Granada

My group took a two day excursion to Granada, and two days was definitely not enough time there. Granada is one of the most beautiful places in Andalucía.

Granada's surrounded by mountains that always have snow on them, and it's quite a hilly city, so bring your walking shoes if you go there. The cool part about all the hills is that no matter where you go, you're probably going to find some amazing view of the alhambra.

The best part about Granada is the tapa life. If you go to a restaurant and order a drink, they just give you a tapa with it. For the most part you don't know what you're going to get with your drink, but if you're not vegetarian, it's almost exciting not knowing what they'll give you next. If you are vegetarian, just say so, and it should be fine. Although, in Spain they kinda manage to sneak ham into just about everything, even if someone tells you something's vegetarian. Just check.

Also, try to go on a not main street, and look for the places with a ton of people in them. Yes, it's crowded and you might have to eat standing up, but the food is probably going to be the best. 

Go to many of these places, too. Just get one drink/tapa at one restaurant, then move to another one. It's really fun.

Granada is also a pretty diverse place foodwise. On a scale of 1 to Ann Arbor, it's probably a 4, meaning in addition to your Spanish restaurants, you'll find some kebab, moroccan, and I even ate at an Indian restaurant. It was really nice to have some more options here than I usually get dining out in Sevilla (which I almost never did because my host mom cooked better than any restaurant anyway, and she cooked amazing vegetarian food). 

Granada's main attraction is the Alhambra. It has a couple parts you can visit, including this part with the gardens. There are all sorts of fruit trees, and then water, which was essential to wash the face, hands, and feet before praying. Many of the fountains are powered by gravity. There's also a lot of natural light.

The most beautiful parts of the Alhambra for me were the patios. Since bodies can't be represented in Muslim art, there are many different combinations of shapes that are all designed to fit into each other and many scripts. I thought the colors of the mosaics in the Alhambra were particularly beautiful. 

In this patio, too, there are the bedrooms of the califa's wives, but above that is a place for all of the concubines. The windows were designed so that way they could see out on the patio from above, but no one can see into the windows. 

There were also the bedrooms of the califa and his mom which were really impressive, but the mom's bedroom is even more beautiful than the califa's. Who's more important than your mom? Yup. No one. The floor is bare, however, because carpets would be laid down. Extravagant floors would just be unnecessary. 

This is probably the most famous patio in the Alhambra. At the center is a fountain which was gifted to the califa by the Jews. It was a symbol of not only tolerance, but friendship, too. 

The Alhambra has a fantastic view of the whole city, of course. There are also even more amazing gardens.

A pomegranate, or granada, like the city.

Granada has so many things to do. There's of course the Alhambra, but you can go walk through the old gypsy neighborhood with all of the caves, visit some of the more hippy parts and have some amazing Moroccan mint tea, and visit the cathedral where Isabel and Fernando are buried (they were supposed to be buried in Toledo, but were buried in Granada as a symbol of triumph over the moors). 

I was there for two days and felt like I saw nothing, so if you're going, definitely allow yourself at least three days.

Salamanca

Salamanca was definitely one of the coolest side trips I made while in Spain, and it probably is the most memorable. After going to Toledo, I had to go back to Madrid to catch a carpool with someone to go to Salamanca. However, when I called the person I would have carpooled with to Salamanca, he told me that his car was actually full, and that I was out of luck (the only downside to Spanish blablacar is that it's not prepaid online like in France). So I ended up going to Atocha and catching a late train to Salamanca. I finally got to Salamanca at 1 am. 

When I got to my hostel, I was definitely after check-in hours, but the kids that lived there came downstairs and opened the door for me. (It was kind of a half hostel, half rented out rooms for students). I waited with them and hung out for a while, and they called people to check me in. Two girls my age got to the hostel and checked me in, then they were like, "Oh btw, my cousin is having a birthday party. Want to come??" So at 2 in the morning, I go to a birthday party with these super nice girls I had never met before, and we were out until 6 am. It was probably one of the coolest, most random thing to ever happen to me. 

The next day I woke up around noon and just explored. I went to Plaza Mayor first. Salamanca is basically all made of limestone, and in the rain, all the buildings just kid of looked spongey. If you go there, you will want to poke ALL of the buildings because the limestone makes them look so soft!

Salamanca is a famous university town, and like every university town, it has to have a place to get bubble tea. 

The pontificate university and library.

I then went to this monastery. It was a sunday, and I actually sat in on a part of the service to see what it was like. There weren't too many tourists the day I went, and although many things were closed because it was a sunday, I still think it was a cool opportunity to see people from Salamanca doing their thing, one of those things is going to church, of course. 

I walked by a few university buildings. The facultad de filología is right across from the cathedral, and down the street from it is the school of translation. Can all universities look like this please?

I went to the cathedral, although I technically didn't go to it because I didn't have enough money to go inside then still eat for the rest of the day. But I still admired it from the outside and took a picture when I was inside for the two seconds it took to look at the admissions prices. 

I found this free civil war museum which was really interesting. I couldn't take pictures, but there was this really cool room set up like this secret order they had, la masonería, which was really persecuted during Franco's dictatorship. This was the room I saw (taken from abc). There was also a really creepy closet with a skeleton hanging in it, and then their other documents and books, medals, etc. 

I then walked along the outskirts of the city, by this roman bridge, and then I walked by the modern art museum.

I stupidly saved the university until last (which is why you should always check hours before doing anything touristy), so I didn't get to go inside, but it was really cool from the outside anyway. It's the oldest university in Spain, and one of the oldest in Europe. (I think the one in Bologna, Italy is the oldest...) Again it reminded me of Monty Python Life of Brian, because the graffiti on the outside is all in latin with red paint.

Since I had a lot of time after doing all my sight-seeing, I just wandered aimlessly around the city. I found this amazing vegetarian restaurant, so I had grilled tofu and vegetarian paella. It was fantastic. I took food pics, but four days later my phone got stolen, and those pictures were on there. There are a couple on my instagram though, if you're curious. 

It started to rain, too, and Salamanca is just one of those cities that looks extra pretty while raining. I had to buy an umbrella there though because I left mine at home (it said it wasn't going to rain...), but for anywhere you go, just really remember to triple check the weather.

I carpooled back to Sevilla, and the people I was with were so awesome and fun (blablacar is for the most part really reliable and a good time). The fourish hours passed really quickly. The whole experience of Salamanca was just really fun in general, and it was probably my biggest adventure in Spain.