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.