Coming back to Spain after Christmas, I was desperate to go on another trip. Me and my friends decided that Granada would be perfect. We travelled by coach from Sevilla and arrived in Granada in time to have dinner. We were planning on doing a night out (two of my friends still went) but it was absolutely freezing compared to Huelva so some of us decided to have an early night.
We wanted to take full advantage of our only full day in Granada so we went for breakfast at ‘I Need Coffee’, a very modern and cool coffee shop. As bad as it is, whenever I go to a bigger city, I always try and find somewhere for breakfast/brunch that resembles a British café because I’m not the biggest fan of Spanish food (sorry Spain). Anyway, we explored the city centre, had a look in a few shops, bought some souvenirs and then headed towards the Catedral de Granada. Top tip: always bring your student card with you, it makes it so much easier to get student tickets. Thankfully the people at the desk were lovely and accepted me logging into my university account.
The cathedral was stunning! We spent about an hour walking around and listening to the audio information. I was never really interested in history when I was in school, but now I love learning as much as possible about the culture of wherever I visit. This was also a good opportunity to practice reading in Spanish as there were labels in front of all the artefacts and each chapel.
After this we returned to our Airbnb for a quick break before beginning a long, uphill walk to a viewpoint. From here we had a great view of the Alhambra, the mountains and the whole city. It was super busy when we go there so it took us a while to get a good spot to take photos.
The next day we had to get up early and leave our Airbnb to get to the Alhambra. Because you’re not allowed to take big bags around the Alhambra with you, we left out bags in lockers at ‘City Lockers’. We got 3 large lockers between the 6 of us which wasn’t too expensive and it meant we could enjoy our last few hours without carrying everything with us.
We bought our tickets for the Alhambra way in advance just because it sells out so quickly! And after visiting it, I can see why. Granada is extremely pedestrianised so it’s easy to walk from place to place. However, no one prepared me for how steep some of these walks would be. And just when I thought we had reached the Alhambra’s entrance, there was another, even steeper walk to do. Now, Granada is very cold so I was prepared with layers of clothing, but I definitely didn’t need them after that workout of a walk.
Eventually we made it to the actual entrance and started walking through the palace. The whole place was just incredible. The details of the arches in the courts, the patterns on the tiles and the images on the ceilings, it’s hard to find something that didn’t love. Because we went so early we didn’t have the problem of crowds making it hard for us to see everything. We had plenty of space to take everything in and take some good photos! After exploring the gardens, it was time for us to grab a quick lunch and head to the bus station, ready to go home.
Our time in Granada flew by but I feel like we really made the most of every second and saw so much of the city. There are many things I still want to experience in Granada so I will 100% be returning in the future.
Jess's year abroad blog 