Greetings from Pareeee, France!
Since Toledo Bryan and I have had a busy one point five weeks.
After leaving Toledo we took an afternoon train (which we caught luckily) to Granada for our first ever CouchSurfing experience. Our hostesses magically multiplied upon arrival. From their profile, it appeared that we were staying in an apartment with two hostesses: Marie and Fatima. Turns out that two other girls lived with them as well, all students of the local university. Curiously, none of them were from Granada. One was from the Malaga area, one from France (Marie), one from northern Spain (go Basque region!), and one was even from Australia! I think she was happy to have us around for the English break from Spanish. They were all wonderful hostesses though and we had a good time our only night there talking before Bryan and I headed out to explore the city a bit with tour guide Jessica, a friend from Kappa Delta who studied abroad there for a semester. She and her roommate Katie were nice enough to show us around a bit their last night in Granada.
Turns out it was absolutely wonderful to meet up with them because they gave us possibly the best advice ever for eating in Granada: bars. At bars in Granada, you can purchase a delicious beverage, such as the "tinto del verano" (red wine and lemon fanta mixed with fruit; like sangria but better) and you get a FREE "tapa" (appetizer) with said drink! SOO awesome. Bryan and I took great advantage of this deal the following day for lunch/dinner and then we got frozen yogurt to top it off!
Also in Granada we saw the Alhambra. This is a really amazing area in Granada that was first built by the Arabs as a fortress to protect the city and then later taken over by the Spaniards as a type of palace or summer home. Since it was built by Arabs you can imagine the amazingly detailed architecture that went into this compound. Everything was so intricately carved and planned out! It was a really great place to visit, but so tiring to walk around all day!
After our one day in Granada Bryan and I caught a night train to Barcelona to meet up with my family. It was a fairly uneventful ride, and I was glad that I was able to actually get some sleep. I think the rocking of the train actually helped me fall asleep better, like a rocking crib almost.
In Barcelona, we saw many amazing sights. I'd already been there twice, but I always love going back to that city because it's a lot of fun and I love going up to Parc Guell. My mom especially enjoyed Barcelona, and I think that the rest of my family enjoyed it as well. I really enjoyed showing them Parc Guell because it's my favorite place in the city and it's just such a relaxing place to walk around and take in all of the sights and notice new things every time.
After about two days of treccing around Barcelona, we hopped onto our ship the Voyager of the Seas to embark on our Mediterranean cruise adventure! I'll update on that week later.
