So I realize that I haven’t been blogging too often, in fact, it seems like I’m blogging only after I take trips (ergo every 2 weeks).
So to compensate, this one will be a long one; I’ll talk about my trip to Granada this past weekend, of course, but I’ll talk about much much more.
First, let’s talk Granada, probably the nicest city I’ve visited in Spain thus far. I visited Granada as part of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) this past weekend. I wanted to go with the ESN of my school, Carlos III, but since my trip was full I got placed on a trip with ESN Rey Juan Carlos (Rey Juan Carlos being another university in Madrid).
So let’s run through my weekend, starting on Thursday night.
So I am an idiot. Thursday night I went out to Kapital again, and I basically planned on pulling an all-nighter and sleeping on my bus to Granada that was leaving at 7 AM the next morning (Friday). Since my class was cancelled on the Friday anyways, so I wasn’t really missing class.
Kapital was fun, but not as fun as the first time around and my friends all left at 4:30 AM, leaving me wit 2.5 hours to just kill waiting for my bus. On the bus I didn’t socialize at all and just basically got little sleep, so I basically just pulled an all-nighter like an idiot, but when we arrived in Granada we installed ourselves in an amazing hostel (called el Granado, I would definitely recommend it). Once we settled in, and once I had met and gotten to know some people on the trip, my new friends and I went to get lunch.
Now, an old Spanish tradition is that when you order a drink at a restaurant, they serve you free tapas, and big enough tapas to constitute a meal. However, this tradition has, for the most part, died out, and even though there is a place in Madrid called el Tigre, where they do this but the tapas aren’t gourmet, finding some quality free tapas places is rare. In Granada, on the contrary, this tradition has remained alive and well, and for 2€-3€ you can get a beer and eat well.
So we stopped at two restaurants, the first one was 2€ the beer and we got a plate of mushrooms, several plate of chips, bread and olives to share among eight people. Delicious and satisfying. We then moved onto the next place and for 3€ we got another beer and patatas bravas and nachos to share. Two plates of each, obviously, so there was enough for everyone.
Throughout the weekend we went out to these places three more times and it was delicious, satisfying and cheap each time.
On the first day we got a tour of the old town. Now, the old town in Granada, in my opinion, is definitely not unique and more impressive than the old town in other Spanish/Portuguese cities that I’ve visited. The church (below) resembles the ones that I saw in Barcelona’s Gothic quarter. It was a cute old town, but this is not what Granada is famous for. Below are the two best monuments.
And we got treated to a nice special treat from our ESN group. This dessert is a Granadan special called “Pionino.” Delicious.
Now, as part of any ESN trips, a fundamental part of it is the parties. This weekend was the ‘evento nacional’ in Granada, so all the ESN groups from all the universities in Spain organized a trip there, and so there were LOTS of party-hungry Erasmus students. We were all invited to party in this club called May West on the Friday night and we were invited to a (underwhelming) pajama party on the Saturday.
Now, being exhausted, since I pulled an all-nighter the night before, I decided to take a nap before heading out to the party, and I just simply did not get up… I slept through my alarm and my roommates even tried to wake me up by shaking me, but I’m just such a deep sleeper that they thought I was dead. Anyways, so I woke up at 4 AM and ran to the club, upset because I was missing it, only to be told that free-entry time was up and I would have to pay 12€ to get in. NO! So I went back to the hostel, showered and went to bed. I woke up at 8:30 the next morning for breakfast and saw nobody, since everyone had come back from partying at 7:30…
Anyways, so at noon that day we were to get a guided tour of the Albaicin area of Granada. From a group of about 25 students, maybe 10 of us attended… the rest of the gang was still sleeping and missed this:
Yes, this Albaicin area of Granada was AMAZING. And I was fully awake and full of energy to enjoy it to the fullest. I truly appreciate the fact that I was able to go and it sucks for the people who missed it (some woke up at 4 PM :O). Frankly, given the choice to either miss the party at May West (which apparently was very good) or missing the Albaicin, I would miss the party any day.
Anyways so the Albaicin area is full of what you call ‘Carmenes,’ essentially small walled-in white villas containing a garden, a eucalyptus tree and a house, of course. These villas were extraordinary, and so was the area, the architecture was next to none and there was a pleasant surprise at every corner. Truly the most beautiful part of Spain that I’ve seen, this is known to be typical Andalusia. I hope the other Andalusian cities that I visit will be as beautiful (I am planning a trip to Sevilla-Malaga).
Now, of course, for all of you who don’t know, Granada is famous for the Alhambra, which is a monument extremely important for Spain. Spain used to be ruled by the Arabs and at a certain point the Spanish started fighting back to take back their country. Andalusia (Spain’s southern region) was the last to be conquered, Granada being the last city and the Alhambra, the Arab nobility’s palace, the last part to be reconquered. Centuries of histories are contained within the Alhambra’s walls and there is a waiting list of months just to get in, so for us to get a guided tour as part of our organized trip was just amazing.
Last but not least, on the Monday we went for paella, but not just at a restaurant, no no no, we went to a place on the top of a mountain and we got paella with all the other Erasmus students from all over Spain. Just look at how it was cooked:
SO. FRKN. DELICIOUS.
Seeing as we were getting this paella in a courtyard, on a mountain, there was an amazing lookout from a nearby stone.
Probably one of the most breathtaking things I’ve seen in my entire life.
Now, interesting to note that this trip I went on with an ESN organized trip, as opposed to going on my own with friends like I did for Toledo, Valencia and Barcelona. This trip cost me 130€ + about 15€ for food/drinks. I probably could have done the same trip on my own (obviously no guided tour and no Alhambra) for about 85€ everything included (+/- 15€ give or take). It would have come out a lot cheaper, but there are really pros and cons to both.
First off, if you go alone you can really just pick your own itinerary, and you’re traveling as a much smaller group so you don’t have to spend time waiting after one another. Furthermore, it is a lot cheaper and there’s no real crazy emphasis on parties, you really just do what you want.
However, traveling with one of these groups is a different experience altogether. My experience was overwhelmingly positive mixed with some negative points. The best part about it is that it is all organized for you, though sometimes at inconvenient times (ex. the Albaicin tour not being attended by half the group still sleeping in from the party the previous night). Even better, though, is the people you meet. Our group of about 20 people gelled extremely quickly, and just a couple of hours after meeting we were all super close. We are all planning on meeting up again in Madrid and we have all become friends. Just this in and of itself made the extra money worth it, though I don’t necessarily think it’s necessary to go on too many of these organized trip, a good balance is always best.
Some pics of myself with the gang!
Now, I am in Madrid to ‘study abroad.’ Though, up until now I really haven’t studied too much, I am here to study abroad, am I not. I’ll be the first to admit that I need to put in a lot more effort in school, however, it is important to note that standards here are a lot lower, and I get the impression that even teachers don’t take this schooling thing all too seriously.
Example: one teacher shows up half an hour late to class every single week, and walks in and starts cracking jokes. Oh, and apparently this class only lasts ten weeks, so after week 10 we don’t have this class anymore…
Example #2: I’m taking this class called ‘scientific and environmental journalism.’ I figured this topic would be good for me to know being a journalism student, and I still think we are learning some valuable knowledge in this class. This is a fourth-year class at my school, and so the local students in this class are graduating this year. Yeah, pretty advanced shit, right? So what does our big, final assignment consist of in this class? Conducting an interview with a scientist and writing an article… These are the type of assignments I systematically got in Concordia in my first semester in every single class!!!!! Woah.
But yeah, school does require some sort of effort here, just not an insane amount.
I think that’s all for today, this was a long (but hopefully interesting) post and I’ll try to blog within a week this time, and it’ll be about Halloween in Spain (basically, parties, because kids don’t trick or treat here).
¡Hasta luego!
Studying Abroad in Madrid!! 
