decided to go to Alumuñecar to go to the beach! First, in the morning, we went to mass at the Iglesia San Francisco which is right across the street from my house. Belen recommended it to me and so we decided to go. It was certainly an experience. I had difficulty really understanding any of the readings/much of what went on due to the fact that it was all in Spanish. But, I did the best I could to follow along. Also, there was no singing at this mass which was kind of disappointing because that is one of my favorite parts and so it only lasted 30 minutes. I am definitely looking forward to returning and hope that by December I can more or less follow the whole mass!

After mass, we took a bus to the Granada bus station and once there bought our tickets and spent about an hour on the bus to Alumuñecar. I was a little aprehensive about the whole bus thing because we were basically on our own trying to figure it all out but luckily it was much easier than I anticipated and our travels went flawlessly. Alumuñecar is a pretty touristy area but it was still a great place to spend such a beautiful day. Here is one of the four pictures I managed to take at the beach:

Overall, I had a relaxing and enjoyable first weekend in Spain and I'm looking forward to the many more to come!