Granada Again

I took advantage of my last four day weekend to the fullest by going to Granada! I studied abroad in Granada for four months about three years ago, so it was awesome to return to the place in which I have already created many great memories. Since studying abroad in Granada I have been able to explore more of my own country and quite a bit more of Spain which gave me a little more perspective this time around. Upon returning to Granada I realized that it is not just a great city because it is in the south of Spain, but because it is truly a unique city within Spain. I appreciated even more all the beauty the city has to offer. It really is a gorgeous city. It has my favorite view which is from a plaza in the Albaicin that looks over the Al Hambra (a massive and gorgeous Moorish castle) with the snow-topped Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background.

I met up with two of my friends Brian and Lizzy who I studied abroad with in Granada three years ago. They are now teaching English and enjoying the lifestyle that Granada has to offer. Staying with them was awesome! They have a great living situation; they live with two Italians girls and a Belgian guy. The house speaks four different languages and the common language for them all is Spanish. It was a great experience.

While I was there I enjoyed the hell out of a ton of free tapas!  If I pay two euros for a beer in Malaga I just get a beer, but in Granada you also get a bagel sandwich made of cured ham, olive oil and cured cheese and French fries with aioli sauce on the side.  I love free tapas.

I visited my former host mother from when I studied in Granada. Her name is Feliciana and she is 75 years old. She is pretty dang awesome. I learned a lot from her and really enjoyed the time I spent with here when I studied abroad. We had a great time catching up. We actually talked for four hours straight without a moment of silence (she did most of the talking). I think we both would have liked to talk more but I had to leave to meet up with friends. I plan to return to Granada again and I will have to meet up with her again.

Granada has a great social scene. There are always people out having tapas and getting coffee. I love the vibe of the city, it’s really lively. The night scene is also exceptionally great, which has a lot to do with the fact that there are more international students in Granada than any other European city. It is filled with students. The first night I went to a discoteca until six in the morning, then the second night I did exactly the same but at a different discoteca.  The following morning I was absolutely crushed. Things only worsened from there after I ate a shawarma that certainly had some bad meat because I had massive diarrhea for the next four days. It really was the worst of my life. So my third night I spent trying to recover. The fourth night I watched an American Football game. My buddy Brian actually plays quarterback for Granada’s American Football team, which is awesome. It was great to watch.  That night I went out to celebrate Brian’s victory in the game but took it very easy.  The next day I returned back to Malaga and continued to rest.

It was a tumultuous weekend, but awesome.