Granada

Hola a todos!

Granada was an incredible city- my favorite in Spain so far, outside of Alicante.  The main thing Granada is known for is the fact that it was a muslim stronghold in Spain and the last city to fall to the christians in 1492.  Ferdinand and Isabel - the Catholic kings who united Spain as a whole empire again, are buried there, and Granada is a history buff's fantasy.  The muslim influence is apparent in the architecture there- for example, because it's so hot in Granada, they built their streets narrower to allow for more shade and cooler walking in the summers.  This makes driving in tour buses both thrilling and frightening at the same time.  It seemed like only old people and babies were the ones closest to being hit by our driver, but fortunately (like the Knight Bus in Harry Potter), we made it without any pedestrian fatalities.  On Friday we saw the burial site of Ferdinand and Isabel as well as the Catholic cathedral in town- which was giant.  Although it was really cool to see the bodies of F&I (as I affectionately refer to them), it was sort of creepy to see the coffins and know how old the bones and whatnot really are.  That night we saw a Flamenco show in this all-white town (with adobe roofs) that was up a hill in a very scenic area.  You could tell it was a family run business, because the cousins and grandmother all danced while the brothers worked the bar part.  We sat in a low-ceilinged room shaped like a fashion show's runway, with chairs on either side.  The dancers danced literally right in front of you up and down the isle, which put our toes in a very precarious position (even the male dancers wore 2 inch clogs).  The Flamenco itself was incredible- lots of stomping and twirling and flowery outfits.  I loved it- and I am not the dance type.  I know our entire family will be thrilled to know that Michelle Obama sat and watched Flamenco in the very room that I did...I was considering taking a few twigs from my wicker chair home with me as a souvenir just in case we got the same seat.  Saturday was spent at La Alhambra- a muslim city built within the city of Granada during the 13th century that today sees 8000 visitors every day.  This ancient city is unreal- not really what we think of as a city- but it has all of the elements of a city from its heyday in the 1200s.  The 1200s!! It's mind blowing really to think of how many people walked around on the same ground that we were on.  Most of my pictures are from there- we spent 2 and a half hours walking around with our tour guide (using cool microphone earbuds to hear her) and barely saw all of the sites.  It was one of the most gorgeous places on Earth- their mosaics especially were incredible.  All in all, loved the trip, and although I'm happy to be back in Alicante as always it was definitely a city I could see again.

I created a shutterfly website for my pictures- because to upload all of the pictures I took from Granada would take about 8 weeks on this google blog site.  The address is http://atlantameetsalicante.shutterfly.com/ and hopefully yall should be able to see my albums from my hike last week as well as the pictures from this weekend. 

Love you all and go Braves!

Quite delayed...

Hey Yall-

I am SO sorry that it has been so long since I put anything up here.  The weather and March in general has been too busy and wonderful- every time I think about blogging, I'm inconveniently located somewhere where access to the internet is either impossible or would require getting sand in my keys.  To recap the past month...

-The family came to visit during Carnival (which was wonderful- I'm sure you can ask them all about it if yall haven't talked)
-I had midterms (which went fine- although the grading scale here is odd- from 1-10 instead of 1-100, with decimal points)
-I discovered the next american idol in a local cafe.  Spanish singers here sing in English (accents questionable) so he chose "Unchained Melody' from Ghost to serenade my friend Sara on her 21st birthday.  Who knew that the next Clay Aiken would be working down my street wearing a tight black shirt with Mama Mia! in sequins...
-Got the plague (food poisoning from Mexican food)
-I taught a class to Spanish students at a local high school.  Going into the experience, I think I complained every hour on the hour about the fact that I don't want to be a teacher, but had to go talk to a group of 20 17 year old spanish students about "music" in English.  We really had no idea going into the class how much English these kids know, so it was challenging to create a lesson plan based off of practically no information.  I (surprisingly) had an awesome time- Spanish students are really receptive to any American influence, particularly if they get to listen to our music (which plays in the clubs here). They love to act and loved to talk, and we had a great time.  One guy even knew that the Hawks were Atlanta's basketball team.  Go figure.  I'm not signing up for Teach For America any time soon, but I will admit to being mistaken about the experience as a whole. 

What I really want to show yall more than anything is my experience last weekend.  Three of my friends and I hopped on the tram to Calpe- a town just outside of Benidorm (maybe an hour and a half away from Alicante) to explore the beach town and go on a hike.  My friend Sara who led us on this excursion is one of those "I have a vague idea of the route of where we should go in my head based on an assumption and also some fact" type of planners, so we went ahead and cleared out the whole day.  We got off at Calpe to find a touristy but beautiful beach town and a very cute couple from southern England who helped us find our way to Ifach, the rock we were hiking.  Mind you, this is the rock we saw from the tram and said "OK that thing is unclimbable, where's the mountain?"...we found ourselves at the base of what looked like a cliff sticking out of the water, with a path along the way warning of "dangerous hiking" past the tunnel that is there (sorry, Mom and Dad).  Anyway, long story short it is the most beautiful hike and place that I have ever been.  The most dangerous and exhilirating climb I've ever done, and the high of being up on that rock looking out at the ocean has kept us all in great spirits this whole week.  Pictures don't even do it justice, but they certainly do a better job than my words can.  The only downside to the whole day was the clan of feral cats that inexplicably decided to post up on the summit and try to eat our bocadillos (sandwiches).

Since midterms and the improvement of the weather, my schedule has simplified...I generally alternate between the beach, class, eating meals, running, thinking about homework, the beach, and the actual doing of the homework (reserved for hours after dark because it is simply too gorgeous out to ignore).  We are looking ahead to a trip to Granada this weekend of 75 degrees with sun!  I also booked a trip with my friend Hilary next weekend to London- so I'm very excited.  We are both very much high strung, let's see everything type people so we will be good travel companions.

In other news, the time changed here on the 27th of March so we are enjoying sunshine until past 8:15 at night.  Also, April Fools Day doesn't exist here- it's in December.  So much for our plan to dress up like statues in front of our class building and see if our classmates notice...
 

"We're climbing THAT?"

Well- that's it for now. I promise I'll try to keep this updated more often!  Welcome to la primavera (spring)!

Love,
Casey

PS- HAPPY OPENING DAY EVERYONE!

Barcelona

Hey Everyone!

Just blogging fresh from the Barcelona trip, which was short, but incredible!  Although the city is gorgeous and very European, with all of the shopping you could possibly imagine, a ton of history (dating back to the 1st century), and rich culture, I was so happy to return to Alicante.  We only spent a day and half due to the 7 hour bus trip, but I feel like we packed some very important things into it.  Some background: they speak a different language in Barcelona, and Cataluna (the province where Barcelona is), called Catalan, which is literally impossible to understand.  Spaniards outside of the province don't learn or speak it, and the second language there is English more so than Castellano (what we Americans think of as "Spanish"- what is spoken in the rest of Spain).  Barcelona's culture is more Parisian, generally a bit colder than the South of Spain, very high fashion, more business/proper.  They all are very well-dressed and you get a lot of everything there as far as fashion is concerned. Sort of like New York.  Cataluna actually wanted independence from the rest of Spain for a while because they considered their region distinct from the country.  I swear it seems like "Hola" in normal Spanish is "Holxcadla" in Catalan- a mix of French and Spanish with some German thrown in or something.  Anyway, this was my weekend:

Friday- drive to Barcelona, we stopped at a vineyard/bodega (winery) called Codorniu on the way- a 20 generation family business that is one of the longest in European history.  They make "cava" - chardonnays, roses, and champagnes there.  We got a tour of the beautiful winery and got to go down to the cellars (1500 ft long) where the wines are actually fermented.  They have levels for each place where the wines will go- ex. "Cava Londres" or "Cava Brussels"- for London and Brussels, and it was truly incredible.  There were tunnels like Harry Potter winding through the levels and lots of side rooms where the older wines were kept.  We got on the same train-type vehicles that they have in Disney World to show people around, with bench seats, 2 people each, and one driver...hopefully that paints a picture for everyone.  Anyway, our precious 60 year old Spanish tour guide/driver drove us through all the levels of the cellars, weaving in and out of barriers like it was a roller coaster ride- very fun.  We ended the tour tasting a rose and a chardonnay, which naturally everyone enjoyed.

At the Bodega

We also got to our 4-star hotel in Barcelona- which was very very nice.  Hotel Cristal Palace was its name, and it was 2 people to a room which was extremely comfortable.  Natalie and I opted to enjoy the comfort of the beds and slept for about 12 hours that night.

Saturday: incredible continental breakfast, followed by a tour of the city.  There is so much history in Barcelona- we saw original columns built in 1080 or so by the Romans that have been preserved in the center of the city.  You actually have to walk down about 15 feet or so to get to see them, because over the centuries dust and debris have raised the level of the city from what it used to be.  We got a tour of a Jewish district that was bombed during the civil war, and a temple where you can see the areas that bombs carved out of the sides.  Sadly, during the attacks, many children who sought refuge inside lost their lives.  The architecture in Barcelona is largely influenced by Antonio Gaudi, an architect born in 1852 who lived until 1926, and designed 3 major big houses in the city as well as all of the streets, streetlights, and many other buildings.  His architecture is very surreal, very odd, sort of like sand castles or coral that would be under the ocean.  We get the English word "gaudy" from his name.  He was a combination of a genius and lunatic, in my opinion.  He designed his rooms so that the light would be reflected equally from bottom floors to top, by making an atrium area get narrower as you go up the levels, with windows getting gradually smaller and tiles gradually getting darker as they stretched toward the sunlight. Who thinks of that stuff, anyway?  We also toured a park with incredible views of the entire city, homes and buildings designed by Gaudi amidst gardens and a central open area where small vendors sold trinkets and school kids played.  His home is a mixture of something from Alice and Wonderland and Willy Wonka.

We also saw the only cathedral (official Catholic term) in Barcelona, called La Sau, which was built around 1600 and was decorated inside very ornately with gold and murals everywhere.  Pictures hardly do it justice, mostly because everything is so OLD.   The benches there are almost 200 years older than our country.  It was a very surreal, quiet place in the middle of the city's busy areas. Apparently La Sagrada Familia (designed by Gaudi), is a Basilica, not a cathedral, and these have some differentiation that I don't understand.

Ended the night with a BBQ sandwich at Hard Rock Cafe.

Some of Gaudi's architecture in his park

Note the graffiti: "idiot"

The cathedral from the outside

Barcelona central government building at night (or maybe a bank?)

Man attempting to be Cristiano Ronaldo

Detail of Gaudi's influence on city buildings

In the cathedral, there were alcoves on every side with gold statues and murals dedicated to every saint

Jewish neighborhood

The temple where you can see the bomb marks from the Civil War

This architecture is all over the city

Oldest Roman columns in the city

The name of the temple to Augustus from which the columns came

Gaudi's residence from 1906-1926, when he died

One of Gaudi's buildings in the park

Views of Barcelona

One of Gaudi's 3 residences in Barcelona

Real priest chanting something in Latin in the Cathedral

This big building is La Sagrada Familia

The cathedral in Barcelona

Christopher Columbus

Sunday: La Sagrada Familia- the Basilica designed completely by Gaudi that is breathtaking, overwhelming and ENORMOUS.  Gaudi died in the midst of constructing it, but the Spanish government has mandated that the state continue construction exactly to his blueprints.  The outside is the most ornately decorated thing I have ever seen, only pictures can describe it. And the inside is at least a football field large, incredible, obscure, and 2 floors (the bottom of which is used for actual services).  The construction has continued since 1926 when Gaudi died, and I'm certain won't be finished in my lifetime.  The church itself is in the shape of a cross, but Gaudi's plans are that at each entrance there will be four giant pillars- for a total of 16, with a huge pillar for Jesus in the middle and one for the Virgin Mary on the right side.  The pillar for Jesus will have a cross atop it that reflects beams of natural sunlight outward, and at the church's entrance will be an archway covered in demonic figures, with torches all around.  I would go to Barcelona solely to see this church.  In some of the pictures that I have of the city of Barcelona from Gaudi's park, you can see the Sagrada Familia above all, despite the fact that the city is so dense.  Hopefully some pictures will do justice to what I saw, but I doubt it.  I took a video in hopes of capturing it better.

This detail is all over La Sagrada Familia- everyone has faces.

Front doors- detail.

One of the four main entrances- this is where we entered.

Eventually every window will be stained glass

Above an altar in the center of the cross shape of the church's design

Gaudi designed these numbers so that they have a signification going up, down, right left, etc...

This detail is of the front doors- all the words are in different languages- some are gold. Que es la vertiat means "What is truth?"

Creepy demon character- the only statue without a face

Part of the ceiling

This level of detail is all around the outside of the church...and the state is copying every last inch of Gaudi's blueprint

Three wise men- at one of the entrances

 

Barcelona is very very beautiful, full of history, and a place I am glad I went- although I have to say that I am so glad to be home. "Hogar" in Spanish, by the way, means "home".  

Love you all-

Casey

P.D. (Spanish version of P.S.)- Here's a snapshot my friend just sent me of the "chicas de oro" night. Notice the jolly Spanish woman in leopard- that's my madre.  My friend Allison is on the left, her madre is the small head above the white shirt in the center of the picture, Cati is the blond older woman in the center, and that lucky man is Cuban...but I don't know his name.