Day the Fourth of Granada

So, I started out the day by walking over to my father's hotel. It was a good fifteen minute walk there with Liz. Once we were there, we first headed off in the direction of my school, to see that before we actually had to go there, then we walked and walked up a hill in ninety-five degree heat or possibly 100 degree heat. I really couldn't tell. The previous night, my dad had booked tickets online for entrance into the palaces, so we had to find the place where we could obtain the so called internet tickets. At the top of the hill, a man, who happened to be holding a box, was very eager to offer advice on finding our way to the ticket booth. He said, "this way (points up-hill) to the ticket booth and this way (points ninety degrees couterclockwise, which also happened to be downhill) entrada." Because we were looking a little confused due to his broken English, the man brought us over to a map and pointed out the areas we were supposed to go to. We thanked him, but he wasn't quite finished helping us. He seemed to think that my dad's shoes were dirty and needed polishing. My dad disagreed, so the man jumps in front of dad, throws down his wooden box, and pulls my dad's foot onto the wooden handle. My dad graciously says, "no, gracias" but the man is persistant and takes my dad's foot again, and so a mini battle ensues over Dad's rights to his foot. Finally, my dad pays him a Euro for his services in helping us find our way, and then we leave, with the guy behind us calling out, "maybe tomorrow." I guess he wasn't the good samaritan afterall but perhaps a good charlatan.

Anyways, with the man's useful information we were able to find our way up to the top of the hill and to the ticket machines. We needed to be there at one in order to retrieve our two o'clock tickets. We made it there on time. However, when my dad put in his credit card so the machine could identify his puchases, it said that he had never purchased anything. Now, at this point we were very nervous because there was no way we'd be able to figure out the situation in one hour. However, fortuneately when we asked a person who was working there about the situation, he said that we had used the wrong machine. What a pleasant surprise and it calmed down our nerves. We got a hold of our tickets and headed down to the entrance. It turns out the shoe shiner knew what he was talking about and we made it there a half hour early. So we went shopping and bought Vika a souvenir (I already had one for Rachelle.) It was much more pleasant inside the tienda than outside. Finally, at ten to two we were allowed to stand in line. The palaces were gorgeous. If you can remember your Islamic history, Muslims are not supposed to draw pictures of God or people (I'm not sure about animals,) so the inside was decorated with a profusion of symetrical shapes and flowers. There was also a lot of Arabic writing decorating the walls. The palaces seemed to be built just for this climate and it was a pleasant temperature on the inside while the outside was unreasonably hot. A lot of the buildings here are built so that there is an inner courtyard with the rooms opening up onto a pool or fountain.

After the palace we went over to the fortress which offered a fantastic view of the city of Granada. It was built in a perfect location for defence: on a tall hill. The patio inside the fortress was very hot (obiously), but once we got to the top of the tallest tourret we cooled ourselves off in the breeze.

Finally our last stop was the Generalife gardens. They were very beautify with walls of tall, green bushes. We walked down this hallway first and then were given a decision: go through the trees or to the next garden... we chose the next garden. So, off to see more bushes and water. It was all so beautiful. I wish I hadn't forgetten my camera that day, or I would have had more photos.

After tiring ourselves out with all of our walking (the Alhambra is not a small place) we decided to find a restaurant to eat at. On our way down the hill (for we had managed to work our way up it again) a woman was standing with a herb branch. She started talking to us in Spanish holding out the branch for us to take. We said no gracias, but like the other guy she was insistent. She placed the lavender/maybe rosemary in my dad's hand and then took is palm and traced the lines saying he was a good father, had a good heart, and was smart, all in Spanish, mind you so he didn't understand a word of it. However, the next action was very clear. After she was done talking, she held out her hand while looking away impatiently waiting to be paid for her small service. After we didn't comply to her wishes, she seemed very upset with us, but that is ok. If she wants money, she should find a different job and not one that is so annoying.

After this, we went to the Granada cathedral, which was built by Queen Isabella as a burial spot for the kings and queens. Only she and her son managed to be buried there, though. It is huge... maybe not quite as big as the cathedral in DC, but big nonetheless and intricate. They had a lot of different chapels ranging from rennaissance, to baroque, to gothic. The height of the ceilings and doors was also amazing. It must have stretched up for 100 feet with huge white collumns reaching down to the floor supporting the ceiling.

All in all, it was a worth-while day. I'm telling you guys though, I am going to be super fit when I get back because of all this walking I have to do. The nice thing is that everything is so convenient here. Almost all of the streets have sidewalks, and if they do not, then it is probably because there is no traffic there, or just mopeds.