Hello all,

Sorry for the freaked out entry yesterday-everything has come out ok in the end. I was woken early this morning by a phone call from the bus station saying that the girl who accidentally took my backpack had returned it and was very sorry for her error-she had been sleeping on the bus and wasn't paying attention when she got off. I just thought I'd let you all know that before I start on the more exciting entry.
Yesterday, I got back from an amazing trip to Granada in the south of Spain. For those of you who don't know, Granada was the last bastion of the Moors in Spain and finally fell in 1492. Even then, there was a strong Muslim population for years until they were finally expelled. Because of that, the Muslim influence is visable on many of the older buildings and some of the churches are really just converted Mosques. We took a bus from Madrid to Granada (because it was as fast as the train and half as expensive) and stayed in a hostel called the Funky Backpacker, which was really great. It was run by mostly foreigners (French and German people I think) and filled with people from all over the place! The best part was that it has a great terrace upstairs on the third floor where you can look out over the whole city practically (see above).
After we got settled in and had some lunch, we decided to head over and check out the cathedral and Capilla Real, where Ferdinand and Isabella were originally buried. The cathedral was great, extremely beautiful and filled with interesting things. It was all done in white and gilt with several small chapels. Unfortunately, the beauty of the main altar was marred by the scaffolding but by looking at the rest you could get an idea of the beauty. We spent quite a bit of time in the Cathedral before moving on to the Capilla Real. The Capilla Real was the resting place of Ferdinand and Isabella before they were moved to El Escorial and two other monarchs (sorry but I don't remember which) are buried their still. It has a really amazing altar with some pretty strange scenes in it-like the beheading of John the Baptist. Unfortuately, photos are not technically allowed of the Capilla Real so I don't have any but you'll just have to take my word the the intricacy of the altar piece.We spent almost the entire afternoon at the Cathedral and wondering around Granada (there was an adorable spice market right next to the cathedral and I've uploaded a photo of Margaret infront of it to flickr if you're interested). For dinner, the hostel made paella on the terrace. I must admit that for me the paella was a bit disappointing because it didn't have the same variety and the rice was undercooked despite their best efforts to the contrary. After dinner, we went on an excursion to a Flamenco show. The show was beautiful-a fair amount of variety and lots of dancers. It was a very intimate setting and at the end of the show, they tried to entice people to join the professional dancers without much avail. If I had been wearing I skirt, I probably would have joined but dressed in pants, like I was, I would have just felt awkward. After Flamenco, they took us into the Arab section of town to a beatiful observation point where we could see the entire city lit up for the night-including the Alhambra.
The next morning, we woke up early and went to the Alhambra. The Alhambra was the last hold out of the Muslims in Granada. It is situated high on a hill above the city and affords a lot of beautiful views. Like most Muslim castles/walled cities, it is focused around gardens and water so there are tons of beautiful fountains and lots of flowers everywhere. If you ever go, I highly recommend investing the 3 euros to get an audio-guide because I found it increased my interest quite a bit. It was nice to have everything explained to me. I'm not going to spend as much time as I'd like talking about the Alhambra because if I do, none of you will read this entry because it's so long, but I've included some photos and I HIGHLY recommend that you look at my flickr site for more pictures because it really was probably the most beautiful place I've ever been. Since we went so early in the morning, the weather was absolutely perfect and it was just starting to get really hot when we finished with Generalife (hen-er-al-EEF-ay), the big gardens that were where the sultan lived after the Christians took over. Generalife reminded us a little of Alice in Wonderland because of the maze of bushed you could walk through to reach the palace part. After we finished at the Alhambra, we went back to the center of town, had some lunch, returned to the hostel and took our siesta.
In the evening, Margaret and I went to the Parque de Ciencias to visit an exhibit on the Titanic. It was a really interesting exhibit based mostly around photographs, letters, and some artifacts from the ship. I won't say too much about it but the above picture is of Margaret and I in front of "The Grand Staircase." The next day, we went shopping in the morning (after getting a nice night's rest) and, when we got tired, headed to the bus station for our ride home. I've already written the entry about that but other than the missing backpack which has since been found, everything was wonderful and I highly recommend you check out Granada, and my pictures of it, at some point if you have a chance.

Para que aprendeis mas.