I throw my giraffe in the air sometimes!

This Semana Santa the city of Granada was treated to a visit by the Fantastic Six (minus core member Emma-Lou, and obviously it wasn't the same without her!) Any prolonged period of time which involves any of us will be sure to involve hilarity... I just wasn't expecting quite so many giraffes.

Last Tuesday I travelled to Granada. I was once again treated to the wonder that is Asturias Airport - it feels a little bit like a second home now. My first flight was delayed by half an hour, not a good start with a very tight hour turn around in Madrid, I had already texted Sarah in dismay with something along the lines of "I'M NEVER GOING TO GET THERE!" not that I lean towards the dramatic or anything.. Luckily, the whole of Barajas Airport was backed up because of a strike in France, classic Spanish logic - when in trouble, blame the French. Sarah and I then acted out a bit of a farce when I arrived in Granada, with me on the bus missing the bus station (which I have now discovered we didn't actually go to!) and her in a taxi on the way to the bus station. Finally we met up and had the first tapas of the holiday. Granada, does good tapas - as in, it comes free with a drink (Oviedo - take note! this is the second place I've been to that does this!)

The next day had been planned for some weeks. Our favourite Spanaird Mario Casas was in a new film called Grupo 7, so after a morning of shopping and eating we walked to the cinema to watch the film. We were the ONLY girls in the showing, and I don't think everyone else appreciated our squealing. However, the film itself was amazing.


Thursday was tourist day. After the scariest bus ride of my life through the tiny streets of the Albacyin, we arrived at the prime photo-taking point.

Alhambra

It's our new summer house for when the Palacio Real gets boring.

Or more factually, its where the Queen Mum of the Moors lived.

I would like to point out that in Madrid it took us three days to finally ask someone to take a picture of both of us, first tourist spot of the holiday and Sarah did it. Very proud. We also picked well as the girl was a pro and took three different pics for us to choose from - score.

Even from this distance the Alhambra was amazing. According to legend it just rose out of the mountain one day and it will eventually sink back in. Since I didn't get a chance to go inside I'll have to get back to Granada sharpish!

The girls arrived at about 3am, after a late flight to Malaga and some tapas whilst they waited for the bus. The next day the real tourist holiday began, as per (like seriously I've been on these things everywhere now!) with THE TOUR BUS! Love those things.

A trip around Granada and a few mermaid impressions later we were back in town at a place very special in the hearts of myself, Sarah and Roisin

Ice-cream break.

Now, although it looks sunny on the tour bus, rain followed soon after and we found out that the Good Friday processions were delayed by an hour - hence why I didn't get the chance to go to the Alhambra. Instead we stayed in town and looked out an ideal spot for procession watching. 

The spot was chosen and guarded by Sarah - who started an argument with a Spanish girl who tried to get past us! And our resident camera woman Roisin, stood on a tree for a better view. The processions were amazing, I can't even guess at how many people were involved in them; from the penitentes, to the mourning women, to the bands and not even considering the leagues of men who were carrying the floats! The whole thing was just incredible.

Saturday was greatly anticipated as it was the only day when Mercadona was open! Plans for our Spanish Easter Lunch had been made days in advance. So while Sarah made us some chocolate Easter cakes, I had my third (and probably most successful) attempt at tortilla.

Sarah almost died when she saw how much oil was needed to make tortilla - so not Spanish.

Thank you very much to Sarah's mum who sent the ingredients. Look how cuuuuute!!

After we had finished our cooking for the day, we went for another shopping trip - AKA an attempt to find Sarah the perfect t-shirt (it was unsuccessful.) And obviously, more drinks.

The classic in height order picture of the Fantastic 6 - BUT WHERE'S EMMA-LOUISE!?

Okay, so I should probably explain the giraffes. These came as stirrers in our drinks, even though we only got five, Roisin stole another one for Emma-Lou, we precedeed to give them all names beginning with G; George, Gertrude, Grace, Ginebra (Gin in Spanish, that one was mine!) they then came everywhere with us for the next two days. 

No, I don't think we will EVER grow up.

That night Sarah and I went to see Yerma by Lorca at a theatre in Granada, which was really amazing. After some teetering up and down hills in our heels we met everyone else and began our night out in Granaaaaada.

The giraffes couldn't hold their drink....

We're "Made in Scotland" too!

Okay so I love these adverts. It basically translates as something along the lines of "Before 3am in Spain, isn't the time to go out, it's the time to eat." 

McDonald's has been way too central a part of my Year Abroad....

Easter Sunday, and we were all up like the good Catholic girls we are and at Mass with the Archbishop. 

In Spain, children have bells to ring on Easter Sunday - so obviously we bought some too. I decided that trying to explain to my Mum why she had to take a bell home for me at the end of the year wasn't worth it! But I got to ring Roisins. 

After Mass we attempted our HUGE Easter meal, complete with ham, cheese, bread, tortilla, patatas con alioli and bravas.... 

After lunch another procession came along Sarah's street so we ran (literally - down 5 flights) to watch it. 

Roisin and Sarah made some new friends.

It was sunny so we went for a sunbathing sesh after lunch.

Then on Easter Monday, after a bit of stress relating to more strikes and flights, I travelled back to Oviedo leaving them in Granada for another few days.

Totally amazing way to spend Easter! 

 "Dale limosna mujer, que no hay en la vida nada como la pena de sen ciego en Granada"

(Give the begger a coin woman, because their is nothing worse than to be a blind man in Granada)

Seriously, where did they put the Guernica?!

It has been 6 weeks since I spent a full weekend in Oviedo. No joke. I have two new trips to tell you about now, starting with a city break to Madrid with the lovely Sarah Quinn and then a National Erasmus Party in Salamanca with ESN (no I haven't learned!!)

Madrid


After my parents recieving the most terrifying call of their lives at half past ten on the Thursday night, from Sarah asking for my Spanish number - something neither of us had thought about before, we luckily managed to walk past each other in the bus station (because the number my parents had was wrong... classic).
It took us a rather extended walk around Madrid before we found somewhere to eat lunch, afterwards we started on the grand Art Gallery tour of Madrid with the Reina Sofia

Favourite Spanish word. EVER. 

The Reina Sofia has a painting called Guernica by Picasso which is one of the most famous pieces of art done under Franco. It's kinda big and yet - WE COULDN'T FIND IT! Literally spent about an hour trawling up and down the corridors of the Reina Sofia -which is pretty big - looking for it. Eventually we asked at the gift shop, they gave us a strange look but confirmed that it was still in the gallery. 

Day Two in Madrid began bright and early and off we went to El Prado. The queue was ridiculous. Almost all the way along one side of the building. But as it was sunny, we couldn't really complain.

This was not the queue btw, this was the end of the queue.

We can see it now!

Sarah and our pal Velásquez

After the gallery legs had got a bit much we decided to grab a sandwich and head to the Madrid City Tour bus for an hour or so, where we got some amazing elevator music playing throughout the boring parts of the city, I was traumatised by a wasp for twenty minutes and Sarah moaned about the glass windows ruining her photos. 20 euros well spent!

That night we headed back to an area beside Mercado San Miguel, which has earned the title of Sarah's favourite market ever, to have some dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Kitchen Stories who's very inventive tagline was "Hemingway never ate here" I thought it was funny...

Sunday morning was spent at the Palacio Real. Where I want to live. Please.

It's just so pretty!!!!!

After the Palacio we went back to Plaza Mayor for some lunch, a quick spot of shopping and then it was back to the bus station for a sad goodbye :(

Salamanca, Avila and Segovia

We arrived in Salamanca's Plaza Mayor where we were greeted by hundreds and hundreds of other Erasmus students complete with signs and chants. To say that the inhabitants of Salamanca were unimpressed by us would be an understatement. 

This time our City Tour was in the form of a competition with a different task to complete at each point of interest, unfortunately the tasks usually got a little more attention than the place so I still don't know that much about Salamanca. But I do know that Oviedo ESN schooled Huelva in a tug of war that was over so quickly it was almost embarrassing for them!

That evening we had our fiesta "elegante" complete with free sangria, mojitos and food. Definitely a high point. We were supposed to have a flamenco display but as I am of diminutive height I missed it... I heard it though, sounded good. 

Sunday was spent travelling to Avila, a walled city which was absolutely FREEZING! But really pretty.

Segovia is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been but unfortunately my camera's battery was "exhausted" so I have NO PHOTOS! So annoyed. Although I can confirm that they do a mean suckling pig in Segovia and have not only a cathedral that's bigger than Falkirk but a Palace, the same Palace that Disney based Snow White's on. Once again, I apologise for the lack of photos.

So this will be everything for a while, no plans for travelling until Semana Santa and Granada! 

That was definitely a Scotland flag!

Before I start I should mention that last weekend, IT WAS COLD. Really, really, really, really, really cold. So if we all look a little frost-bitten in the pictures or I happen to mention the temperature a lot I apologise - but it was so cold!!!

I spent this Saturday in Leon; as I've said before Leon is famous for tapas and our entire plan for the day was to eat as much tapas whilst spending the least amount of money possible. To begin, we decided to visit the Hostal San Marcos which we never made it to last time, it's beside the river in Leon and (now I'm not too sure about this) I think it was the main hospital for the Camino de Santiago - which luckily none of us needed during the Camino!!

Two Pilgrims 

Obviously you're allowed to take your shoes off at the end of a pilgrimage, so we totally didn't deserve the dirty looks we got back in '09! 

About ten minutes after this to escape the cold we started on the tapas and wine... and from there the day only got better!! Very successful second trip to Leon!

This weekend I was off travelling again. This time on another ESN organised trip (you'd have thought I would have learned from the last one!) and on this occasion to Santiago de Compostela and A Coruna in Galicia. The shouts of "Vamos chicos" were just as irritating and this time involved SINGING. The little patience the students of Alfonso II had left me with was swiftly removed.

But anyway, no moaning. Santiago de Compostela was absolutely gorgeous and I think I remembered quite a lot about it from the Camino, although walking into the city this time was much more enjoyable when it didn't involve, rain, losing members of our group and teary phone conversations.... instead! We had coffee!

BLUE SKY! BLUE SKY! It was GREY  for miles when we got there last time!!

I should mention. Most random encounter of Spain so far happened just before this picture... We were walking through the city and taking group photos - another tourist offered to take one of the group. After he did, he produced a flag, a blue flag with white diagonal stripes (yes a SALTIRE) and got us to pose with his friends. They claimed it was a Tenerife flag... I do not believe this. Someone was seriously messing with me on Saturday, after the flag incident whilst we took pictures of the Cathedral a bagpiper (cause they are all over Galicia and Asturias) started playing  SCOTLAND THE BRAVE?!?!! What??! I would have started to do the Highland Fling if I knew how! Very, very, very, odd.

This (although a very baaaaaaaaad photo of me!) is from the wall of the University of Santiago de Compostela, the idea is that you stand in front of the tree and point behind you and it tells you what you should study. Mine came up with Philosophy.... don't think so.

Although it was the ESN guys who told us that so it could all be complete nonsense! 

So after the city tour and a quick chill in the park we obviously went out. No climbing down the side of a mountain this time! There involved free tapas, free wine and I think at some point also bottles of vodka for us to use on the bar... Good night. 

The next day, (cue - VAMOS CHICOS) we took the bus for an hour to the east to A Coruna, which is absolutely gorgeous. It also has the oldest working Lighthouse in the world.

It was very very very windy. Slightly windswept by the end of the day! The old town of A Coruna was gorgeous too but for some reason I have no photos of it... I do have a photo of Kate straddling an Octopus though so obviously my priorities were in order! 

All in all a lovely trip to Galicia! Next weekend its back to Scotland for birthday parties and the weekend after I'm off to Madrid with Sarah! So no weekends in Oviedo this month! 

Would be good if I'd been paid....

The day I had my first Starbucks in 8 weeks.

Oh dear, I wasn't very good at updating in December was I? (or most of January for that matter!)
Although I've probably told anyone who would listen to me about everything I've done in the interim I'm going to write about it anyway. Mostly cause I have some nice pictures!

So the weekend after the adventure in the Bosque, I visited Miss Mari-Jane Paterson in her little pueblo of La Granada (not Granada - that's in Andalucia) an hour outside of Barcelona. I managed to find incredibly cheap flights from Oviedo to Barcelona - although as SpainAir has just gone bust I can see that being my last trip! La Granada was straight out of a guide book, gorgeous cream coloured houses and little shops. We had a walk around on my last day and went to mass in the Church - which incidentally starts at 11am not half 11 as we thought, slightly awkward.
On the Saturday we went to Barcelona and shopped! We also took the open top bus tour so we could see as much as humanly possible without loosing our legs.

The last time I went to Barcelona this was closed because the wind was too strong! 

Vamos Barca!

Just don't tell half of my students!!

Barcelona, as a cosmopolitan city, just happens to have a Starbucks on every corner and so I FINALLY got my Starbucks. It had been over 8 weeks coming! But, alas, in Spain they do not have gingerbread lattes at Christmas and so I had to settle for vanilla - first world problem.

One day in Barcelona was never going to be enough so I'm desperate to go back! Luckily MJP is an awesome hostess and looked after me very well.

The Barcelona trip was at the beginning of Puente week - wherein we had Monday, Tuesday and Thursday off school because of various holidays, plus I don't work Fridays. That's right, I had a ONE DAY WEEK! You have got to love the Spanish obsession with fiestas.
The second weekend, with another cheap deal, I went to Leon with the chicas from Oviedo for a night. Leon is about two hours to the south of Oviedo and is therefore, much colder!! Leon is famous for tapas, with every drink comes a free tapas; which could be a little bit of bread and tortilla or a tiny hamburger or cheesy croquettes. All in all, a night in Leon can be very, very cheap! The night we visited was also El Clasico, I was allowed to watch the first half in the flat before leaving and luckily our first tapas bar was a Barca bar and had a TV! The second was unfortunately a Real supporting bar, although by that point they were 2-0 down and the barman had ripped his flag down from above the bar in disgust.
Funniest. Sight. Ever.

Plaza Mayor

Now, we've been told several times that it is odd for a blonde girl to be in Spain, that we might get stared at a bit. Until I went to Leon, all I had experienced was the old ladies at my choir exclaiming at how light my hair was and my students saying I had very "Scottish" hair (the ginger comments are getting old now.)

In Leon, everything was different. To be fair, there were four blondes now - and Alwyn - and walking down the streets we heard "Rubias, rubias!" from everywhere, apparently this is normal in Leon...

Yes I know; me + large "L" = not good.

But to be fair, I'm not standing on it this time...

The Cathedral in Leon was unbelievable! I wish I could have taken pictures inside but apart from it not being allowed it was incredibly dark inside. The stained glass windows were the most beautiful I have ever seen. It was freezing inside, its so big there's no hope of it warming up when it's only 2/3 degrees outside. While we were walking around a Mass was being sung but I couldn't find it! Which just made the music even more amazing, you could hear it from every corner of the Cathedral but no one seemed to know where it was coming from. Frankie and I also went all the way to the top of the ramparts outside - just to be told that we weren't actually allowed to do that - oops!

And that was the beginning of December in Spain. 

Now I'm back in Oviedo after a lovely two weeks at home and four days in Paris! Up till now either the weather or hangovers have been against us so trips haven't been possible. But this weekend, hopefully we're off to Leon once more for a proper explore and another try of the tapas!