Montserrat

I am writing this as a new entry because my time ran out and I had to go pay the stupid locu man again. Oh well! So Granada was last weekend, Saturday we hung out and rested, Sunday we went to the beach and Monday I had work but then we went out for tapas because Monika's friend had just arrived. Tuesday was the goodbye party for Ariane and Benjamin and partly for Barbara because she was going back to Basel for a little while before returning in September. Wednesday I had work of course, I took one of the members of the association to do his weekly chores. Thursday and Friday were regular days and we managed to visit the Pedralbes another house of Gaudi's. It was really gorgeous. Friday we went dancing and it was horrible. This eurotrash techno vibe is not what I'm looking for when I go dancing. The french seem to love it though. Saturday we went to Montserrat, this gorgeous monastary up in the sawtooth peaked mountains located about an hour away from Barcelona. It was beautiful! Not as peaceful as I thought it would be because there was a ton of tourists and a wedding going on but still, I was very awestruck. We hiked all over the place and saw everything. I think that my legs hate me.

Pedrera (Casa Mila), the front doors and the famous roof!

A night out on the town.... my smile hides my disgust with the general club scene...

MONTSERRAT.

Beautiful, just beautiful.

Granada

According to my calculations it has been forever and a day since I have updated the blogger. I am so sorry. Things have been more then a little crazy with the end of the month, new random roomies and lots of good byes...
About two weeks ago, I visited Granada with my friend Ariane and we had the best time! Although it was incredibly hot (39 degrees celsius) we managed to enjoy ourselves immensely (does that sound a little bit geeky?) We traveled by train wedensday night and arrived on thursday morning. We walked around the city and went to the tourism office while they prepared our rooms. Then we took a quick nap before heading up to the Alhambra. Seriously, one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen. The sun gives the palaces this brilliance and everything, everything, is decorated, carved, painted; just this labor of love that eventually became the most visited place in Spain. Although it was a crazy walk uphill (what is it with these Spaniards and uphill???) I am so glad that we were able to go. We spent some time in the Generalife gardens and then got kicked out (literally, the guard came by and told us to get out, please, they closed 15 minutes ago) and walked around the city some more. Later thar night we stopped by a tea place where they wrote your name in arabic for free after your dinner or drinks or whatever, so we had a pita and strong tea and watched the restaraunt owner accost nearly eveyone who walked by. It was quite amusing. The next day we woke up early ready to explore the rest of the city but especially the old neighborhood Albaicin. We walked and walked and walked. We found some really nice little streets, and a church that was closed and this gorgeous mirador (lookout point/vista) that had a great view of the Alhambra. We also stumbled (again literally because my shoelace tripped me near the entrance) upon the Casa Museo Max Moreau. It was really interesting and the tiny museum had a good collection of the artists work. Afterwards we did the tourist shopping thing and walked to the city center to check out the church and surrounding buildings. We ended the day with churros y chocolate (since they are more common in the area) and they were delicious!

And now, for the pictures....

On the train ride there.

Albaicin, one of the first places we visited on our walk around the city

ALHAMBRA.

The City of Granada