Granada Friday

White Nest Hostel

We left Murcia at 9AM for a three-and-a-half hour bus ride to Granada. While I thought I would sleep on the comfy bus with reclining seats, I forgot that I would be on a bus full of fifty international students. No matter, the bus ride was completely beautiful the whole way. I was surprised by the variety of landscapes. There were so many different types of mountains; some were rocky, jagged and abrupt, while others were soft, rolling, and covered in snow. We passed a unique-looking graveyard; it was above ground like those in New Orleans, but colorful and it looked to be full of interesting objects.

A view of the hostel's kitchen

We eventually arrived at the unique and awesomely-decorated White Nest Hostel (http://www.nesthostelsgranada.com/). The trip was organized through Erasmus Student Network (ESN) and we were given a choice of four, six, or eight-person rooms. We chose an eight-person because it included a bathroom. I forgot to take a picture, but the room was bright orange with matching blankets. It was sort of sectioned, so it seemed like 2 rooms in one. My favorite part of the hostel had to be its free tea, coffee and hot chocolate...yum!

Kebab for lunch, so..so...good.

On the way to our hostel :)

Later, one of the ESN volunteers took us on a tour of the Albacin, a historic neighborhood composed primarily of white buildings (and awesome views!). It was a tiring, all uphill walk that ended at Mirador San Nicolas, a beautiful overlook and view of la Alhambra.

The ground was so cool like this, everywhere

On the way down, we passed through some of the shops. I was sort of mesmerized by all of the beautiful, colorful things inside! Luckily, I mostly took pictures instead of buying things. 
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After our tour and lots of photo-snapping, we had a few hours of break. We took serious advantage, with a long-awaited nap. Around 9pm, we met up for "Ruta de tapas", a tapas tour of Granada! In Granada, tapas are free with the purchase of a drink. Lucky for us, ESN bought us each a drink at the three tapas places that we went to. So, 3 free drinks and 3 free, filling tapas! 

Eclectic inside of one of the tapas bars
 

Chicken that cooked over a flame at our table!

My favorite flavor: free!

They were "training" for Semana Santa! They have to carry
huge, religious floats in the parades.

After tapas, we were taken to an international students party at Pub Horus. Unfortunately, I had a cold and was feeling super lame...and not like drinking. I was ready to leave as soon as I got there, but I had to wait for some friends to be ready so that I could go back. Luckily, tomorrow was the big day (Alhambra tour) so Alyssa, Natalia, Kayla and I took a taxi back before anyone else in our group. The taxi was cheap and we made friends with the driver! He explained what was happening when we saw a huge group of burly men carrying what looked like a huge, metal bed frame through the streets!