cuevas en la montaña

Today, in my exploration of Granada, I went running to the top of one of the highest mountains that I can see on the outskirts of the city...

It was quite the hike. Very steep. But, the view from the top was well worth it. I think I discovered the best view of Granada. I ran along the remains of the Alhambra´s outer wall and I found a community of cave ¿dwellers? ¿squatters? ¿yo no sé? I am going to try researching these caves a bit more, but they were cave homes in the side of a mountain. They had little chimneys, doors, etc. I was amazed, I have NEVER seen anything like this before. I think there is no running water, nor electricity...I got the feeling that they are homes to nomads and/or gitanos (gypsies). Really great view...I´m going to go back up the hill once at night to take photos of the Alhambra at night.

back blog

well, i have a BUNCH of things to post on my blog...but, I never have a bunch of time. I have my adventures logged in my journal, but they won´t show up online until I have some more time.

hasta luego.

Botellón

So, the thing to do around Granada is known as "botellón". I prefer going to tapas bars a bit as well (some tapas are free if you have some vino or a caña/beer), but it is pretty fun and cheap to do the botellón. It´s wierd for an American to see all the drinking in the streets.

La Nochevieja de Agosto

Last night, I attended a festival 3 hours out of Granada by autobus (into the mountains). The bus dropped us off about 4 km from this small town that was having the festival (Berchules) and we walked the rest of the way. What was the festival all about??...well...

We arrived around 10 or 11 pm, and at midnight, we brought in the new year!! Bienvenidos 2006. It seems this town didn´t have power one new year´s eve, so they celebrated in August that year...and it stuck. So, this festival was rocking...fake snow being thrown from the church´s bell tower and all. The countdown to midnight involved eating a grape for each of the last 12 seconds. The music started shortly after midnight and went on until the sun came up I imagine...I had to leave at 5 am.

So, drinking and dancing in the streets until the bus left at 5 am to get back to Granada. I was soaked with champaign (it was being sprayed on everyone from rooftops and the ground). I got back to Granada in time for 9 am breakfast with my host family. It was quite the experience.

Lack of Updates

Hey everyone (if anyone actually looks at this blog). I thought I would be updating a lot more often...but, alas, I am not on the computer all that much here in Spain...which is a good thing.

I am uploading photos to my flickr account as I type this...

More updates to come now that I am settled in and have a somewhat regular schedule of classes.

First Night in Granada

The hostel that I found for my first night in Granada is GREAT. I met a whole bunch of people at the dinner party that we had (people from england, australia, korea, U.S., spain, belgium...).

This really nice bohemian looking woman made this 3 course meal and home-made sangria and it was all you can eat for 3.5 euros.

I really enjoyed the building and its location. It was really hot until the sun went down, but the night and this morning are quite cool.

I will head to my language school in a bit to begin my course(s).

ciao.