De Madrid al cielo

This week I've been graced with a horrible cold, on Wednesday I went to Catalan sniffing, sneezing and making it quite obvious I was ill and didn't want to be there, my teacher said to me 'Estàs constipada?'. Although I am more than aware that constipada translates to 'cold/flu' in Catalan, my knowledge of this word just completely left me  for about 10 seconds and I thought she was asking me if I was constipated! Funny story from my week.

So this weekend was a big weekend throughout Spain due to el puente. Although puente actually translates to bridge in English, it can also mean bank holiday too. The days off vary, here in Andalucia we had the Friday and Monday off but in Madrid they only had Friday. We set off on Thursday early evening,the journey takes 5 hours on the bus but on the plus side it is only 35 euros. Once we arrived we hopped on the metro straight to our hostel which only cost 39euros for 4 nights including breakfast, absolute bargain considering the location (Sol, very central) and given the fact it was the puente. We got an early night so we would be feeling fresh for Friday's tourist antics. We were so lucky in the fact that Rosie's friend, Ana, works at the hostel and knows Madrid very well. She gave us a great tour seeing all the important bits including, Palacio Real de Madrid, la catedral de Madrid and el templo de Debod. We went to loads of other little random places which we definitely wouldn't have found without her help. My favourite was La Calle de las Pasas. It's said that if you walk down the street with your boyfriend, you will get married. It's a nice saying 'Quien no pasa por la pasa no se casa'.  Anyway, our day was jam packed full of lots of exciting things, including a trip to el tigre del norte. This is a restaurant chain around Spain, from the outside it looked pretty shabby but on the inside it was a different story. You pay for a drink, 3.50 for a medium tinto de verano and the food you get is ridiculous. We had about 10 plates of food ranging from croquetas, jamón, lomo, tortilla de patatas, all sorts basically! A great price and we were definitely full after all that free food! Who says Madrid don't do free tapas like Granada? Later that night we hit Madrid's nightlife and went to JOY nightclub which happened to be a 5 minute walk away. We had a great night, slightly more expensive entry than Granada (15euros with 1copa). The nightclub is in an old theatre and had trapeze artists hanging from the ceiling which was different. After calling it a night around 5:30 we got a burrito take away and went to bed.

All of us outside el Palacio Real de Madrid

El Palacio de Cibeles

Saturday turned into a bit of a waste as we didn't get up til very late following our late/early night after clubbing. Some of the girls wanted to go the the Real Madrid stadium so I went along but me and Adele didn't go in. It was 20euros and it seemed a waste of money as football doesn't particularly interest me, so we had a walk round the area and did a bit of shopping. That evening I met up with Fernando, a family friend who lives in Madrid, he spent time in England with us years ago and I've spent some time in his home city of Oviedo a few times. We haven't seen each other for 3 years so it was really nice to finally be able to meet up. We went to a great taberna with his friends and we had a few metros de sangria, literally meters of sangria. It comes in a meter long plastic tube which you dispense with a tap at the bottom, very cool. 

Sunday, our last full day in Madrid was jam packed. We started off at a flea market. It was absolutely huge and in all honesty, a nightmare. There were so many people it was near enough impossible to move. There were some cool things but I gave up after 45 minutes or so because I was getting too frustrated! There was a book stall though, I managed to get 2 books for one euro each. Unfortunately one is in Catalan (not my language of choice) but on the plus side it's New Moon / Luna Nova (twilight saga) and for 1euro it'd be silly not to, I could probably do with the Catalan practice anyway. The day before I had looked at buying The Hunger Games however was slightly put off by the 18euro price tag just for the first book. After the market and bumping in to two girls from Kent Uni on my course in the midst of the thousands of people (how random), we headed to El Parque del Retiro. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Madrid. The photos I had seen were beautiful and I'd heard great things. Due to our busy day we didn't get that much time in the park and I'm so eager to go back and spend more time looking around it all. Luckily we did the main thing I was hoping to do - rowing on the lake! It was only 7.50euros for 45 minutes and between 3 in each boat that's not too much. It was really fun, we all had a go rowing, trying not to crash in to other boats. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and the trees covered in autumnal coloured leaves, it was amazing and made me feel so lucky to get all these opportunites on my year abroad. Unfortunately my moment of bliss was then ruined by 2 shitty spanish kids who splashed me with their ore making me look like I'd wet myself! I wasn't impressed, they didn't even say sorry - typical Spanish. 

might join the uni rowing club with the skills i had

view from the mirador at the Palacio de Cibeles

After some post rowing lunch we headed to Museo de Prado. This is probably one of the most famous museums in Madrid. I'm not an arty person but it was free and I did want to check it out. We had about an hour and a half to look around but it was overwhelming as there were so many sections to the museum and I wasn't really sure what I really wanted to look at. Luckily I saw the painting 'Las Meninas' by Diego Velázquez which was the main painting I wanted to see, I also really liked a painting by Francisco Sans Cabot called 'Episidio de la batalla de Trafalgar'.  

El Episodio de la Batalla de Trafalgar. Francisco Sans Cabot

Las Meninas. Diego Velázquez

We finished off our fantastic weekend with a nice meal out with a menú de noche. These things are great, for about 12 euros you get 3 courses, a drink and bread. When I say 3 courses I don't mean starter, main and desert. Here you basically get 2 mains and a desert as they portions are that big! I couldn't eat all of mine but the food was delicious and my primero was one of the best I've had on my year abroad, I had pimientos de piquillo rellenos de bacalao (red peppers stuffed with cod). Muy rico.

All in all great company, great food and great sights - what more could I ask for in my penultimate weekend before I go back to England for Christmas? Next Friday I go home for 10 days - I cannot believe how quick these past 3 months have gone, but I'm so happy and really am having an amazing third year abroad. In these first 3 months I've visited:

Seville x2

Nerja

La Alpujarra

Sierra Nevada

Madrid

... had 3 sets of visitors and went skiing for the first time! Not bad.

I wonder how Sleaford will compare to Granada and all the places I've been able to visit? Free tapas with a cider in Spoons? I think not, but at least I can look forward to my mums christmas dinner.

Hasta la próxima,

Ellie

Lady Gaga nice price!

It's now less than three weeks until I come back to England for Christmas holidays and I'm making the most of the remainder of my first semester here in Granada.

This week nothing too exciting happened but I did have my first exam in Catalan so hopefully that went ok. Everyone in my norma y uso class (Spanish grammar and syntax) now know me as the English girl. Our lecturer often asks to see who the English people in the lecture theatre are, to ask them a question about the language, generally I'm the only one who actually seems to go so the teacher now knows who I am which is rare for Spain I feel. On Wednesday he asked me (in front of the whole lecture theatre) about English syntax, I have absolutely no clue about syntax in the English language so I just said 'no' and everyone laughed and then we spoke about how it can sometimes be difficult for English people to understand other English people depending on where they are from and the accent they have. 

On Thursday evening Tara arrived and our weekend began. On Friday we went to the same place I take everyone (Mirador San Nicolas), had a walk around Granada and some pretty good food. We also went out for tapas in the evening with some of my friends and had more really good food (calamari and octopus). It was the first time I had tried octopus and it wasn't as disgusting as I thought it'd be. After some more drinks, pool and  table football we called it a night. Saturday was a pretty similar day walking around Granada and we had some really good food at a Moroccan restaurant with a cocktail and some shisha. 

Sunday has easily been the best day of the whole week. Last week the ski season in Sierra Nevada opened and I've been dying to try it out. I've never skied in my life but when it's this close to where I live I think it'd be a mistake to try it at least once. The bus journey is only 9euro for an ida y vuelta which takes about 45 minutes each way, skiing is an expensive sport so I knew it wasn't gonna be a cheap day but as the resort opened earlier than expected some of the equipment hire/liftpasses were cheaper than normal. The lift pass was 33euros for a day with insurance included, and the equipment hire was 25euros for skis, poles, a helmet and goggles. Luckily Becki and Rosie have been skiing before so they taught us for an hour and off we went. We all started on the beginners slope where, naturally, I fell down first time. The hardest thing is getting back up, I ended up rolling on my back with my legs and skis in the air - not my most flattering look. After a few tries I got the hang of it quite well and didn't have any more falls, I clearly got a bit big for my boots so when the girls asked me if I fancied joining them on the blue slope (next slope up from beginners), I agreed. In fairness, they said they thought I was ready. How wrong were we! The best part was the telecabina up to the slope with amazing views and a surreal feeling. We got off and started the decent, then I fell over. It took me about an hour to finish the slope because...I'm shit. I couldn't stop falling over and just didn't have the balance. I felt bad making the others wait so they went on whilst I shuffled down half the slope on my bum (whilst holding skis and poles remember). Unfortunately this was right under where the ski lift was going up to the top so everyone could see me looking like an absolute twat. By the time I got half way down the girls had lapped me and tried to help me again, I fell again and again and they weren't light falls either, legs and skis flying all over the place and I also managed to land myself in to a snow ditch which is always fun. It's a good job I was wearing a helmet or I think I could've really hurt myself. It was so horrible, embarrassing and really hard work trying to get yourself back up once fallen down. Anyway, I finally made it to the end after giving up, taking my skis off and just walking in a grumpy and sweaty face. Although it wasn't quite how I thought it would go it's still quite funny to think about me just shuffling down a ski slope on my bum whilst I was being overtaken my skiers and snowboarders going really fast, including some that could only be about 5 years old - how embarrassing. It really tired me out and I ache a bit but it was 100% worth it. At least I'll know that if I go again I need to keep practising the baby slope before heading to the next one. I don't really think the transition from the beginners slope to the second one I went on is fair. It's so much steeper and a lot different but never mind, it was my first time so I wasn't sure what to expect.

View of the mountain on the bus ride there

All kitted up

Lady Gaga ready for her first ski

Sierra Nevada resort

View on the telecabina

selfies on the telecabina

the slope of death. the beginning of my ski disaster

The town

All in all, today was a great end to the week and we have some good photos from the snow. Next weekend is the puente which is basically a bank holiday weekend meaning we get Friday and the following Monday off. Our tickets are booked for a long weekend Madrid and I can't wait to check it out and meet up with family friend Fernando as it's been years since we've seen each other.

Hasta la próxima

P.S. if you're wondering what the blog title is about, the black men who sell knock offs around Granada apparently also take the trip up to the Sierra to try and flog hats, scarves and gloves. I was wearing some pretty 80s retro ski wear from a vintage shop in Granada and apparently I looked like Lady Gaga. Everytime we walked past he shouted 'LADY GAGA...NICE PRICE' pointing to his array of neon green hats. Pretty funny, I went a long with it and waved to him.

Joder

This week I've made a conscious effort to stop speaking English and hablar más español. As a result, I went out every night this week doing intercambios or meeting up with Spanish people to basically just chat. My favourite intercambio was Wednesday at Mundo Manila (the same place me and Adele had gone to the week before but spoke to no one). There were more people this week and we managed to sit on the big table and get talking. I really enjoyed this intercambio because there were all sorts of people (the one we went to on Monday was primarily students). I spoke to a few different people, a few my age, a few a bit older, and even a middle aged man who is an optician that had studied ophthalmology in England, we had a good conversation and he told me about how great Easter will be in Granada saying that they celebrate the death of Jesús whilst drinking lots of beer. Fine by me! It was also really nice helping people with their English. Anyway, the night rounded off by a game of bingo which is usually something I would find boring but this was good fun. Somehow I won, it was funny because our whole table was cheering for me, I felt so special! I won a bottle of red wine so it was a good night. 

On Friday I went to the cinema to see Los Juegos del Hambre (The Hunger Games) with Emma and Hannah from my Spanish class. I was surprised how quick it was released here -only a day after the UK I think. Anyway, the experience was good. Tickets are a lot cheaper at only 5 euros! In England it's probably about £7 or £8 these days. We didn't realise we had assigned seats so we went and sat slap bang in the middle in the best seats...to soon be chucked out my some Spaniards, we finally found our seats after a 7 year old girl had to help us (how embarrassing). The film was really good, luckily I've read the books so I had more of an idea of what was going on, but we still managed to understand most of it. The only thing that was weird were the girls screaming when the main actors appeared on the screen and then clapping at the end of the film. It was a clap worthy film though. I really want to go back and watch a few more considering the price and how easy it was to understand. 

So after the cinema is where the title of this blog comes in. Joder (fuck). I went out with some friends and someone stole my iphone. I'm now phone-less and more importantly whatsapp-less. This is a tragedy for being in Spain and I don't really know what to do. It isn't really £200 I had factored in to my spending for my last month in Spain before I go home for Christmas but I'm probably going to have to bite the bullet and just buy a new second hand phone. These things happen, it's just a bit rubbish. 

Granada is still freezing, it's coat weather all the time and there's now snow on the mountains. The ski resort opened this weekend but it's looking like I won't be going until after Christmas. On a happier note I only have a week of uni (including an exam) to get through until Tara arrives for a long weekend which is sure to be good fun. 

Ellie

P.S. 3000 views on my blog - wow!

Chocolate, jamón and blood tasting water

Not much is new this week unfortunately. I went to all my classes and the weather is confusing me. It's the middle of November now, one day it can be 22 degrees while I'm walking to uni, the next it can be cold and raining. Sort it out, Spain!

Me and Adele went to an intercambio on Wednesday, well, we went but we didn't actually end up speaking to anyone. Intercambios are a great idea but when they're placed in a bar/restaurant it kind of makes it difficult if you arrive late (like we did). I think it started at 8:30 or 9 but we didn't get there until around 9:45 because I had a class and Adele was giving an English lesson. We walked in and Mundo Manila (the vegetarian/vegan place it was held) was full, but it was hard to know who was there for the intercambio. We ended up just having a few drinks and great food BUT we only spoke Spanish to each other the whole evening which was fun and good practice. Mundo Manila is a cool restaurant, it's very hippy! It only serves vegan/vegetarian food but it was so nice. Our first tapas was couscous with pasas and sweet potat and our second was a sort of mini vegetable lasagne. It was a fat day so on top of that we ordered some dinner too, we both had a veggie burger. It was so good and portion sizes are very generous considering it cost about 5.50euros! I'd definitely go back there again. We're going to go to another one this week but arrive at a more appropriate time and get talking straight away! 

On Thursday I also had my first presentation for Spanish. I made a pretty damn good presentation if I do say so myself. I've always used powerpoint but since my teacher recommended Prezi, I used that and it's a lot more professional. I basically did all the work for the presentation but then my group member put it on his account which I think may come across like he did it all - not impressed. One member also kept interrupting me whilst I was talking in my part of the presentation which didn't please me at all, I do have a voice - piss off.  At least it's done now and that counts as my Spanish oral exam so hopefully it went ok, I wasn't as nervous as I have always been doing presentations at Kent. Usually, I can't speak or even breathe properly and my hands shake like crazy but this time it went smoothly which is good. 

On Saturday we went on our trip to the Alpujarra. It was such a good but tiring day. We went on an organised trip with Low Cost Trips Granada (we might get a grant but we're still stingy students looking for a cheap deal) there was a group of 7 of us within the rest of the people on the trip. The worst part of the trip was the bus journey. I'm not a nervous traveller at all, stick me on a plane or a train and I'm fine, but when it comes to coaches in Spain this is a whole other question. They appear to love to drive fast, even when on the edge of a bloody mountain. There were a few times I thought I was going to die. The route literally was going round the corners of mountains, he was speeding round but at one point just at the edge he slammed his breaks on and that scared the hell out of me. It's not a race, slow down!! Me and Adele were joking about what would be on the news in England if our coach fell of the mountain. We could just imagine it on Look North...'two local girls from Sleaford.....'. Only joking! We made it (just) to our first town Campineira. The views were amazing but the photos I took just don't capture it. As we were so high up it was extremely cold but luckily we had worn our coats and scarves. We visited 4 towns in total, stopping off at different view points and places to visit. The scenery was amazing and we ended up being right at the back because we kept stopping to take photos. 

The route we went was Campineira-Bubion-Pampaneira-Trévelez

Pampaneira and Trévelez were my favourites because of the places we went. Pampaneira was home to a really popular chocolate factory. It was set up in Argentina years and and years ago by a woman, when they died her son and his daughter came to Spain and set up the factory here (I think). They import to Belgium and throughout Spain. We got to have a degustación of the chocolate which was amazing. It was a very small little place, like the Willy Wonka of Spain (no golden ticket for me). There was weird chocolate and nice chocolate. I tried chocolate with sal (salt) which was actually really nice, with kikos (some sort of corn that wasn't as good) and all sorts. It wasn't cheap but it really was so tasty. I bought a bar of negro con coco and blanco con galleta (dark chocolate with coconut and white with biscuit). The white with biscuit tastes a bit like the GOLD chocolate bar which reminds me of my Grandad and my brother but I'm not sure why.I considered buying some as Christmas presents but then I thought realistically I will just end up eating it.. I also bought some postcards in a conscious effort to save what I can from trips and make a scrapbook of my year abroad. After the amazing chocolate factory we went to Trévelez. It is the highest town in Europe apparently, you could tell because it was so cold. However, before going directly there we stopped off at the famous fuente agria. It's a little waterfall but the water isn't clear. It's an orangey colour because it has so much iron in it. We were recommended to taste it because it is supposed to be very good for you, we reluctantly tried a little bit and it tasted like blood. No one appeared to like it but it was a really cool and strange place to visit somewhere that, if we had done this trip ourselves, we definitely would not have found or even known existed. Onwards to Trévelez, the secadero de jamón is supposedly the best in Spain and people all over Europe have it imported because it's so good. We went into the curing room which had hundreds of legs of ham hanging from the ceiling. The man explained how some are cured for lengths of time the longest jamón ibérico de Cordoba cures for 3-4 years! Dread to think how much it would cost, but I bet it tastes great. After that we got to try some different types of jamón, lomo, salchicha, chorizo - all sorts basically! Even a little glass of wine. We weren't very satisfied though so we ordered some more as they were doing special prices for us, more jamón y queso manchego - can't go wrong! Before getting the bus back we quickly nipped to a shop and bought a rug. We'd seen them in all the towns we visited, I wanted to make sure I had money left at the end. It was only 10euros and looks nice in my room.

Inlgesas y mejicanas

Needed a bit of help..

Fuente agria 

Beautiful

It was a very busy day but really enjoyable, it was nice to get out of the city environment and breathe some fresh marijuana free air! 

No plans for next weekend as of yet,  the weekend after Tara comes and we've got all sorts planned. A day trip somewhere, a nice walk/hike, hitting Granada and we plan on making toad in the hole on the Sunday! I'm already looking forward to that. The weekend after it looks like we are off to Madrid which will be good as I've not been before and it is the capital of Spain. 

Hasta entonces,

Ellie

A bit of Sleaford in Spain

I had such a lovely weekend with Emily and Adele.

Adele obviously lives in Granada too, and Emily came out to visit. We all studied Spanish together in sixth form and it's been over a year since we've seen each other so it was lovely to catch up and reminisce about some of the funny times we have had.

On Friday me and Emily went up to the Albaicin and to the Mirador San Nicolas. I think this is definitely my favourite place in Granada, the view is just incredible and no camera (no matter how fancy) can capture how stunning and breath-taking it really is. We had a drink in one of the cafés that had the view of the Alhambra just to relax after our hike up to the top. We then went and had lunch in a nice plaza. We had berenjenas con miel for our primero. I'm not sure if they're a speciality for the region but they're everywhere and so delicious. It's simply fried aubergine dressed in honey. Yummy! For our segundo I had bacalao (cod) and Emily had calamares. We left room for desert and went into town to meet Adele for froyo. I'm not sure if the craze of froyo has hit UK yet. It's frozen yoghurt with a variety of different toppings, you can make it healthy/not healthy. I usually have strawberries and dark chocolate but instead of chocolate I had avellana crunch which is like the inside of a kinder bueno. Needless to say it was delish. We then left and did a bit of shopping. In the evening we had tapas in D'Cuadros in the bullring. 

Mirador San Nicolas

Saturday was a great day. We got up quite late and went to 100 montaditos, I go there quite a lot and had to show Emily it. It's a cheap restaurant that has 100 different montaditos (little sandwiches). They range from jamón serrano to tortilla de patatas to anchoas ...you name it there's a montadito. Most sandwiches are 1-1.20 euro and the drinks are cheap too. The worst thing is you have to go inside and read out your order, each sandwich has a number so it really tests our Spanish number skills! Everytime I pray I'm not gonna mess up and end up ordering someone the wrong sandwich. On Mondays every montadito is 50centimos and Wednesdays and Sunday 1euro. It's a super cheap place and very popular with students, obviously it can get pretty busy so finding a table is sometimes hard but it's worth it.

So after some yummy montaditos we headed up to the Albaicin again to go to a tetería to smoke shisha. Along the way we popped into a shop where I bought my first Christmas present for my Dad. I think it's hilarious and I can't wait to see his face when he opens it. The shisha was fun and we also had a batido natural which is a milkshake, we both got vanilla and it was the best tasting milkshake I've had. It tasted just like milkybar but didn't taste of chocolate. Hard to explain but it was very nice indeed. 

Later that evening we met Adele for tapas and the hope of finding somewhere to watch a flamenco show. We bought tickets for the 11:30 show because the first one was already booked up, for 8euros we got the front table so it seemed like a good deal as some are extortionate prices and complete tourist traps. We headed off for some tapas after asking the nice man at the flamenco bar the best places to go in this area. He told us Los Diamantes y Los Manueles are very nice so off we went. Los Diamantes mainly specialises in seafood. With our first drink we had coquinas (shellfish/cockles). They were delicious and reminded me of au pairing because we always used to have them. Our second tapas were garlic mushrooms (yes, I now eat mushrooms and seafood and fish) and they were equally delicious. After that we moved on to Los Manueles and got more nice tapas. We had room for one more before the show so we went to a Moroccan tapas bar and we had the most delicious albóndigas (meatballs) I have ever eaten. Feeling satisifed we went to the flamenco bar which is called Le Chien Andalou. It translates (from French) to the Andalusian dog. Strange name but WOW - I cannot believe it's taken me 2 months to see flamenco here. We had an amazing view on the front table. It wasn't a very big venue, a small cave which probably only held about 30-40 people. I was mesmerised by the music. The songs varied in rhythm, some were fast and others slow but it really was incredible. The passion in the singers voice was amazing and watching the guitarists hands as he played was unreal. When the dancer came on it just blew me away, I didn't know where to look! The footwork is so impressive and the atmosphere was just fantastic. Words can't describe how good it was, I did leave with a headache after all the feet banging but it's a headache worthwhile unlike one from a boozy non cultural night out, eh?

Reunited

We left feeling SO happy that we managed to see a show. For 8euros it hardly breaks the bank and if that wasn't authentic flamenco dancing then god knows what is! I'll definitely be taking visitors back there. 

This morning me and Emily rounded off her trip with a huge portion of chocolate con churros before we got the bus to the station and said our goodbyes. It was so nice to see her and we definitely wont be leaving it another year before we see each other again!

This week will be full of uni and hopefully an intercambio or two with Adele. We also have our day trip to the Alpujarra to look forward to. I'm feeling very tired now and missing England a bit, spending the weekend talking about all things school and sleaford has made me miss home. I also didn't get to see my Dad in London marching in the Remembrance Parade at the Cenotaph like I have the past few years but there's always next year! Luckily, Emily brought me out some dairy milk so with that and a cuppa tea I can pretend I'm at home.

Hasta la próxima,

Ellie

I can't think of a good title

I feel like I haven't blogged in a while and that is probably because life has been rather boring.

Main things that have happened recently:

-I couldn't do translation so I'm only doing 4 subjects now
-I bought my ticket to go to La Aplujarra next weekend
-It's suddenly got FREEZING (I've had to buy a new coat -how inconvenient..)
-I thought there was a gas leak in my flat (there wasn't)
-I'm coming home for Christmas


SURPRISE MUM! I've actually had my ticket booked for quite a while, it was booked when my parents came out but only my dad knew. It was going to be a surprise and I was going to turn up in Sleaford on 20th December to surprise my mum. I also kept thinking I was surprising the wrong person, my mum kept telling me that she didn't mind if I wanted to spend Christmas in Spain, but it was my dad who really wanted me to come home. However, I can't be bothered to keep the secret any more and it was hard when my mum would ask me if I had sorted my Christmas plans every time we skyped - mainly because I'm a crap liar! This means I'll be home for Christmas with my family and I can go to the christening of my baby cousin which I'm looking forward to. I'm only back until 31st December because then I fly to BARCELONA to spend New Years Eve and the following days with Tara.


The next few weeks are set to be pretty exciting. Tomorrow my friend Emily arrives, I can't wait to show her Granada. We'll do all the Albaicin, Sacromonte and Mirador things, and hopefully we're going to go to a flamenco show.

Next Saturday I am going on a trip to La Alpujarra with 3 of my friends (and maybe their mexican flatmates). La Alpujarra is part of the Sierra Nevada, we'll get a bus up to the highest town then walk through the mountains to visit 3 other towns popping into a secadero de jamón and fábrica de chocolate on the way. We get to taste the jamón serrano, wine, and chocolate! It's only a day trip but for 18 euros I think we've got a pretty good deal, they're apparently some of the most beautiful towns/villages in Spain.

2 weeks after, Tara arrives. We're hopefully going to go on a day trip somewhere...wherever we feel like on the day. We might even use blablacar to make the journey a bit cheaper. Me and Tara have also decided on something pretty big for the summer, we are going to go interrailing. We always talk about the places we want to go in Spain, it then escalated to Europe and after talks we decided to go ahead with it. This will be the best time for us to do it, the summer after (2015) who knows what our situation will be with graduation and looking for a job (scary!). I'm excited but it's now time to be sensible with money but still make sure I enjoy my year abroad.

I've now also been invited to go to Madrid on the first weekend of December because it's a puente, which means we get the Friday and Monday off. All of us seem to know people in Madrid who we would like to see so why not all go together, see who we want to see and then explore Madrid.

We have provisional plans to go skiing the weekend before we come home for Christmas, I'd love to try it and it would be silly not to considering it's right on our doorstep. It won't be cheap but it'll be cheaper than doing it from England so this year is the best time to try it.

So the lead up to Christmas is looking pretty busy for me, whether it'll all happen or not who knows but I like the sound of my plans (although it sounds a pretty expensive 2 months). I'm really looking forward to going home though, I can already taste my Christmas dinner! It is also going to be the first Christmas in 4 years that I haven't worked both Christmas eve and Boxing day which is something to look forward to!


I'm going to leave you with some observations of the Spanish which I've been finding strange:

-Boys with one very long dreadlock/plait down their back. No. This is not cool. It's seen on 1 in 4 guys. Even just dreadlocks in general is very popular. Spain is so hippy.

-Double denim. Enough said really...

-The amount of people apparently acceptable and safe to fit on a bus. I've had a few near death experiences.

-Té ingles con leche. They made a pot of tea with hot milk instead of water and milk on the side...yum

-One day it was 25 degrees, the next it was 10. WHAT

-How much weed there is. You could get high just walking around Granada sometimes..

-Outdoor gyms which are free. Not amazing but they're free! I also enjoy seeing the old people using the equipment. Great idea, Spain.


That's it for now, I'm sure I'll have a new blog after my weekend with Emily about all the fun things we did.

Ellie

What to expect from a Spanish university...

...not a lot.
Expect little and you will still feel disappointed.


I am now officially enrolled at university. Happy days, right? Wrong. Well, it's not all quite as bad as I may make it out to be sometimes, I like to over exaggerate these things.

So, enrollment didn't come without it's problems. It's looking likely that I'm gonna have to drop translation as they enrolled me to the wrong class which clashes with something else. I have to wait until Monday to be able to try and change the class, and if it's full by then (which it is likely to be) I'm gonna be stuck with 4 modules when I'm supposed to be doing 5. I am just really not willing to start a new course 6 weeks after university has started, imagine how hard it'd be to catch up on that work in England, let alone here?! It's not something I am going to do because of their crap organisation. Luckily my tutor says given the circumstances it should be fine. Maybe all will for once go in my favour and I can do it. We'll see!


I have also enrolled into a Spanish course. I got sick of being in Spain and not actually be able to study and Spanish as an Erasmus student. Turns out you can but it comes with a price tag. These classes were ideal as they only started a week or so before I went to take the test so I wouldn't have missed 5 weeks worth like in the uni. Although it is part of Universidad de Granada, it's in the Centro de Lenguas Modernas. The building is beautiful, it's in the Jewish area of the city so maybe the building is an old Jewish one. It's certainly nicer than Cartuja. You have to take a test to find out your level and the level you get determines how much you pay. Level 1-5 pay 140 euros (i think) and level 6-9 pay 350 euros. I got a level 6 so it's a lot of money for only 3 months teaching but it's what I actually enjoy and that classes are SO much better. It counts as 6 credits too so it's just like any other module (but better). Hopefully I'll be able to do it next term too.

In my Catalan class we also have a potential trip to Frankfurt in March. The Catalan Association of Teachers and Students (I made that up, it's something like that though) holds 3 different conventions a year throughout Europe and we've been invited to the one in Frankfurt. It's only for a few days and they take us on tours of the city and cultural exhibitions and all that sort of stuff. I'd like to go but it depends how much it costs to whether I put my name down for it. It'd be nice to go to Germany and visit my helga roots. I was born in Germany so I basically AM German.

This week I also finally met up with my UGR buddy (we get assigned one to help us with whatever we need). She took us to the coolest bar/cafe. Untypically Spanish, but an extremely cool jazz bar. It's not possible to describe how good it is. I'll definitely be taking my next visitors there. It was nice to finally meet and get to know each other.

So apart from a few ever occurring mishaps at UGR all is well. Every time I think the weather is cooling down it suddenly surprises me the next day and hits mid 20s. When is it actually going to get cold? Soon, I hope. I want to buy my new winter coat and boots (and jumpers and scarves)! My weeks feel like they have been less busy recently, I don't have a trip planned which makes me sad. That said, I do have 2 visitors coming in the next month. Emily comes in 2 weeks, then Tara 2 weeks after! Yippee. More visitors are welcome. There is a new requirement though, thanks to my Nan bringing me enough tea bags to last a whole year, all I require now is more porridge and sweet chilli sauce. I'm also hoping to do a few language intercambios with Spanish people next week so hopefully that goes well.

Tonight I'm off out for Japanese food. When in Spain, try sushi (obviously).

Chao for now,

Ellie

Bullfights and burritos

This weekend was fantastic.

On Saturday we left Granada for Sevilla. However, this wasn’t quite as easy as anticipated. I always used to be a rather laid back person, I was never the organiser or the one who panicked about being late, but something in the last year has changed. I hate being late, and I like to be in charge of what we are doing for my own piece of mind. So, when Ailish Adele and Amber all said they were going out on Friday night (bearing in mind we were leaving at 9am), I was slightly apprehensive but I had trust in them all...until 8am on Saturday when I couldn’t get hold of Adele or Ailish. Amber had to sneak into Ailish’s building and bang on her flat door to wake her up and then get a taxi to the bus stop with a still drunk Ailish. I very nearly got a taxi to Adele’s even though I only know she lives near Plaza Trinidad. I probably wouldn’t have accomplished anything but thankfully she was awake and en route. So off we went to Sevilla.

When we arrived we found our hostel. It was really nice and they even had a sign saying Welcome Ellie (because I made the reservation). Our room was small with bunk beds but we had our own bathroom and the beds were surprisingly comfortable. We dumped our stuff and went exploring. Saturday was so busy in Sevilla, street parties everywhere, we’re not sure if it was to do with the fact it was the last bullfight of the season. There were bands playing everywhere and just generally lots of happy people.  We sat down to have some tapas (it wasn’t free like in Granada) and one of our dishes was just heaven. It was very English and reminded us all of our mums homemade casseroles (my mum’s being the best obviously). The beef just fell apart in your mouth and in that moment I missed home for a millisecond (then I remembered I’m living Spain for a year). We continued to have a wonder around the city until it was time to go to the bullring. We even went in a Starbucks, so Spanish I know, it was funny because they ask your name to write on the cup. I got Elli, but the funniest had to be Ailish’s that came out as Eylish! When we got to the plaza de toros I was slightly apprehensive about our tickets, we bought them online and in the taquilla I could only see people with actual posh tickets. I thought we’d been scammed. Thankfully, we hadn’t! It was all fine and we went to our seats. The thing with bullrings is, it’s not like a stadium, and there are no steps up to find your seats. The seats and stairs merge into one. Not only was it awkward to get to your seats, it was hard to even work out where they were as there were no officials to ask. A few Spaniards grabbed our tickets and mumbled something about arriba, we sat down in the seats we thought were ours (after clambering over 5 different people). Just as the show started we got kicked out of our seats as we were in the wrong place – fuck. We now realised ours were a few rows above, but as it was 5:30 most people were already sat down so climbing over them wasn’t fun. Finally we sat down in our seats (the right ones) and it began! We were slightly apprehensive but excited too. It was very hot, our seats were the cheapest so they were in plena sol but I bought a fan so I could keep myself cool. It started off with all members of the bullfight coming out into the ring where a few photos were taken and they walked around. 

All coming out for photos

It didn’t take long before the first fight began and out ran the bull. I won’t explain every fight as they are pretty similar but here is how it went.

The bull comes out, there are 3 banderilleros that begin the fight, they tease it with their capes, and then go run and hide behind the fence. Only joking, it did seem that way sometimes though! Mind you, if a bull was running towards me I’d probably hide too! After 5 minutes or so the band begins to play and 2 picadores come out riding horses with spears. The men on horses make the first attack. They use the spear to stab the bull in the back, obviously the bull reacts and a few times it hurt the horse. Despite the fact the horses wear protection, on a few occasions the horns clearly went through the skin as you could see the blood seeping through it. 

Out come the picadores

After, the 3 original banderilleros get given; well we don’t really know what they were, some type of small spear or sharp stick I suppose. They get two, they have to tease the bull through movement then run up and stab the bull, the small spears stay in the bull and hang off it. There must be a certain time limit because they didn’t all always get a chance, and after maybe another 5 minute the band begins to play and that is the horses cue to exit the arena and for the matador to come out. 

The banderilleros taking the second stage of stabbing the bull

Each one looked fantastic. I’m not sure if there is a time limit on how long they have to do it, but generally it seemed like the bull was usually killed within 10-15 minutes. During this time, it really is fantastic, the band play fantastic music which really adds to the atmosphere. If at any point the torero is in danger, the 3 other guys will come out from behind the fence in an attempt to distract the bull/help him. 

Cape work 

All the teasing within this time frame leads up to the moment where he is given his sword, usually it only takes one hit for the bull to die, which although obviously isn’t nice, it’s better than a lengthy death. 

La estocada (third phase)

Once the bull dies, it is connected to horses who then drag it out the arena. 

The bull being taken from the arena

There was one occasion where the crowd all got out their white hankies and started waving them in the air. This means that they were pleased with the matador’s performance and symbolises that they want the president to award him the ear of the bull. There were 7 different fights in total and that was more than enough. It’s not that it’s boring, but it’s a long time to be sat there (3 hours) and it’s not particularly comfortable.

waving their pañuelos

End of the bullfight leaving the arena

All of us in the plaza de toros

So having now seen a bullfight I feel like I need to have an opinion on it. I feel slightly guilty that I didn’t hate it, I watched 7 bulls get killed and it didn’t particularly affect me, it wasn’t pleasant but I really agree with those who say bull fighting is an art. Some moments were amazing, the movements and stances of the matador and banderilleros were fascinating, and alongside the music it really felt like a piece of art. Good on Spain for keeping their traditions alive. I won’t be going to anymore until the next season. At least then it’ll be easy as I live right next door the bullring here in Granada. I doubt I will go often, perhaps if a visitor wants to go - who knows! I know my Dad will want to go, he’s not at all jealous I got to go this weekend! In all honest, you have to see it to understand it.

Sorry for the long explanation and apologies to anyone who is offended by the descriptions or photos.

After the bull fight we went to La Feria de las Naciones.

 I went briefly last weekend for a wonder. We were mainly excited for the food, as classic English people the food we currently miss most is Mexican, Chinese and Indian. So logical. We got a burrito and beer then briefly met a friend of mine. After deciding one burrito wasn’t enough we got a crepe from the French stall. This stall scared me, the people working there must have been on drugs. There was music blaring, crepe mixture, chocolate and butter flying everywhere. It was a good crepe – though slightly too chocolatey (if that is even possible). We then headed up to the Havana cocteleríá. We waited and waited til people moved so we got a good seat and sat there the rest of the night with some delicious but strong cocktails chatting and people watching.

Sunday was a relaxed day. We got up and checked out really easily. Off we went looking like the travellers we are in our big rucksacks (note: travellers not tourists). We sat and had a coffee and wonder round. We also went up to a fantastic mirador. It was quite modern and it took us ages to work out how to even get in. For 1.40 euro it was a great way to see Sevilla from above. Not quite the Albaicin or Alhambra though! 

Us all at the top

Sevilla

After that we had lunch with a friend of Adele’s at a chain called cien montaditos. It was a fantastic cheap lunch. For 3.50euro we got 2 mini bocadillos (there are 100 to choose from hence the name), a pint of tinto de verano, and nachos and patatas fritas to share. Not bad at all!! There is one in Granada so I’ll definitely be going there again. We then headed back to bus station and got our bus back to Granada.

I’m really enjoying these weekends exploring, it definitely makes up for the fact that university is an absolute joke and apparently no one in Kent cares. It’s a shame that the uni is so crap because apart from that I am really enjoying living in Spain.

So apart from my weekend what other exciting stuff has happened?

-Erasmus Grant! £3000 richer. Thank you very much. 

-Successful shopping trip thanks to said Erasmus grant.

-Potential visit from my parents and grandparents planned for next March

-Surreal visit to Albaicin with Ailish. Peeked through a window and saw 4 old traditional Spanish men playing guitar – it really was amazing.

So while the weeks are pretty dull and boring filled with classes I couldn’t really care less about, the weekends make up for it. I enrol on Wednesday and I already know it is going to be a hellish day filled with disappointment. All I want is my translation module.

Today was also the first day I felt like I missed home (not bad considering I’ve been here 5 weeks). When uni is bad and everything feels like it’s going wrong it’s not a nice feeling. Thankfully I have great friends here (and at home) who cheer me up. I also got an amazing email from my Nan. Attached was this piece of advice which I’m going to look at whenever I feel a bit sad.

“When you are an old lady, you will hopefully look back on all your travels and experiences and be glad that you had the opportunity to experience what may seem at this particular time, a pain in the proverbial. So, make a cuppa and have a biscuit, things can only get better.”

No plans for this weekend yet, I think it’s time to relax and enjoy Granada again. It’s been a crazy few weeks here there and everywhere.

Besos,

Ellie

P.S. here are also a few links to my fellow granadinos and their blogs.

Ailish 

Adele

Inigo 

Granada - the city where you get free beer with tapas

Today is my one month anniversary of living in Granada! It’s weird to think how quickly the first one has gone; I wonder how fast the next 9 will go.

I’ve had a pretty good past 2 weeks. My parents and Nan came to stay this weekend and I had a really nice time seeing them. We did all the touristy stuff (some of which I saved to do with them) and ate some seriously yummy food. The main thing I was looking forward to was going to the Alhambra Palace. It’s centuries old from when Granada was ruled by the Moors. It really is such an impressive place, but definitely the type of place you’d only go once. I did enjoy it, and if you’re a lover of gardens, architecture, and general Arabic culture I’m sure it’s the perfect place for you. We got some fantastic views of Granada and I’m glad I can say I’ve now been. Hopefully none of my visitors want to go, once is enough! I think that the Alhambra is far more impressive from somewhere like Mirador San Nicolas.

The view from the Alhambra. I live in such a beautiful city!

On Saturday we headed to the Albaicin on a ridiculously full mini bus that definitely would not be legal in England. It’s just easier to walk I think as it’s not that far – just steep. It was nice wondering around and having a more relaxed day. In the evening we had a posh dinner at a restaurant just below Mirador San Nicolas – you can imagine the views of the Alhambra lit up at night. It was stunning. The food was really nice but I think you were paying for the view rather than the food as food is reasonably priced here.

Our nice dinner

Alhambra by night

The 3 generations

Daddy

 Sunday was a lot more tiring as we headed to Sevilla for a day trip. It’s only 3 hours on the bus and an easy direct journey. I fell in love with Sevilla. It’s such a beautiful city and feels a lot more peaceful and historical than Granada. I suppose we did go on a Sunday though, I’m sure it’s just as lively! I noticed a lot less transport which obviously cancels out a fair bit of noise pollution - something I really notice living in Granada. It’s not fun living near 3 hospitals. We did loads of touristy stuff like a trip to the Alcazar, a river tour, and a guided tour of the Plaza de Toros. I really enjoyed this, the bull ring is the second oldest in Spain and was incredible. You can see where the inspiration of the Spanish flag came from – or perhaps the other way round – who knows. I also learnt a fun fact I’ve been telling everyone this week. Bulls are colour blind; the red cape is still used as part of the tradition of the bull fighting culture but it’s the movement which actually makes the bulls react. I thought the bull fighting season was over but I found out the last one is this Saturday (in Sevilla). A few of my friends liked the idea so I’m going back on Saturday!

Plaza de toros

Catedral de Sevilla

Alcazar

Plaza de España

 I just have to write about a beggar I saw, too. There are so many beggars all over Spain. I've noticed that there are usually two types with signs that go more or less like this... 

Type 1:

Ayúdame. Soy pobre y tengo 5 hijos. Una moneda por una sonrisa. No tengo nada, sólo quiero comer.

Help me. I'm poor and I have 5 children. Some money for a smile. I have nothing, I just want to eat.

Type 2:

El banco me dejo en las calles, tengo 2 hijas de 2 y 5 años. No tengo trabajo, ayúdame. 

The bank left me in the streets, I have two girls 2 and 5 years old. I'm unemployed, help me.

So basically, type 1 is general poor gypsy / black immigrants and type 2 is people who generally I do feel sorry for that have been effected by the economic crisis Spain is in and the serious unemployment issue that leaves families without any working parent. 

This is the guy I saw in Sevilla :

Help me buy a chalet in Marbella and a Ferrari

Well at least he's being honest! I gave him a euro but that's not gonna help with the Ferrari too much..

So after a really lovely long weekend with my parents I was incredibly tired and full on delicious food. However, I’m not here just to eat nice food and travel around Spain unfortunately, I’m here to study. Uni has improved since my first day but I really still don’t feel settled.

The university’s whole system is completely illogical, stupid and just plain annoying. I’m still not enrolled until the 16^th October; this means I’m not officially registered to any of the classes I’m doing. When I enrol next week I could be told that there are not actually any places left for the classes I’m taking – I’m really hoping that doesn’t happen because I’ll be in a pretty sticky situation. I would have to try and find new classes that aren’t full (meaning they would be shit/really difficult subjects) and catch up on a month of missed work. I’m still annoyed about the fact I’m in humanities too, I know I am a humanities student at Kent but here the Translation faculty is completely separate. I find it SO unfair that some other students from Kent elsewhere around Spain are enrolled as translation students. In our last year at Kent we don’t have any grammar classes; we only do translation and interpretation. All the students able to do that at their host universities this year are going to have an unfair advantage over me after already studying it for a year, and that is something I do not like. I’m sure I’m not the only one it’s happening to – I just like to moan. I’m going to talk to Kent about it so maybe the people who go to Granada next year will be able to study in the Translation and Interpretation faculty and do something slightly more relevant. Fingers crossed I’ll manage to get a place on the 1 translation module I’m allowed to do here.

Some classes go well here but others not so much. Portuguese, for example, is a joke. The teacher is an absolute dick. He doesn’t even bring his own pen, he will whatsapp in class (bearing in mind he is 60-70), answer phone calls, tell you to move the front or speak louder because he can’t hear you as HE didn’t bother to shut the door behind him, order someone to then shut the door as he is too lazy to move half a metre to do it himself, and well he’s just a crap teacher. Luckily I’ve done beginners Portuguese so I already have a basic knowledge but it’s all disappeared over summer. He will criticise people for getting things such as vocabulary and pronunciation wrong, but he hasn’t actually taught it - an example of great Spanish teaching yet again. I also got taught Brazilian Portuguese so my accent is different to the Portuguese of Portugal he is ‘teaching’, I shan’t be changing it for him though – the Brazilian accent is nicer. He did look quite surprised when he ordered me to read out a paragraph of text which he probably thought I would muck up due to my face which resembled a slapped arse, but oh no, out came my fantastic Brazilian accent without any mistakes (first time for everything). Take that!!

I had a horrendous experience the other day too. We decided we didn’t fancy getting up at 7am to go to a lecture on Monday so we’d try the 5:30 class with a different teacher. What a mistake. The teacher was some crazy woman with huge eyes who scared me. Not only that but in front of us were sat some Spanish girls who just would not stop turning round, staring and laughing at us the whole 2 hours. QUÉ???  WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?! They were annoying and always chatting making it even more impossible to understand the teacher. Then I noticed something horrific, the girl in front of me had head lice crawling all over her hair. We were all whatsapping each other about how boring the class was and how we wanted to leave, then I said about the nits and that was the icing on the cake for the worst class in Spain to date. After I noticed them (and told everyone via whatsapp) I just wanted to leave, she started leaning her head back every now and then which made me feel sick, keep your nitty hair away from me! I was leaning as far back as possible. What annoyed me was that they were still turning round and laughing, I felt like getting google translate out and finding the word for nits. Perdona, tienes piojos de la cabeza -that would of shut her and her friend up.

However there are some positives about university, my Catalan class uses the same material I used in Kent. The same material I already did last year and have most of the answers to – wahey!

So apart from some mishaps on the university front (I don’t think they will ever stop), life in Granada is pretty damn good. I can’t wait to go to Sevilla this weekend with Ailish, Adele and Amber. The bullfight is definitely going to be an interesting experience, but I can’t live in Spain and not see one, and I’m too impatient to wait until the 2014 season starts. And as Ailish said, the bulls are going to die whether we go or not...so we may as well watch it! It’s such a big controversy in Spain, I want to have an opinion but I really need to actually see one in order to have my own point of view on the matter.

I’ve also got another visitor booked. Emily, my friend who I studied with at school, is coming out to see me in a month. Emily, Adele and I were the only girls who studied Spanish in sixth form so it’ll be great for us all to meet up again, especially in Spain! I’m really looking forward to having her here.

Apologies for the horrendously long blog, I have too much to say. My next blog will contain pictures dead bulls and blood.

Hasta entonces,

Ellie.

P.S. I have to include this photo of me in one of the (amazing) vintage shops in Granada. I found this and just had to have a photo. I know a few people I could buy it for..

shithead