Granada

The final exams of our “intensive Spanish period” courses finished Friday mid-afternoon and the entire CC-CS group boarded a bus bound for Granada, Spain.  Granada is a very important city in Spanish history.  It was last Muslim stronghold in Spain before the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, conquered it in 1492, ending the ~800 years of Moorish occupation of the Iberian Peninsula.  Upon arriving in Granada, we checked all 50 of us into the hotel and then those of us who had signed up before hand went to Cueva de la Rocia.  Cueva de la Rocia is a very famous flamenco tablao.  Bill Clinton, Michelle Obama, Antonio Banderas and many other famous people have visited it.  Cueva is “cave” in Spanish, and that is exactly what this little place looked like.  It was a long, skinny, arched corridor with chairs down each wall.  The decorations were peculiar- all white walls, pots hanging from the ceiling, pictures of notable guests on the wall, and a red tint to the lighting.  As we walked into the cave to take our seats adjacent to the entrance, Hill (one of closest friends in the program), pointed out a section of the floor that was very worn.  In the middle of the “U” shaped outline of chairs was a wooden dance floor.  It wasn’t elevated and almost blended into the rock floor.  After everyone had taken their seats the lights dimmed and the dancers and band entered through the same door as the crowd, situated themselves on the set of four to five rounded stairs that we had just descended and started clapping in rhythm.  A microphone was set up and one of the ladies started singing in a very throaty voice and shortly after, a guitarist accompanied her.  Once the music was flowing, a man wearing black boot/shoes with large heals on them stood from his seated position on the stairs, walked to the middle of the U of chairs onto the worn dance floor and started clapping and tapping his feet to the beat.  The rate of his foot tapping increased to a very impressive rate and the snaps and thunks of his shoes created a whole new element to the flamenco music.  A lady dancer joined the male and they tapped and clapped together in a synchronized fashion- wrapping around each other and never missing a beat.  They alternated between dancing solo, in pairs, or even as many as four at a time.  When they took their break in the middle of the performance, we were all given a tall glass of sangria and we chatted about how amazing the performance was.  The dancers came back, finished with very impressive performance- selecting audience members to join them for a laugh- and then we left.  

We all went on a surprise walking tour of the area around the tablao (to the dismay of some of the tired, unenthusiastic complainers), and ended up at a little church with an amazing view of a fully illuminated Alhambra!  After we got back on the bus, we were given two options:  one group was going back to the hotel, and the other was going to be dropped in the center of the city so they could get tapas and see a little bit of the nightlife.  I went with the second group, of course.  We split and went to different places to eat.  When my group walked into our restaurant, there was a group of Spaniards who, by the amount of empty cups and plates on their table, we could tell had been there a while.  They started clapping when they saw us- clearly a foreign group.  They invited us over to sit at a table next to them, but there wasn’t room for our pretty big group.  The place was small and we sat across the main entranceway from them.  They kept breaking out into spits of clapping, singing and flamenco dancing and were inviting us to join them time and time again.  Finally, the girls convinced me to get up and try my hand at a little flamenco.  Let’s be honest, it really didn’t take that much peer pressure.  They guy and girl pair who had been doing most of the dancing took me into their group, got the clapping and singing going, and told me to just try my best.  My best was obviously not very good, judging by the amount of laughing I received from the whole place, but they wouldn’t let me sit down, so I learned a couple basic steps and claps and kept going.  I convinced the rest of my table to get up and join us and the pair (please keep in mind I did not say couple) took turns dancing with each of the Americanos.  We sat back down, ordered round after round of tapas, and enjoyed some food and drink.  When the group of Spaniards was getting ready to go, two of the guys came over to our table.  The “leader” of their group, Antonio, started talking and somehow the conversation switched from a friendly goodbye to very forward compliments directed at me.  “Hay que guapo.  Que bonito tu cara…” The friend of the leader had taken an empty seat next to a girlfriend of mine and they were talking.  After a few minutes, and before I knew what exactly was happening, Antonio was giving me a piece of paper with his phone number and telling me exactly how to get to his hotel.  He also, in very broken English, was telling the entire restaurant what he wanted me to do to him.  I’ll let you use your imagination for the details.  The girls at my table (keeping in mind that the guy to girl ratio in my program here is roughly 1:5), thought it was hilarious and actually encouraged this.  I don’t think my face has ever been redder in my life.  I didn’t know what to do besides tell him repeatedly that I am not gay.  I found out later that Antonio’s friend who had sat down next to Steph had been asking- or rather pleading with her- to tell him that I was gay and single.  Apparently I look exotic?  Single yes, gay no.  Sorry Antonio… After tapas it was already 2am and we had to be up and at breakfast very early, so we checked out one bar briefly on the way home and went up to our rooms to rest up for the Alhambra. 

The Alhambra is an amazing palace/ fort/ church in Granada.  Words can’t really do it justice.  It’s a fortified city with a palace and cathedral in it and overlooks Granada and the snowcapped Sierra Nevada mountains.  The intricacies of each wall, ceiling, garden, statue, etc. are amazing.  The mix between the Arab architecture and, later, the Catholic renovations make it a very unique place.  After the Alhambra we took a bus to the center of Granada and had a few hours to explore and eat before meeting up to go into the Cathedral of Granada.  The Cathedral took over 200 years to complete and is a hodgepodge of different eras of architecture, but is started out as gothic.   In a part of the cathedral are the mausoleums of Ferdinand and Isabella as well as Juana la Loca and her husband. 

After tapas we went to a hookah bar to further or arab cultural experiences for the day.  After Kabob, hookah and some drinks, we left and went to a club that we had heard nothing but good things about.  Granada Diez was unfortunately a cab ride away, but it had been built up so much that we decided that it was worth it.  And OHHHH was it worth it!  This was the kind of huge club that you’d see in movies about Europe in which people listening to house music and dance the night away. After rolling back to our hotel around 7:30am (it’s the Spanish way), I slept through breakfast, crawled to the bus in the morning and reminisced about how great Granada was the whole way home.