Hello! Here I will publish parts of my diary from my stay in Granada, to give a view on how my dailylife was down there. Feel free to share thoughts or experiences from your own trip in the comment box, if you have ever been to Granada, or another city in Spain ;D
Monday
Today we arived at Malaga airport after a long journey, which had started from Kongsberg at 2.30 the night before. We were picked up at the airport by the spanish teachers Mercedes and Nuria.
When we arrived in Granada, we met with the others, and then I went to the house of my host, Fernando. He lives in a typical spanish house with his family. The spanish houses were very nice ones, but different from those we use in Norway.
In the evening we went to see the flamenco show, "El Flamenco viene del sur". Flamenco is the most typical dance of southern Spain, and seeing this was interesting.
Tuesday
Today we joined the lessons of the class Animación Socio-Cultural. This was really fun, and we did a lot of different activities to get to know each other. The whole happening was a god ice-breaker.
After this we had a presentation about Norway, for the spanish students. It was a little exiting to talk to such numbers of people, but everything went okay
In the evening we went to a teteria to buy tea and smoke waterpipe. The teteria is a typical traditional spanish tea house with its origins dating back to the arabic time.
Wednesday
This day we visited the antique part of Granada, the Albayzin. I'm a person who love history and archaeology, and for me this trip was especially interesting. I spent most of the day, walking aorund with one of my friends, imagining how everything would have looked like in the arabic era.
In the evening we went to some arabic baths, and this is one of the most relaxing places I have ever been to. There were three different types of baths, a very cold one, one a warm, and a extra warm. Changing between these gave a very relaxing feeling. In addition to the bathing I got a wonderful massage, which made me relax even more.
Thursday
On Thursday we went to see the "parque de las ciencias", which was an scientific park, where you could do different activities, and read about science-related topics.
I think the best part of this park was the watch tower, where you could see all around Granada. To get up there I had to pretend to be a teacher ;D
This evening we had a party at the school, with a lot of music, dance, food and of course sangria. I danced a lot, and we really got to know each other this night. The food was typical spanish and although much of it seemed strange to me it tasted good.
Friday
This day we visited the Alhambra, which is probably the most famous part of Granada. This old fortified city is unique, and it clearly shows the influence the arabic nation had on Spain for centuries.
Alhambra was first built as a defencive fortress, but gradually eveloved to become a massive fortified city. It was so well protected that no-one have ever managed to conquer it by brutal force.
In the evening we went to a very nice italian resturant where we got lots of food. I ordered pizza This night we went out to seek Granada's night life. We went to a really huge and magnificent discotec, where I met a lot of interesting new people. Some of them even thought my friend, Kristian, and I were in the army, because of the "dogtag" I was wearing :D
Saturday
Today I have been at the beach and relaxed after last night's party. Here everything was nice and silent. The beach was in what I will call a typical tourist city. However in this part of the year it wasn't really overcrowded, which was good. We had plenty of space around us to lay out and "tomar el sol".
After I had been at the beach for a while, I went to have a walk with my good friend Ida. During our walk we saw a lot of things typical for the southern parts of Spain. Houses, colours, shops and people. The caves, where people live made a special impression on me.
Sunday
This was our last day, and I spent it by going to the birthday of Fernando's father. I went with some other norwegians and everything was really nice. We relaxed, talked a lot and ate lots of traditional spanish barbeque food. After this we went to Paula's house, to talk some more, and drink some water.
Now I've just arrived at Fernando's house, and I will prepare myself for the evening. This night we will have the final farewell party. I really don't want to go, and I think I will miss Granada a lot.
