We walked around the city and it is gorgeous! Its so clean and interesting. Our tour guide led us through the historic Islamic section of town to see the houses and side streets, and we explored on our own and did some souvenir shopping. I got a few things for family/friends, but I haven’t found anything special for myself yet. I like souvenirs, but after the debacle of trying to get a snow globe on an airplane, I tend to look for something a little less...liquidy. Eh, I'll find something.
Although it might not seem like it, I’m trying very hard not to live through my phone this week, but every five minutes I’m pulling out my phone to take a picture of something!
Oh, and this might be my favorite one:
Two things as we were returning to our busses: We are probably going to be on the Spanish news today because there was some kind of protest being filmed and we had to walk in between them and the news cameras! I’m sure they appreciated that. Also, that lady who played the Ugly American last night at our hotel, fell and busted her face on the street. It was bad. She’s an older lady and apparently she missed the edge of a curb, and as she fell, she hit a light pole with her face and then face planted. Her face is badly bruised, but at least she didn’t break her teeth like we had thought. Ugh, something like that is a fear of mine. I honestly hope I don’t get sick or hurt while in another country. That’s just too vulnerable of a feeling.
Anyways, from the city center, we were taken to the Alhalambra, which is an old Arabic castle/fortification up in the mountains. It had absolutely gorgeous gardens that had once been only for food (we were told surviving was too difficult for people to bother with flower gardens in the twelfth century) but they had been converted in the 1930s into the flower gardens we saw today. It smelled gorgeous, too. Literally, it smelled like jasmine and honey! My sinuses have not appreciated it, but my eyes enjoyed it! The tour itself lasted for a couple of hours and, while interesting and definitely a thing you want to see, made my poor feet tired. So very tired. The decor was beautiful, though. The Arabic calligraphy script and Moorish design are quite lovely. The mosaic and woodwork are like nothing else I've ever seen!
We left there and headed back to the hotel for lunch. There is apparently a place across the street from us that is the equivalent of a US Wal-mart, so we went over there to pick up some necessities! It really was like a Wal-Mart, but no one was in their pajamas, so...Spain in winning on that account. Hehe.
The second concert was tonight in a little, out of the way town called Chouchina. (That page is in Spanish, so good luck.) Well, even calling it a town is being grand, it was a village, which is fine, but so out of the way and tiny that I was surprised that a concert was being held there, but they had a music pavilion and we were a part of some kind of music festival, so what do I know? The band was also playing with, what I believe was, a community band from that town, which was fun! The concert itself lasted so long. So. Damn. Long. I don’t know what the band director was thinking, but he just kept on playing. People were leaving! However, the people who stayed seemed to be having fun, so again, what do I know? I do know that by the end of the concert, I was tired, cold, and had been sitting on concrete bleachers for several hours. Oy.
Also, there was an uncomfortably handsome man in charge of this particular concert. I mean...I don't know how a person can look like that and be normal. He was also very nice. I just looked at him a lot. So much so that I felt I had to apologize to Steve, but eh...even he said the guy was handsome. I didn't touch him or talk to him directly except to say thank you, so I'm sure I didn't make anything weird. But still... Damn, Javier!
Before the concert began, we were unexpectedly herded onto the bus shuttled to a bar and told to ask for a drink and tapas, which we got and had to bolt it down, because not 20 minutes later we were told to get back on the bus and go back to the amphitheater for the concert. It was weird. After the concert (already effing late) we were taken to the courtyard of the local high school and given drinks and food, and had some kind of party where none of us could talk to the people in the other band because of the language barrier, but it was still fun. I tried sangria for the first time. Well, not proper sangria, I was told, but still pretty tasty. I have now discovered that my tolerance for alcohol is even less than it used to be, so that was fun. Yikes.
BTW, I am still disturbingly dehydrated on this trip. Kind of like Ireland, they want to give us booze and water, but not a lot of water. We never seem to have enough to drink and we are on the move so much that tying to get a bottle of water is difficult. I feel awful pretty much most of the time, but what can I do? Hopefully that will change the further along we get on this trip. Also, we don’t get a lot of choice in what we eat right now and I know I’ve already gained at least 5 pounds. I’m starting to get anxiety about going back to the weight loss center. They are going to be so disappointed and I don’t think they are going to believe that we pretty much only get to eat what we’re given. Most of it ready-made buffet food and lots of potatoes and bread. Eh, such is the life when on tour with a band, I guess. I’m still having fun, so that is the important thing!
It means "Kissing Street." Squee.
One thing I didn't take a picture of, but really enjoyed, was that there was an open air spice and tea market in the middle of town. It smelled so good! It's a shame we couldn't get anything from there, but honestly, the last thing I want is to have a spice bomb detonate in my luggage on the way home. I mean, it would smell nice, but would probably ruin my clothes!
Two things as we were returning to our busses: We are probably going to be on the Spanish news today because there was some kind of protest being filmed and we had to walk in between them and the news cameras! I’m sure they appreciated that. Also, that lady who played the Ugly American last night at our hotel, fell and busted her face on the street. It was bad. She’s an older lady and apparently she missed the edge of a curb, and as she fell, she hit a light pole with her face and then face planted. Her face is badly bruised, but at least she didn’t break her teeth like we had thought. Ugh, something like that is a fear of mine. I honestly hope I don’t get sick or hurt while in another country. That’s just too vulnerable of a feeling.
Anyways, from the city center, we were taken to the Alhalambra, which is an old Arabic castle/fortification up in the mountains. It had absolutely gorgeous gardens that had once been only for food (we were told surviving was too difficult for people to bother with flower gardens in the twelfth century) but they had been converted in the 1930s into the flower gardens we saw today. It smelled gorgeous, too. Literally, it smelled like jasmine and honey! My sinuses have not appreciated it, but my eyes enjoyed it! The tour itself lasted for a couple of hours and, while interesting and definitely a thing you want to see, made my poor feet tired. So very tired. The decor was beautiful, though. The Arabic calligraphy script and Moorish design are quite lovely. The mosaic and woodwork are like nothing else I've ever seen!
We left there and headed back to the hotel for lunch. There is apparently a place across the street from us that is the equivalent of a US Wal-mart, so we went over there to pick up some necessities! It really was like a Wal-Mart, but no one was in their pajamas, so...Spain in winning on that account. Hehe.
The second concert was tonight in a little, out of the way town called Chouchina. (That page is in Spanish, so good luck.) Well, even calling it a town is being grand, it was a village, which is fine, but so out of the way and tiny that I was surprised that a concert was being held there, but they had a music pavilion and we were a part of some kind of music festival, so what do I know? The band was also playing with, what I believe was, a community band from that town, which was fun! The concert itself lasted so long. So. Damn. Long. I don’t know what the band director was thinking, but he just kept on playing. People were leaving! However, the people who stayed seemed to be having fun, so again, what do I know? I do know that by the end of the concert, I was tired, cold, and had been sitting on concrete bleachers for several hours. Oy.
Also, there was an uncomfortably handsome man in charge of this particular concert. I mean...I don't know how a person can look like that and be normal. He was also very nice. I just looked at him a lot. So much so that I felt I had to apologize to Steve, but eh...even he said the guy was handsome. I didn't touch him or talk to him directly except to say thank you, so I'm sure I didn't make anything weird. But still... Damn, Javier!
Before the concert began, we were unexpectedly herded onto the bus shuttled to a bar and told to ask for a drink and tapas, which we got and had to bolt it down, because not 20 minutes later we were told to get back on the bus and go back to the amphitheater for the concert. It was weird. After the concert (already effing late) we were taken to the courtyard of the local high school and given drinks and food, and had some kind of party where none of us could talk to the people in the other band because of the language barrier, but it was still fun. I tried sangria for the first time. Well, not proper sangria, I was told, but still pretty tasty. I have now discovered that my tolerance for alcohol is even less than it used to be, so that was fun. Yikes.
BTW, I am still disturbingly dehydrated on this trip. Kind of like Ireland, they want to give us booze and water, but not a lot of water. We never seem to have enough to drink and we are on the move so much that tying to get a bottle of water is difficult. I feel awful pretty much most of the time, but what can I do? Hopefully that will change the further along we get on this trip. Also, we don’t get a lot of choice in what we eat right now and I know I’ve already gained at least 5 pounds. I’m starting to get anxiety about going back to the weight loss center. They are going to be so disappointed and I don’t think they are going to believe that we pretty much only get to eat what we’re given. Most of it ready-made buffet food and lots of potatoes and bread. Eh, such is the life when on tour with a band, I guess. I’m still having fun, so that is the important thing!
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