On Sunday I went to the cabalgata which was the procession through the city the day before el día de los reyes. I arranged to meet Becki in town and left with plenty of time however I soon got caught up in the thousands of people who had come out to see the procession. I had to physically fight my way through the crowds to get to where we were meeting. The procession was a lot different to what I expected, I thought it'd be quite traditional with 3 actual kings (well not real Kings obviously, but dressed up). There were lots of different floats which all had people dressed up. They were throwing sweets, and when I say throwing I actually mean catapulting! Me and Becki had a few hit us in the head and it actually hurt (boiled sweets, you see) I did manage to catch a few, but the Spaniards are just too quick for me. They were picking them all up off the floor too, we'd feel a hand near our legs picking up the ones that we couldn't be bothered to. We couldn't see all the procession because we were a few rows back but what I did see was really cool and it was another great experience. I was more overwhelmed by the amount of people in Granada that night, it was impossible to move but the atmosphere was great.
The rest of the week has been catch-ups and a class here and there. I first met with Adele and Becki on Monday to go for some tapas at Los Diamantes which never fails to disappoint. This was the first time I'd had pimientos de padrón (my absolute favourite) here in Granada and they were delicious. We went up to mirador and I know I go on about it a lot but the views there are just so incredible, I wish I had visitors here now so they could see the view with the snowy Sierra Nevada in the background as it's even more impressive. Speaking of that, my walk in to town is so picturesque at this time of year, I took a photo the other day and I think it's one of my favourite that I've taken so far.
Wednesday, between class, I went for a drink with Hannah in the best little café which is so hidden away, I love it. I'll only be taking special people there (and people who can walk up a lot of steps). We had a nice refreshing smoothie and caught up, it was lovely. That was until two Spanish guys came up to the terrace and once they noticed we were English they wouldn't leave us alone. One thing led to another and the flamenco music was out and we were dragged up to salsa dance (bear in mind that I do not salsa dance) despite protesting that no quiero (I don't want to!). They were a bit weird but harmless.. It was so so funny and as I say 'one for the blog!'.
This Saturday me and the girls took a trip to the countryside for a walk/hike. We got a bus (after running through Granada like crazy people so with 2 minutes to spare) to Monachil for 3€ return. The walk took us about 3 hours in total and it was fantastic. The views of the Sierra Nevada were incredible (the Sierra is huge and doesn't just cover the snowy mountains). The walk we did is called Los Cahorros and it's most popular because of the puentes colgantes (hanging bridges - that is what it translates to but I can't remember if that is what we call them in English?!). It was so beautiful and luckily we appeared to be the only ones out walking at that time so we had it all to ourselves which really meant we could stand posing for pictures as long as we wanted. After passing the first bridge the rest of the route was quite hard because the path was like a continuous long bit of stone/curb on the edge of a gorge, sometimes I had to crawl along it because the mountain edge came out so far that it was impossible to get past, luckily there are metal handles in the mountains to help you get across. The views were incredible and my photos don't express how amazing it was. After walking past the river and gorges we made our way back to the town centre but tt was so much more hard work as the route back was basically climbing over a bloody mountain. We just kept climbing and climbing and eventually reached the summit (rather sweaty). It was so steep. On the way down we walked through what I really think of as 'Spanish Spain'. It was very rural but there were quite a few farming houses, we saw lots of olive trees and even men picking the olives (I took a picture of them doing it, naturally). We were absolutely shattered by the time we were done so we went and had a few drinks in a lovely traditional Spanish bar. It actually could have been an English country pub because they had a lovely log fire going and it just had that warm feel to it. We got some really good (free) tapas there (patatas a lo pobre - my favourite) and head back into town to catch the bus home. It was such a nice morning and we were home by 2:30 with a cuppa. Overall we did about 8km and I'm definitely feeling it today!
 |
The fun didn't stop there though, we somehow managed to muster up the energy to go for tapas and go clubbing the same day. I had a really good night, we went to the chupitería which is a shot bar, all shots are 1 €. There are 3 different types, strong, medium or soft and in each category there are about 45 different flavours. I went with the intention of only having 1 soft shot as I'm generally not a shot person, but about 5 or 6 fuertes later, we finally left to go to the club. With entry and 2 copas for 10 € you can't really go wrong, especially with the amount of vodka they put in a glass here. 3/4 of the glass is always the spirit, the rest is just mixer. When I first came I found it so hard to drink as it's so strong but I've clearly adapted to Spanish life now as it just tastes normal to me with that amount these days! It'll be hard going back to going out in England when they give you the tiniest amount of spirit in a drink. That said, it'll be my final year so I'll be way too busy studying to have any social life...
P.S. Title explanation...
So, this is actually the title of a film I watched a few weeks ago but I just think it's quite relevant. I was talking with my friend the other day (in depth) about final year at uni and how much we're looking forward to it. I felt quite annoyed with myself though, I am looking forward to it don't get me wrong, but right now I'm living in bloody Spain! The best year of my life, the once in a lifetime opportunity and all that jazz. Time to live in the 'spectacular now' and enjoy it all while I can because although I'm looking forward to going back to Canterbury, I doubt it'll be long till I start complaining about it and wish I was back living in Spain again.
No comments:
Post a Comment