I went hiking. Say what?

Hola everyone!

So this week was pretty anti-climatic.  I didn't do a whole lot, I actually did a whole lot of sitting in my bedroom reading or watching T.V with my senora.  For some reason I was pretty lethargic this week and wasn't really up for any shenanigans around the city, much less a late night out this weekend.  This week was also the last week of our intensive courses, so I was doing a lot of "studying" for my test.  Overall the test went well on Friday, and I see no reason for me not to pass the class and all.  Here's the grading system is really different too.  The best you can get in a class is a 10, however it's very rare that people get 10's, even an 8 or 9 is pretty rare.  Most people get around 7's or so, and that's pretty decent and average, sometimes even good for a grade in a class.  So I think I'm going to get around a 7 based on the grades I saw and my oral exam that I had today.  I'm not terrible concerned because I'm just glad I got through it, and I know I'm not going to fail it.

So this weekend I hiked!! Yup, me, the person who hates hiking and camping and all those such things...I hiked.  It was a lot of fun, and the views were incredible, but by the end of the hike I was pretty much done with hiking for a while.  I think I can safely say that my legs almost died from the hike.  I got up around 7:30 to get ready for the hike.  I already hit my first kanundrum though the minute I woke up....I had no idea what to wear.  It had rained the day before so I knew I wasn't gonna wear jeans, much less something nicer than that.  I  realized I had like no hiking sort of clothes and ended up going with some leggings, a cami, a short sleeve shirt, a long sleeve shirt and a jacket.  I had no idea how cold or warm it would be.  I knew I'd get hot if I was doing a lot of uphill and such, but I didn't know how cold it would be.  So I went with multiple layers, and it sounds like a lot of layers, but trust me, it wasn't.  I was comfortable the whole time though, so I guess it was a good decision.

The hike was really pretty.  It started off nice and easy, and we were all like "oh, this is easy, Paula made it sound like it would be a lot worse...", little did we know that it would get harder.  We started off going up to the Alhambra and stopping to use the bathrooms, since there would be none once we started hiking.  When we were done there we went on our way, up past the Alhambra and headed towards what we'd be climbing.  As we started getting higher it began to look really pretty.  We could see the Alhambra from where we were, which as very pretty.  We could also see some other buildings and the city. 

The views were incredible, and these picture hardly do the views justice.  So unfortunately I didn't take as many as others, but I think the ones I have are good enough.  So this one on the right is a view of the Alhambra, it was so much prettier in real life, I promise.
So after we all commented on how easy this hike was we headed into an olive grove and started going uphill.  haha wow...that's when it started to get pretty hard.  We started going up hill and it got pretty difficult.  There were times when it was easier than others.  We stopped a few times to see the different view points.  Our guide Imna is a pretty intense hiker too, so she didn't really notice that a bunch of us were huffing and puffing in the back.  It was comical though, because every time we stopped to take pictures we got about 2 minutes and Imena was like "vamos, seguimos!" (let's go, let's continue).  As we were walking we stopped at a bunch of different places.

 We continued on, hit that pretty rough spot where it was uphill and eventually got to a nice platau.  We finally thought we were going to stop...but nope, it was just a little pit stop to show us this cool sun dial.  His sun dials is huge, and all around it there's the names of the peaks of the Sierra Nevada.  Along with all the names of the peaks, it also has how high they are.  We asked Imna if it had the height of what we were climbing, it didn't but they told us we were almost 1000 meters up, about 980 meters.  That was really cool to know.

We finally stopped after we hit the sundial.  There was a really cute park with benches, fire pits, and playscapes for kids.  We stopped and ate lunch at a bench near the edge so we could look at the view.  Some other people sat on the ground so they could look out at the Sierra Nevada, which was also a smart decision.  So this is just me and a few of my friends eating lunch, or rather, eating our "bocadillos".  Mine is right in the bottom center.  Everyone's usually pretty jealous of my bocadillo because my senora packs us so much food.  I got a huge sandwhich, a bag of chips, an orange, and apple, and a juice box.  All of it is for meeeee.  I ate

 pretty much all of it and was pretty full by the end.  It was delish, and after all that climbing I certainly needed the food.  We got to hang around for about 20 minutes eating there, and then we continued on our way.  By lunch time I figured our hike was about half way over and we would start heading down...I was wrong.  They told us the hike would be done at 3:30, and they were right.  Lunch was only done at around 1:30, so we still had 2 more hours to go..and boy did we walk.  We continued onto a more muddy terrain and that's when we got to the more "hike" terrain.  It started to become single file paths, but the paths were gorgeous!!  The higher we went the further down you could see and the more mountains you could see.  They were so pretty.  The Sierra Nevada covered in snow is literally one of the most breath taking things I've seen, and I could definitelylook at them every day.

There's more pictures of me conquering this hike, and this is just one of them, with a fabulous view of beyond Granada.  I'm not sure if I'd do the hike again, because by the end of it I was literally dead.  I returned home, showered immediately and crashed in bed.  I got a nice large lunch and ended up staying in bed until around 9 because my legs hurt so much. But it was definitely worth my time and pain, because there's no way I could get those views any other way.

I went out Friday and Saturday night, but just to little tapas bars.  I wasn't really feeling up to going all out this weekend, especially since I'm going to Madrid and Barcelona this week/weekend.  Friday night me and some friends went to D'Cuadros, a really nice tapas bar in Plaza de Trinidad and just had some tinto de verano (sangria) and chatted.  We stayed out till about 1, but it was a lot of fun and I had a good time.  I went out again with the same friends Saturday night because we were pretty exhausted after our hike.  All of us just wanted to sit down, but it's pretty hard to sit unless you order food.  So instead we stood at the bar and had our shrimp tapas.  Even I had some of the shrimp tapas...at least we think it was shrimp.  Either way...it was really good.  I don't know if it was really good because I was hungry, or if it was actually really good, but I would definitely eat it again.

Sunday was pretty uneventful as well.  After Saturday I was pretty exhausted, physically and mentally.  But I got up and went to church with Jen.  It was interesting, as it always is.  You would think it's all uniform and I would be able to follow mass even if it's in a different language...but nope.  People don't like to kneel, sit, or stand when they're supposed to, so I end up guessing a bit, and pretty much the only thing I know is "y con tu espiritu" because we just switched over to that at home.  But even that is hard to catch because I have to figure out where we are in mass.  They also don't have misselettes for us to follow along with, so that makes it even more difficult.  But we found a really nice church, after already attending mass in the freezing cold, but beautiful, cathedral.

Now I'm off to pack for Madrid.  I managed to pack everything I need in my green back pack, with a little space to bring stuff home.  We'll see how this goes, but I'm pretty psyched about my trip.  We leave tomorrow at 9 am and are taking a 5 hour bus ride up there.  So the next time you hear from me will probably be after I return.

Hasta luego,
Bonnie