Sami's Nook: February 2009

While there are many tourist attractions in Spain, it, obviously has more to offer. But where that is, no one really knows. We, though, are the lucky ones who were able to discover the sites that no one knows about. Here are these great entities.

My first truck. Yeah, that's it. Bryanne and I have been having a contest who could find the first truck in Europe- and after about 1 month I found this.... truck. I won.

Have you read it? Okay i'll wait... Now? All I have to say is that it makes you wonder what our English to Spanish translations actually say.

Another one of those that you just need to read.

I was just happy to hear the inaguration- but there was a HUGE party at the International Hotel in Madrid which was a great plus.

While in Cuenca we noticed this statue on top of this "mountain." When night hit it was lit up and you could see it from ANYWHERE in the town. After we randomly started hiking we found ourselves at the top of this "mountain" with a gigantic statue of Jesus and Mary. The Catholic influence in Spain is everywhere.

It's even big in Spain.

Stork nests. They're huge and they're freaky.

Of course shoes.

This dog, without fail, tries to kill Bryanne and me daily. If he didn't have this gate I'm sure he would have succeeded by now.

SURPRISE!!!!! I know you can't believe your eyes right now, you are reading new words on Sami's blog. Your eyes are moving faster and faster as you try to take in the words afraid this is too good to be true. Ha, who am I kidding you are just skimming the words seeing if I have anything fun or important to say. You are more than welcome to keep reading but I promise nothing profound and the most fun I can show is through pictures.

Most recently we went on a week long trip in Southern Spain. Rainy and Beautiful. We started by going to windmills. You know the kind that Don Quixote thought were giants trying to attack him? We saw those and might I say they were in the PERFECT spot.

It's hard to tell but the wind was blowing so strong that we could barely breathe. Those mills had no problem turning in their day that's for sure.

After, we finally made our way to Granada. It was only about a five or six hour bus ride, nothing that an iPod, two comfortable seats, and a LONG nap couldn't fix. I think what we saw at Granada were probably my favorites sites in Spain thus far.

1-Graffiti. Bryanne and I have been trying to find the best graffiti Spain has to offer- since it has more graffiti to offer than most anything else (and it's free :D)

2- The Alhambra. It was for the King of Granada way back when... it was his fortress and a palace. If I were a king I would build a palace just the same- probably heated (but that's just a thought...)

These are pictures of the Alhambra from across the valley at night- you cannot even begin to see how beautiful it was lit up.

After a fabulously freezing day in the Alhambra (it's amazing that I enjoyed it and didn't just want to leave- that's my response to most anything cold... besides ice cream), we left for Cordoba. Here we found a beautiful mosque with a cathedral right in the middle of it. Yeah, so... um...interesting. I won't bother you with the history of how that came to be but let's just say I wish that we could have seen the mosque as it was originally built.

I forgot to mention this before but when we got there it rained. I don't mean a light sprinkle that we all ignored. It was literally lightning. thunder. a solid block of water falling on your head. It was close to enough to knock you out. We all got soaked as we tried to move our suitcases to the hotel and stay dry... oh did I say stay dry? We gave that up after about 2 seconds of the rainfall. But it was fun. The street flooded within seconds and the rain was there most of the night- at the same speed and power as when it first started to fall. (If you look at my shoulder in the picture you can see how wet i got -my backpack is the reason i had some dry spots on my jacket.)

Our final destination was Sevilla. Oh Sevilla Sevilla Sevilla!!! Imagine a mix of NYC with traditions everywhere. Flamanco. Bull fighting. A HUGE (like the world's 3rd or THE largest cathedral- depending on who you talk to) and a palace with BEAUTIFUL gardens, oh and who can forget shopping? Never me. Unfortunately. It was amazing- simply put.