Granada - Retake!

So, last weekend I went back to Granada with my program. I went last semester with Lauren (see other post) and loved it so much that I wanted to go back. Plus, IES trips are always fantastic so I wanted to aprovechar! We left on the bus on Friday morning and got to Granada mid afternoon-ish. I roomed with Lisa and Katie and I'm pretty sure we had the biggest room in the hotel and the biggest bed in the hotel! We totally lucked out with a great view of the city from our balcony as well! Amazing! So, once we got settled in we went walking and everything started coming back to me! We were very close to the cathedral and the amazing plaza where the best ice cream shop is in the world! So, we headed that way and got some lunch and then went shopping in the mercado. Afterwards, we went to the cathedral and the Capilla Real and I loved them both as much as last time! Then we headed back to the hotel to meet the group.
We met up with the tour guides and my guide was my favorite, Carmen! She's the best! So, we went on a paseo through the Albacin which is the oldest barrio (neighborhood) in Granada. We made it to this great lookout called the Mirador and had an amazing view of the Alhambra at sunset with snow covered mountains in the background and possibly the most amazing sky I've ever seen! God was doing some incredible artwork that night! Then we headed down to the Arab baths!
The Arab baths are incredible! There are 7 pools of water that are all different temperatures and you go from pool to pool. There's also a 30 massage that was incredible!! I need that more often! And they have Moroccan tea for you to drink. We were there for several hours. There are 6 warm/hot water pools and the 7th is freezing cold. I almost couldn't breath one time b/c it was so cold! But it was so nice to relax in the water and sweat out all the impurities. I feel like it was very cleansing. I don't know that it is good for you body to go back and forth from hot to cold like that though. But in any case, I had the best back massage of my life!
After that, we went back to the hotel and changed clothes. Some of our friends from Morocco that are studying in Granada invited us over to their apartment which is actually pretty close to our hotel so Lisa and I went with a couple of other people and hung out there. Then we headed home b/c we were so tired!
On Saturday, we got up and ate breakfast in the hotel. Then we headed off the the Alhambra!!! Hooray! It is definitely my favorite place in Spain and is actually up to be one of the new 7 wonders of the world. I hope it wins! Anyway, we saw everything again and this time I actually got to see the Generalife and the Alcazar from the top of which we had an amazing view of the whole valley! And we got to go through everything with Carmen as our guide so we learned so much more! Our small group was really fun but we went really slow for some reason and ended up being late for lunch...oops! But, after walking about 500 miles in the Alhambra, all the way down from there, back up the huge hill to the Albacin and back down the length of the Alhambra, we made it to lunch and what a lunch it was! Atleast 5 plates they brought out...it was basically amazing!
After lunch, we went back to the hotel and then went back to the mercado so some girls could get some stuff. Then we went back and met up for the IES Madrid vs IES Granada soccer game! It was so fun and of course, we clobbered them! Actually, I think it is the first time Madrid has one so that was exciting! But yes, we won 7 to 2. Hooray! We had fun cheering on our players! After the game a group of us went and got amazing icecream from the best place ever! and it was just as beautiful as last time! Then we went back to the hotel to get ready for the flamenco show! We went to a cueva where they have a flamenco tablao and watched some authentic flamenco that was really good. I was a little too tired to completely enjoy it but it was amazing. Then we went home and went to sleep. On Sunday morning we got up and headed back for Madrid on the bus. Goodbye Granada...forever...or atleast until next time... I'll add pictures soon! Or you can look at the other post!