Day 2- Part II

El resto del día was the "Touristy" tour with Narea and our Art History profesora Monica (MOHN-ee-ka), an adorable lady with a very thick "lisp" (which actually makes the language sound so much more beautiful!). She took us through the Islamic barrio, el Albaycin. These neighboorhoods are rich with Islamic history just from the structures alone. We learned so much about the Spanish Inquisition...I will give you some snippets and spare you the history lecture ;)

**Note- Keep in mind all of this information is what I was able to listen and translate/remember without notes, etc so I'm sorry if you find a mistake in some of these fun "facts"! haha

Las Muralles How these neighborhoods protected themselves:
-Las muralles- tall walls
-Homes built on steep hills- horses can't climb
-Narrow roads- not many people can get through at one time -Winding roads- the labyrinth confuses strangers



















El Aljibe
-Neighborhood's water storage
-Attached to the mezquite (mosque), most important part of neighborhood
-One of the only things maintained during the Spanish Inquisition
**The only things kept was anything practical without a religious connotation.




(That is Monica on the left...but not a fair representation!)













Mirador de San Nicolás
-One of the most beautiful views in all of Granada
-You can see the Alhambra (castle) and the Sierra Nevada














Carrera del Darro-- another view along our walk














Then it began POURING as we walked down the crazy cobblestone paths, and I stopped taking pictures! We went through el Sacramonte, the caves where the gypsies live and where there are some of the most amazing Flamenco performances (we heard tons of stomping and shouting)...however we also found out it is notorious dangerous...

And that's not all folks...!

That night our giant group decided to all meet in the lobby to find tapas together.

This is what we discovered:

• There are 69 of us
• The people at the front desk hate us...especially when all 69 of us are there at once
• No one knows where anything is or where to go
• Following people you don't know is awkward
• Any tienda, restaurante, bar, etc is the size of a closet and maybe has 3 tables in the entire establishment

Thus...we split up!

My group ended up at 380- one of the biggest tapas bars we'd seen yet. We had a whole room to ourselves. Although I think they have this extra room in the back to stash the noisy Americans from ruining Spanish ambiance!

One bottle of vino for 16 euro--- plus 8 tapas...not bad for a large group (or maybe it is a rookie mistake!)


















Oops I was too hungry to take a picture first (Crep de verduras y Pizza vegetal)!














Favorite Tapas of the night:
*Patatas Bravas- basically cube-shaped french fries with delicious sauces

*Berenjena con miel- fried eggplant with honey mmmm! Better than it sounds I promise!

*Tortilla de España con pimiento- a mini omlette sandwich with a pepper that was sweet!

Our group of lovely ladies: *Krishna, Justine, Kelly, Kaye, Katherine, Me!














Friends from across the street joined us! Yay!


















*Left side (front to back)- Greg (Gregorio/Grego), Mary Clare (MC), Leah, Becca, Ben

*Right side (front to back)- Brian (Bree-AHN lol), MJ (Mai Jing..Right?), Shelby, Andy, and also Megan and Yunella (the tiny ones always get covered up!)

She's missing the enzyme...


Happy 21st B-day new friend Justine! You are so great :)















Stopped by Hannigans- they speak English! Although I was really frustrated when the super Irish guy was not impressed by my name AND did not believe me when I said I was related to Father Flanagan...not cool.

Ooo de lad ee oo de lad ee golly what a day!