Do You Want To Build A Snowman?

Today we took another road trip! We first drove to La Sierra Nevada Mountains in Grenada (6890 feet above sea level) where we saw snow. We were so high up in the mountain and the view was amazing. The snow was so deep that when I walked my foot sunk into the snow and my entire boot was covered. We tried to build a snowman but it was way more difficult than I thought. I have newfound respect for people who can build snowmen. I also learned that Maria likes to eat snow… Alonso bought us plastic snow shovels and we used them as sleds to slide down the snow. It was a lot of fun and very cold. Being from Florida I don’t really have snow clothes so I was in jeans and by the time we were done my pants were completely soaked. We then drove to a different part of the mountain where we went on a mini sled roller coaster. Maria and I though our sleds were attached but at the last second we realized they weren’t so I was a little freaked out because the guy had just said all of the instructions in Spanish. I was fine and it was fun. We also got to watch people ski which was cool. After our snow adventure we drove back down the mountain to the city of Grenada where we changed out of our wet clothing. This was also quite an adventure because we had to change in tiny stalls and we were more wet than we expected to be. While we were changing the lights in the bathroom went out and we had to turn on our phone flashlights. We laughed a lot after we screamed.

Once in town we stopped to get drinks and tapas. They served us tiny breaded fish that still had tales and spines. I was seriously freaked out but I was hungry so I ate them. I definitely swallowed part of a spine and it hurt. After that we took the bus to the entrance of La Alhambra which is a very famous castle and used to be one of the 7 wonders of the world until very recently.

The name Alhambra is Arabic for the Red Castle. The first palace on the site was built by Samuel Ha-Nagid, the Jewish grand vizier of one of Granada’s 11th-century Zirid sultans. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Nasrid emirs turned the area into a fortress-palace complex, adjoined by a village of which only ruins remain. After the Reconquista (Christian reconquest), the Alhambra’s mosque was replaced with a church, and the Convento de San Francisco (now the Parador de Granada) was built. Carlos I (also known as the Habsburg emperor Charles V), grandson of the Catholic Monarchs, had a wing of the palaces destroyed to make space for his huge Renaissance work, the Palacio de Carlos V. During the Napoleonic occupation, the Alhambra was used as a barracks and nearly blown up.(http://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/granada)

 

When we were done we took the bus back to town and we got a chocolate pastry. After we walked out of the bakery we saw ice cream. We got that too because we are in Spain so why choose only one. I got chocolate orange and Ferrero Rocher ice cream. It was super yummy. Then we took the bus to a different view point so that we could see the Alhambra from far away. The town has a lot of gypsies because they were enslaved there and they are the ones who built the Alhambra. The gypsies sell a lot of handmade jewelry and they sing on the street. After taking pictures we headed off to find a place to have tea because Granada is known for having the best tea. The place that we found was very interesting because it had Hookah’s on all the tables and it was Arabian themed.

The waitress brought us traditional hats to wear and Maria laughed so hard she cried. After we drank our tea we did lots of shopping and Maria and I both got gypsy pants. We look like we could fit right into the Disney movie Aladdin. We are both in love with our pants because they are extremely comfortable and cute. We plan on wearing them on the plane ride home. Hopefully we don’t get stopped in customs for looking crazy.

For dinner we had chicken and pork with vegetables and it was delicious. We have another beach trip planned for tomorrow and we are very excited. According to Maria’s phone we walked over six miles today! Maybe that burned off the ice cream and chocolate pastry.




This is my new friend. We are having a staring contest.