A is for Alhambra. B is for Bocadillo.

This morning we got to sleep in a little bit more than usual. Breakfast wasn’t served until 9! This was lucky for some of the AIFS kids because they didn’t get back from the disco until 5:15 this morning! Crazy kids. Anyway, after breakfast we grabbed our bocadillos from Scarlet and headed towards Plaza Nueva to meet up with the rest of the group. Paula then led us up to the Alhambra for our tours. The tour lasted about 2 ½ hours, and it was REALLY cool. My group’s guide was named Robert, and he was super funny and very informative…I creeped a picture of him preaching to us about the Sultan’s summer house…check it out on Flickr sometime later today. We walked all throughout the palace and gardens. There were SO many photo ops…I think Robert started getting frustrated that we all kept stopping to take so many pictures! Haha. My favorite part was the gardens by the Sultan’s summer house. There were tall, tall bushes that were carved into arches to make a maze. It really reminded me of the 4th Harry Potter movie when they’re in the final Tri-Wizard tournament challenge (if you’ve forgotten this part, heaven forbid, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq1JxO9CnYA). The views from the towers, and just walking along the side of the palace were amazing. Every picture I took looked like it came out of a travel brochure. And I’m not even that great of a photographer.

After the tour we were left on our own to find our way back. It is SUPER close to everything, so it wasn’t hard. We found a nice bench and ate our bocadillos…which were HUGE pieces of baguette-like bread with about 2 slices of thin salami. Needless to say I needed something to drink after that. Instead, I grabbed a gelato. It was really exciting because I found a new flavor of gelato that I like! It’s called Roché and it’s made out of those Ferrero Rocher candies. I might have to go back for more tonight.

…Well it’s after “dinner” now. It’s actually 10:50 and we just got done eating our second bocadillo of the day. Apparently on Saturdays, Scarlet doesn’t want to stay to make us food, so we just pick up bocadillos. Luckily they were different than the ones we had earlier! These ones had tortillas in them (thick potato pancake-type things). So it was bread and potatoes…two of the driest things possible. HOWEVER there was a mix-up, and we didn’t even get them until almost 10. Apparently one of the girls went down around 9 (when dinner usually starts) and told Juanita, one of the ladies, that we didn’t want them…for some reason. SO when we were all waiting out in the lobby, she didn’t give us any until we actually asked. Ugh. Food is difficult on the weekends. Saturdays every store closes after siesta…so around 3 or 4. It is impossible to get something to eat, especially since our kitchen isn’t open either! I guess that’s a lesson, so we’ll have to all stock up on food from our nearby 24 hour store!

I watched more TV today…a little bit more Disney Channel and some CNN. Yup, I’m progressing, haha. Hopefully I’ll understand it ALL by the time I leave!
Time for tapas! Adios!
M