muchas cosas

Hello all. If you have translated the title to this post, you may have discovered that I have been extremely busy of late; thus why I have only posted once a week or so...Tomorrow morning I am leaving for Madrid and Barcelona for 10 days, so I thought I’d get yall caught up on some of the neat things I’ve been fortunate enough to do in and around Granada for the past few weekends…

1.14.2007 – The Alhambra
For our first Saturday in Granada our group received a tour of the crown jewel of Granada: The Alhambra. The name itself derives from an Arabic word meaning “red one” and essentially the Alhambra is a giant “red” military fortress located in the foothills of Granada. Looking at it from afar, it simply appears like a practical military base, but inside it is full of intricate Muslim architecture. When the Muslim armies invaded Granada in AD 711, they began constructing The Alhambra, which would later function as the last Muslim outpost when the Reconquista began in Spain and Ferdinand and Isabella began to push out the Muslims down into the tip of Spain. Everything came to a crashing end when The Alhambra was sacked by said couple on January 1, 1942. From here, future Catholic and Christian rulers began to build within the original confines of the Muslim fortress. Thus, today, The Alhambra is an awe-inspiring blend of gaudy renaissance-like architecture with little substance on the inside, and pale and bulk Muslim buildings with gorgeous and intricate interiors. The juxtaposition of these two styles is incredible. Anyways, that’s enough of a history lesson, here are a few pics:

The Aifs crew, can you find me? (click to enlarge)

A general view of the Alhambra

One of the many beautiful courtyards of the sultan palaces

One of the Christian buildings constructed within the confines of the Alhambra after the conquering of the Muslims in 1492

Meeee with the Alhambra behind

1.21.2007 – The Albaicin
Although the Christians set fire to all the mosques in the lower part of Granada when they sacked the city and the Alhambra, one primary Moorish district remained in tack: The Albaicin - which happened to be our program’s second destination for our next free Saturday. I won’t bore you too much, but the Albaicin is basically a neighborhood chock full of Moorish houses and twisting alleys that represent the only Arab district to survive the Reconquista in tact. One of the churches within the district, St. Nicholos, proved to be the most beautiful place in Granada I have seen thus far. Here our some pics of, and within the Albaicin:

The Albaicin from afar

The view of the Sierra Nevadas from the Albaicin

Our crew at the beautiful St. Nicholas church overlook

1.26.2007 – Biking In Granada
This past Friday I signed up for a bike ride with the school to check out Granada 'n such. It was quite the winter wonderland when we started:

Yup!

Right before we were about to begin!

Anyways, it ended up clearing up and it was really neat to see a lot of the city that we hadn’t been able to see on foot thus far...

1.28.2007 – Bull Fight in Atarfe
And just yesterday, I had the wonderful opportunity to check out a Portugese style bullfight in the nearby city of Atarfe. While we were there they went through about four bulls, which all remained in the ring until their eventual death (differing from the traditional Spanish style bullfight). For each bull, a torero en cabello (bullfighter on horseback) would taunt it and proceed to stab it with various spears, swords, and knives. This continued until the bull became too bloody to walk or run, and the torrero gave the final blow. However, the most interesting, and exciting part of the fights, were when the torero took a break, and this line of joker looking fellows would come out and taunt the bull right to his face. Here’s what ensued:

(I tried uploading a YouTube video of this, but it's not working. I will try again another day.)

Oh, and here’s a few more pics, no captions, they are fairly self-explanatory:




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Wow. Ok. I’m tired after all that. I hope you enjoyed. Tonight is my last night in Granada before I embark on my 10 day excursion to Madrid with the program and then onto Barcelona to hang with Ryan and Peter. Should be good times. Leave some comments for when I get back. That’s be neat. Alright, love you all, and I’ll be sure to update you on all my travels when I return. Adios.