My First Week in Granada

Naturally, to go along with my travel day and first day in Granada, I need to accompany it with a “My First Week in Granada” post! Luckily, things only went up after my ~interesting~ travel day! This is going to be pretty long so buckle up, and if you get to the end, I really owe you some type of prize!

MONDAY, JANUARY 10TH

I woke up on the morning of Monday, January 10th in GRANADA a bit tired, but very excited to start a new, and better, day. We had an orientation session from 11:00 – 2:00 or 3:00 so that we could learn some cultural norms and basic logistics about our time in Granada. I also got to meet the rest of the people in the program! There’s 6 of us BC students (me, Gillian, Becca, Nick, Vivian, and JP), 5 University of Delaware students (Kelly, Amanda L, Erica, Matt, and Amanda R (who joined us a week later after quarantining for COVID)), and 1 St. Joseph’s University student (Shadi), but she’s counted technically as a UD student.

Nothing remarkable happened at orientation, but it was very helpful and I knew that I was blessed with amazing people in my program. We followed our long hard day with churros! at a famous Granada location: Café Fútbol! They’re a little different than what we think of as “churros” and they come with mugs of dipping chocolate that you just get to EAT afterwards, much to my delight. We thought that because there were 8 of us girls, we should order 8 portions of churros, right? WRONG! We should’ve taken note of the waiter’s confused look because there were SO MANY CHURROS, WAY TOO MANY. (Now, we’ve figured out that you need 1 order for every 2-3 people.) We felt bad about just wasting them, so we took them in a bag to go, but then didn’t really want any more because we were stuffed, so we tossed them. (We later told JP this anecdote and he was under the impression we kept them, so he was PUMPED that he was getting lots of churros. Then we had to break the news that they were in the trash:/)

We then did some shopping (!!!!!!) at Spanish Zara because I DESPERATELY needed some clothes. Spanish Zara is WAY cheaper than American Zara, so that was amazing. We ended the afternoon with a “paseo” (kind of like a walk, but more relaxed and focused on looking around) with our program director Amalia’s daughter Paula through the area. It was a great way to get ourselves situated and a little more oriented. Everyone kept uttering things like “Oh, now I know where we are!” but I will fully admit I had absolutely no clue where I was at any moment other than when I was at the residence. I had to use maps for EVERYTHING for at least the first 5 days, even to walk to the GRIIS office which is a whole 3 minute walk away from the residence.

After the paseo, Shadi and I made a trip to Zara Home and El Corte Inglés, which is like if Macy’s and the big Nordstrom in Chicago had a baby and then put a grocery store in the bottom level (think Pick N Save or Wegman’s). I needed some things from Zara Home that would make my room feel a lot homier, and I needed pajamas and underwear (how thrilling!). I felt a million times better after the retail therapy and my room was finally starting to feel more like my home away from home. Plus I got a great workout from trekking my heavy bags, so don’t be surprised if I come home looking like the Rock.

I probably should’ve taken some more notes on my first full day sooner because now it’s escaping me. But, I am sure that I was in awe of many of the views, and enjoyed my first dinner in the “dining room” with the Spanish girls and my ~new~ friends~!

We went to tapas at a new spot: Ibéricos y Alhambra. I got some white wine (yay!) and the tapas were INCREDIBLE! The vibe was definitely more sophisticated and we all had a really wonderful time. This was also where we coined the concept of “Nick and his *insert number here* girlfriends” because it was just Nick and 8 of us girls. Very fun night, and with my new clothes I was starting to feel more and more like myself. Here’s the review:

Ibéricos & Alhambra: Bocadillos Bar

•               more expensive but good if you’re just going for drinks

•               empty on a monday night

•               tapas were AMAZING

•               heavy pour for wine

•               BEST tinto (note: tinto de verano is very similar to sangria, but honestly most of the time is better in my opinion; it’s lighter!)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 11TH

I was already feeling even better on Tuesday because I had something very exciting to look forward to… wearing new clothes that I hadn’t been in for upwards of 2 days!!!!!! I put on my tan Zara pants and my white turtleneck sweater and felt amazing. We had some breakfast and were off to our first day of the intensive Spanish course, which I was admittedly very nervous for. 

(My first bit of culture shock: Spanish breakfast is very different than American breakfast. Basically, whenever I go to breakfast at the residence, I get a piece of bread (a baguette and honestly they’re always really fresh so I can’t complain) and then can grab tomato jam-type spread, cream cheese, butter, or jelly to put on top. There’s some other options but this is my typical breakfast. Also, the coffee is actually pretty good at the residence, at least I think it is. As you all know, I’m not a coffee lover, so if it’s not strong, that’s better. And, I really had a lot of trouble falling asleep and sleeping well the first week so I needed coffee every day.)

Our professor for the intensive course was Inma and she was AMAZING! Truly she was a wonderful teacher and just so much fun; she had tons of energy and was super sweet, and just a very, very talented teacher. She made class fun and interesting while making sure we learned a lot, and she kept us AWAKE, which is very remarkable to do for a group of very jet-lagged college students.

After the intensive, us BC kids headed off on an adventure to ACTUALLY see the Alhambra in all its glory, but all 6 of us this time. JP’s host mom, María Carmen, told him about a place to go for exactly this, so we headed off. 

Lots of orange trees lined our path, and we contemplated trying some. The day before, Paula had warned us that they were not for eating because they tasted bad, and if anyone ever tried one, to please send her a video of their reaction. Becca decided to bite the bullet (ha!) and try one. She gave us all sections of her orange and at first they were great! But then they promptly turned SO bitter and we learned why they’re just pretty to look at and not to eat. And of course, we got a video of Becca trying the forbidden fruit.

After a pretty quick walk past some GORGEOUS neighborhoods, we arrived at El Mirador de San Nicolas. And here’s a good time for a little background on the city… Granada consists of 4 main hills: one that has the Albaicín (old neighborhood that is beautiful and is where the majority of Granada’s Muslim residents used to live in the middle ages), one that boasts the Alhambra, one that has the Sacromonte (another old beautiful neighborhood that is home to an abbey, really cool caves, and the old gypsy neighborhood of the city), and then to be completely honest I do not remember what makes the other hill special hahaha.

The Mirador is one of the few best viewpoints of the Alhambra in the city and possesses truly the most beautiful view I have ever seen. I know it’s shocking, but I was so in awe that I admittedly almost shed a tear.  I haven’t been to that many places in my life, but I will forever be convinced that that view is one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, views in the entire world. Pictures and videos cannot do it justice, so this is my plea for you to visit Granada, if only to see this view, if you ever have the chance. (And OF COURSE I will be doing a post at the end of the semester with all of my recs and my formal plea for everyone to visit the city.)

We took some pictures, naturally, and then wandered around into the less crowded parts of the Albaicín. This is when we also coined our “tour guide Nick” concept, when he pointed out to us two lovely things: bugs that were mating, and dog poop! And, this was when we truly experienced the drastic temperature change in Granada in a day. I started off the morning by wearing a sweater, pants, sneakers, and my puffer, and by the time we reached the top of the Albaicín, my puffer was off and I entertained taking off my sweater in favor of my tank top underneath.

THEN, after parting ways with JP so he could walk home in time for lunch, the 5 of us (Nick, Vivian, Gillian, Becca and I) decided to walk through Parque Federico Garcia Lorca, which is named for a very famous and incredibly talented Spanish writer and poet who was born in Granada. (I actually have gotten to read some of his works in my Spanish classes, and genuinely really enjoyed reading one of his plays; he was incredibly talented.) It was a pretty park of course, but the BEST and most unexpected part was…. the playground equipment! There was a little zipline, a slide, a seesaw of sorts, and some swings. Obviously, we had to sample them and it was SO MUCH FUN. It was some of the purest joy I’ve felt since playing at the park as a kid and it was truly a perfect couple of hours.

After our time at the park, we ventured back home for lunch and rested before our second paseo with Paula, through some different parts of the city that we hadn’t seen yet. I passed numerous bakeries that looked amazing and quickly made it onto my “Granada To Try List” that is currently housed in my Notes app.

And of course, I wasn’t about to let our third night pass without some tapas. Kelly, Gillian, Nick, Matt, and I went to place close to the residences called Los Manueles. The sangria was good and the tapas were AMAZING! There are multiple locations throughout the city, and it’s one of the spots I will definitely be taking my visitors to:)

I got into my OWN pajamas, did my SKINCARE, and crawled into bed with my new comforter and silk pillowcase that arrived with my luggage, which was an INCREDIBLE feeling. Like I mentioned in my first post, I really learned to appreciate all the little things, and even more so than before, crawling into my (home-away-from-home) bed, with my little pajama sets and freshly cared-for face, has come to be one of my favorite feelings (And even as I write this in the airport about to embark on my first trip (!), I’m not already wishing my trip away, but I am excited that this feeling will once again greet me when I return to what really feels like my home in Granada)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12TH

Wednesday would have to be my favorite day of my first week, and not just because it was my first full day with my luggage (haha!) and I finally got to wear my own clothes that hadn’t been bought out of (almost) necessity in the last few days.

After a hard day’s work in the intensive course, we went on a little snack excursion. Some of my ~friends~ (wow so cute) had to stop by the Orange (phone carrier) store to fix their SIM cards, so we stopped at an empanada stand right across from it, and what a blessing because they are AMAZING. I have gone at least twice every week since that day. I will fully be forcing all my visitors to try the ~pollo tradicional~ because it is one of the best things I have ever tasted. Then, we went to Puerta Bernina, a café that has really amazing pastries. Here’s the review:

Puerto Bernina (PB)

•               super cute inside

•               pastries are a little more expensive but nice and fancy

•               really nice, coffee shop atmosphere; very similar to Tatte

•               great place to study

•               no wifi..? (interesting)

Following our little pit stop, we rested for a while until our walk through the Albaicín with Teresa. This activity really solidified Wednesday as my favorite day of the first week. As most of you probably know, I absolutely LOVE history, and we got lots of it during the walk. It was just genuinely such a FUN activity and we really got to bond as a group and with Teresa, and the views from El Mirador de San Nicolas and the highest point in the Albaicín didn’t hurt. We also visited a church that houses nuns in the adjacent convent. According to Teresa, there’s two things nuns do: pray and bake. She bought us muffins from the little window in the convent and OH MY GOD they were amazing. They had a hint of lemon and were sprinkled with coarse sugar crystals, so obviously I ate multiple. We also took some really cute pictures that I posted on Instagram (my regular account and my Spain account). 

Wednesday was also the day of our first program dinner, awwwww. We went to an Italian place that was amazing and satisfied my pasta cravings (going from eating my various types of pasta usually 3x a week to the not-very-common nature of pasta here has been a struggle, but I think I’ll make it through). It was a very fun dinner and really cemented our bond as a group (yes that sounds ridiculously cheesy I know, I’m cringing, but it’s true). We all laughed a lot and I have two funny stories to report. 1) After much discussion, us BC kids were wondering how many credits the intensive course was worth and if we could declare it pass/fail. After a few cervezas, JP almost drunk-emailed the BC Spain advisor, our man Pat O’Donnell, but Becca and I successfully deterred the sending of that email to a little more ~sober~ of a time. 2) Nick was surprisingly not hungry and just asked the waiter for bread. (Small nod to the first night when he said to the waiter simply, “¿Podemos pan?”, which literally translates to “Can we bread?”). The waiter brought him one TINY breadstick the size of a single chopstick and we lost it. It was hilarious and much to Nick’s delight, they brought him a big plate of actual bread soon after.

Honestly there’s not much else to report on the night/day but it was just a really wonderful day, and I was starting to feel more comfortable in the city and kept feeling more and more like myself.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13TH

Thursday was a pretty chill day, and I don’t have much to report. We had the intensive course, then a little break, and then had an AMAZING visit to the Cathedral of Granada and La Capilla Real (the Royal Chapel).

The cathedral was so incredibly beautiful and I’m sure I’ll do another post at some point about it, but refer to my pictures on my Spain Instagram because pictures can’t even do it justice, so it’s hard for my ramblings to come close to doing so.

The Capilla Real was so cool and richly filled with history, so it was right up my alley. I enjoyed taking in the aesthetics of the cathedral far more, but I liked learning about the history of the chapel far more. It is where 5 Spanish monarchs are buried: King Ferdinand (el rey Fernando) and Queen Isabel (la reina Ysabel), Juana La Loca (their daughter), her husband, and their son who died at age 5. This was the last time and place that any Spanish monarchs were buried outside of Madrid, so it’s kind of a big deal hahaha. There’s a legend that Queen Isabel was the much smarter spouse, and she absolutely loved the city of Granada. Her burial here was her final great political symbol.

I had to write an essay/short reflection on this visit (and our walk through the Albaicín), so I’m thinking I’ll translate them to English and post them so that you all can have a little more insight into some of my favorite places in Granada

We didn’t do anything on Thursday night because we were all pretty exhausted and needed to be ready for our first ~bar excursion~ on Friday. I made my first trip to purchase snacks at the little grocery store near us (only a 3-5 minute walk, very convenient), and just now realized that I filmed a little taste test (hahaha) but never posted it. I’ll get it up soon!

FRIDAY, JANUARY 14TH

Friday was a BUSY day and it felt like I lived 3 days in one. We of course started our day with the intensive course for a few hours, then had lunch at the residence, and did another quick excursion to Zara, and to visit a new (to us) store, Mango, that’s very popular in Spain.

Then, we were STARVING, so we decided to stop for tapas. Much to our chagrin, and our surprise, we couldn’t get food at 5 PM because the kitches are closed til 8. So, we sucked it up and just got some glasses of tinto and scarfed down the bowl of nuts they gave us in place of tapas. Then, since we were still STARVING, we stopped at a place to get some pizza, and naturally I needed dessert too, so I got a brownie. The place was overall okay, but good for a quick snack-meal, and I felt better before my pre-dinner nap hahaha. (And of course, a review of the tapas place…)

Salvaje

•               close to fuente de las batallas

•               great spot at like 5-6 (when we went)

•               no sangria but tinto de verano

•               sweet and very good

•               food is expensive

•               nice little outdoor seating area with heat lamps 😍

After dinner at the residence, we got ready to go to our first bar! We decided on Chupitería 69 (chupito = shot) based on recommendations of former BC-in-Granada students. It’s a dollar (euro) shot place that has over 100 different kinds of shots, from straight liquor to basically juice-with-a-splash-of-liquor. And you get coupons for every shot that you buy that you can trade in for fun little prizer. 

I don’t have much to report other than we had SO MUCH fun here. It was a mix of abroad students (mostly, if not all, American abroad students) and locals. It was a really fun bonding experience and if you’re reading this far, remind me to tell you the bathroom story HA. It’s quite funny and better if I can tell it on the fly.

Then, some of the girls were tired and wanted to hang out with our new Spanish friends at the residence, so they headed back home. But, Nick, Gillian, JP, and I weren’t ready to go home yet so we went to Papaya, another bar that was conveniently on the way home. I LOVED the vibe of the bar and it was definitely more locals. The bathroom was super cute too hahaha and I just have some funny memories from the bar that just make me laugh, so it’s a fun experience to look back on.

After a bit there, I was suddenly very tired, so we went home at about 4:00, a valiant effort by Americans on our first Spanish night out, sans club.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 15TH

Staying awake til 4:30 wasn’t the absolute best idea considering that we had an excursion at 11 the next morning! But, I struggled out of bed and woke up surprisingly quickly, which didn’t entirely balance out the headache that the ~chupitos~ had given me. (My first Spanish hangover awww)

But, the activity definitely did not disappoint. We went to “Carmen de los Mártires.” A “carmen” is a traditional Muslim house that contains two types of gardens. In Spanish, there are two words for garden: “jardín” is a garden for aesthetic plants, like a flower garden, and “huerto” is a garden. A “carmen” is a house that has both types. Granada has a rich Muslim history, so that’s how this word and concept has become so proliferate in the city. This “carmen” is in honor of Christian (Catholic, specifically) martyrs.

The garden is INCREDIBLY beautiful and boasts amazing views of the city. )Plus, there’s a little lookout spot that has some of the best views of the Sierra Nevadas, especially in contrast with the city and the other hills of Granada.) It’s located on the same hill as the Alhambra and is directly adjacent to the Hotel Alhambra Palace (Mom, we should definitely stay here for at least a night hahaha). I’ll post some photos in the photo blog section when I’m back at the residence so stay tuned!

Since I was just so exhausted from my rough morning of touring a beautiful garden, we went back, ate lunch, hung out on the terrace of our building (pictures to come, the views are incredible and I can’t believe that’s where I LIVE), and then I napped for a good long while.

We were all exhausted from the combination of jet lag and our going out escapade the night before, so the rest of Saturday was pretty chill. After dinner, we played bingo with the Spanish girls and then went to get dessert: these waffle pop type things with melted chocolate as a topping. Overall they were pretty good but a little too much; if even I didn’t finish a dessert, it’s a little much hahaha.

Once we got back, I knew I would probably get a little homesick if I stayed in. No one else really felt like going out, but Nick and JP were at a bar 2 minutes away from the residence so I decided to meet up with them for a bit for a drink (wow I sound like such an adult, it’s amazing what a drinking age of 18 will do). It was a pub, and English was the predominant language (haha finally!) and they were watching football, so I felt it was the perfect thing to cure my looming homesickness. We ended up just talking and hanging out and, probably intelligently, I didn’t end up ordering any drinks, which my still-jet-lagged body was VERY happy about the next morning.

After pretty successfully warding off my homesickness for the night, we headed back around 1:30 (wowww so early that night), and I quickly went to sleep, very excited to sleep in the next morning.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 16TH

Sunday was a no-plans-day, which was amazing. I slept in, tidied up my room, and then met Becca and Vivian at a café (the aforementioned Puerta Bernina) to do some grammar homework, which was also when we found out there wasn’t any wifi. I ordered another chocolate pastry and although I promptly found out there was a layer of raspberry filling (a tragedy), I choked it down and suffered through my (mostly) delicious piece of chocolate cake.

Along with being a no plans day, Sunday was the first day I really started to feel the pang of homesickness. The euphoria had begun to wear off a bit, and that, combined with my still-existent jet lag and my lack of sleep, left the door open for the homesickness to creep in. That was the second time I cried (surprising, I know, and I’m not going to count the two small tear fits about luggage on Monday and Tuesday hahaha). I was feeling a little bit anxious too, so the homesickness just amplified everything else that I could possibly be upset about. And normally, when I’m anxious or upset, I’m in a familiar place and can do my familiar little techniques to feel better. So naturally, in a new and very different place that hadn’t actually started to feel like home yet, I was feeling pretty disoriented.

Not to mention, I’ve literally been fantasizing about my abroad experience since my cousin Lexy stoked my interest when she studied abroad in Rome 8 years ago (hi Lex!), so I felt guilty that I wasn’t just incredibly grateful and happy all the time. Of course, that really is unrealistic, but being abroad presents a unique situation in which it’s SO natural to feel homesick, but you almost feel guilty because you have the blessing to be studying in another amazing country. Also, I was admittedly a little disappointed in myself because why should I be sad?! My dreams of studying abroad are finally coming true, why should I be sad and miss home?!... Luckily, those feelings faded and I knew more and more that what I was feeling was normal. And of course, a long appearance by Milo on FaceTime helped infinitely.

By the end of the day, I felt a lot better, and we decided to go out for tapas to celebrate Amanda R’s arrival! We went to a place nearby called Zorro Viejo and it wasn’t the most amazing place ever, but it was pretty good, and it was good to get out and do something. Review is here of course: 

Zorro Viejo

•               light pours

•               recommended to us by the Spanish girls 

•               really good tapas

•               like fine; good but nothing special

I ended the night feeling a lot better, especially since I knew I had a good night’s sleep ahead of me and the start of my second week in Granada:) Text me if you read all the way til the end, I’ll be forever impressed…

And just like that…

I completed a week in Granada!