Spring Break, Part Tres: España!

So, after leaving Bergamo, we flew to Granada to begin the third part of spring break! I'd been to most of the major cities in Spain as part of a school-sponsored trip in high school (with the exception of Barcelona), so I was excited to get back there, plus see one new city! And I've actually missed speaking Spanish more than I thought I would, so I was looking forward to using the language again. Be careful what you wish for...

After flying into Granada, we ended up hanging out in our hostel for awhile. It was a cool, funky little place with a rooftop terrace...how awesome is that? The rest of my day ended up being a little more eventful...one of the guys on my trip had been sick since Rome, and it was obvious that he needed to see a doctor. So a nice lady at the hostel helped him pick out a clinic, and suggested that he take someone who could speak Spanish along with him, just to help out until an English-speaker at the place could take over. Out of our group of nine, only two of us can speak Spanish, one the other guy hasn't taken actual Spanish classes since high school...so guess who got to go along? So I get us to the clinic, and dealt with an almost-mini-fiasco with the not-English-speaking receptionist while we tried to figure out payment stuff. But it all got worked out, and she gave us an appointment in an hour (wow! not used to that in the States). So we wait for an hour, plus a little time upstairs as the doctor finishes seeing all his other patients. Then this exchange happens (en español, por supuesto):
Doctor: "I hear only one of you speaks a little Spanish."
Meg: "That's me! I speak some Spanish. My friend is the one who's sick, and he only speaks English."
Doctor: "Well, that's OK...I don't speak a word of English! Let's get started."
So after I picked my jaw up off the ground, I translated the WHOLE appointment. I mean, I definitely wasn't fluent, but between my Spanish and the doctor using medical books he had in English, we managed to do OK. But it was up to me to explain the prescription, diagnosis, and treatment info to my friend--never expected to be doing that in Granada! It was so worth it when he started to feel and look better. And I couldn't have asked for a nicer doctor--what a sweet old guy!

The rest of the time in Granada was a lot of fun. The next day, we went to the Alhambra and Generalife, which are these palaces and gardens where the Moors lived when they ruled that section of Spain. The Moors were Muslim, so the palaces have this fantastic Arabic influence on them...absolutely gorgeous! And probably my favorite palaces that I've seen in all of Europe. I'd seen them on my last trip, but it was so worth going back to see again! (And this time with a much better camera!) Now, let me just preface the next part of our adventure by saying that we had a joke on our trip that every day it was a new man down--someone was always falling and hurting themselves or getting sick or having some sort of medical problem. So when our hostel sponsored a late night trip to some hot springs outside of Granada, it sounded like the perfect thing for all of us to do! Which is was...they were these natural springs in complete darkness about an hour outside of the city...AMAZING. But it would figure that I would find a way to injure myself, and when I was climbing on the rocks around the springs on our way out--slip! crack! I fell and bruised my tailbone or something...I'm just lucky that I didn't break my arm or anything! It made it a little harder and more painful to get around the rest of the trip (and a super-uncomfortable 5-hour bus ride to Madrid), but what are you going to do? I was still in one of the coolest countries, so you better believe I was going to enjoy it! The next day, before we left for Madrid, we walked around the city a little bit more, and saw the Cathedral and stuff. The only thing I missed out on was doing the gypsy caves, but I'll save that for my next time in Spain.

I'd been to Madrid before, and I think the last time it was my least favorite city that we saw. But least favorite out of everything in Spain isn't saying much, because Madrid is fantastic! I saw some stuff I had seen the last time, like Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, the Prado (with some of my favourite paintings by Valazquez!), but I also got to see more! We went to el Parque del Buen Retiro, which was packed full of people and performers since it was on a weekend. It was such a beautiful, sunny day, and it felt nice just to wander around. We also went to el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, a sort of more modern art museum than the Prado. And when we went there, they were having the most fantastic Picasso exhibit! Oh, it was amazing! There were four different areas that traced the four different eras of his work...incredible. I never knew all the different areas that he dabbled in, not to mention just how talented Picasso was (very!). And I got to see Guernica for myself, which was great after studying it/mentioning it in classes that I've taken. Also, there was a street vendor outside The Sofia wearing a Northwestern sweatshirt...unexpected, but priceless!

We found a really cheap flight, so five of us ended up flying out really early from Madrid to Barcelona, which gave us pretty much a whole extra day in the city! SO worth it since I hadn't been to Barcelona ever before. And I saw SO MUCH: the Sagrada Familia, La Rambla, the amazing and famous market (Mercat de la Boqueria), Park Guell, the Gothic Quarter, the Cathedral, some Olympic stuff, the beach, and the view from the amazing park called Montjuic at both day and night. And I could have spent a lot longer there!! I think it's my new favorite place in Spain. You really have to see Gaudi's architecture for yourself, it's like nothing you could ever imagine. The Sagrada Familia kind of looks like it's melting, Park Guell looks like either Candyland or something that Dr. Suess came up with...it's so unbelieveable. And it's really cool to hear their official language: Catalan, which is a blend of Spanish and French. I think it'd be fun to learn, if it was spoken more outside of the region of Catalonia. It was also interesting to talk to one of the guys that runs the hostel we stayed in. Catalonia, like Basque Country, thinks of itself as a country independent from Spain, only that Madrid doesn't recognise it as its own country. So Toti made it very clear that since he's originally from Barcelona, he's Catalonian, NOT Spanish. He said that his English is actually better than his Spanish...his first language was Catalan, and he uses English more since so many of the people coming through the hostel use English. Kind of interesting to hear for myself what I've learned in Spanish and politics classes.

But, unfortunately, I eventually had to fly back to Shannon. I have to admit, it was nice to hear the Irish accent again! Coming back to Cork definitely felt like coming home. And now I'm on part four of spring break: recovering, eating, and sleeping! I have a few more days of it, and then my final three days of classes starting on Tuesday.

I'll post pictures from each of the cities again, I hope you all will enjoy them! And a special thanks to anyone and everyone who helped to make this trip possible...it really was the spring break of a lifetime, I'm so, so grateful, and I don't think I'll ever be able to top it! Plus, it was nice to see a little sunshine after months in Ireland, haha!