Guest blogger: guess who?

Palabra del día: Madre
Translation: Mother
In honor of my mom, since we just got to spend a fantastic week and a half together exploring southern Spain.

Comida del día: Spanish spinach and chickpeas
Mom and I cooked this dish for dinner one night for my housemates and other friends, and it was a big hit.  It's my new favorite recipe: easy, simple, nutricious and delicious.  I used this recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, with the idea that I might have more luck with an American recipe after the almost disaster with the lentils.  I was also a bit lazy and skipped the step that says to put it in the oven - I just left it on the stove for a bit longer and it turned out great.  Enjoy, or as they say in Spain, ¡que te aprovechas!

Link to recipe: http://www.biggirlssmallkitchen.com/2009/05/big-girls-global-kitchens-spain.html

Foto del día: Me, Mom and the Alhambra.  What could be better?

And now to introduce our guest blogger: mi madre!  I loved reading about her experience as an informed tourist in the city I've been living in for 7.5 months now and hearing what she thinks about my life here, and I'm sure you will too.

Old…and Young in Granada

What a fantastic opportunity I had to visit and explore Granada and parts of southern Spain with Sarah.  There is something to be said for experiencing life in a new city via those who live there – you see things differently than you would as a tourist, you visit hidden areas, and you experience life as a resident. I came away from my ten days in southern Spain with a renewed appreciation of why Sarah decided to stay the year.

Granada:

As clichéd as it seems, one of the first things that struck me about Granada is how old it is.  On my first afternoon in Granada, we walked along Paseo de los Tristes, gradually climbing to Carmen de la Victoria (a garden owned by the University of Granada) and then to the San Nicolas viewpoint to catch my first views of the Alhambra, the magnificent Moorish castle built in the middle ages, still creating an imposing feeling centuries later. The Alhambra, along with the Cathedral in the center of Granada with its splendid Renaissance architecture; the Madraza – the first Arab university in Granada in the mid-1300s with a stunning prayer hall; and the up-and-down of the Albaycin hill area provide anchoring points for the city today.  As you walk you face centuries-old history, relics of religious conflict, and magnificent architecture reflecting the city’s past.  Suddenly, Boston no longer feels old, charming or laden with history!

During my four days reserved for seeing Granada, I had the pleasure of mixing traditional tourist attractions with some hidden treasures recommended by Sarah. Everyone who passes through Granada visits the Alhambra and it is not to be missed; a morning spent wandering through the castle, gardens and watchtower allows you to envision what life was like centuries ago. This magnificent and majestic structure, with all its grandeur, can be seen from so many vantage points throughout the city.

Some other highlights included:

• A walk through the Realejo neighborhood where Sarah lived last semester with her host family. We saw great graffiti art and views of the Alhambra from “the other side”, culminating in a two-hour coffee with Sarah’s host-mom, Sole, during which Sarah so ably translated from English to Spanish and Spanish to English that I decided she is fluent in Spanish! Upon leaving her host-mom’s house, we went to Sarah’s favorite bakery that produces fresh-baked and warm croissants, empanadas and other pastries every evening between 5pm and 8pm – yum!

Beautiful apple tart that Sole prepared for us.

• A tour of Manuel de Falla’s house (Spain’s most famous early 20^th century composer), where Sarah was given the opportunity to play his piano – so cool!

• An afternoon of pampering at the Arab baths where we went from the cool to the warm to the hot rooms/water, and fit in a massage as well. Skin so soft days later! I already knew about the different rooms in the baths and the traditional openings in the ceilings, as we had visited the old baths during our wanderings – Sarah’s Islamic architecture class came in handy.

• A private tour of the Madraza, the old Arab university built in the 1300s, with a cobblestone street from the 1100s displayed as part of an archeological find.

• The Cathedral, Royal Chapel and Museum complete with the tombs of Isabel and Ferdinand, the Bib Rambla plaza, the corral de carbon (old silk storage area), and Lorca’s garden.

• A wonderful hike up to Sacromonte with incredible views of the entire area including the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains.

• The food, because you cannot be with Sarah for more than a day without focusing on food! She made sure that I tried: many different tapas places, churros con chocolate (fried dough dipped in warm chocolate), ice cream at Los Italianos (the famous gelato store in Granada) where I identified the previously unidentifiable flavor in her favorite ice cream cake/cone as orange, pastries from her favorite bakery, and tomatoes on toast for breakfast. We had good meals in several different restaurants including lunch at a Moroccan teteria, and coffee at a bookstore/cafe.

Moroccan food and tea in a teteria.

Sarah assured me that the highlight of my visit would be her band concert, which I joked about before I left for Spain. As it turns out, she was right! The Asociacion Musical San Isidro de Armilla brings together high school and university students and adults to form a vibrant and talented community band, based in Armilla, just a bit outside of Granada. Their focus this winter and spring was to prepare the marches for Semana Santa, holy week (beginning on Sunday, April 13), during which they will play and march in religious processionals, six to eight hours a day, most days of the week. Knowing nothing about religious processionals and marches, I expected the typical marches associated with bands in the United States. But, these marches are nothing like that but rather are passionate and emotional marches that I am sure will be augmented with even more feeling when coupled with processionals during Semana Santa. I was treated to an afternoon of tapas and drinks with some of the band members; they often get together after performances or practice to hang with their friends and relax. Antonio, one of the band members, told me that relaxing with family and friends is so important that he cannot imagine not doing it, regardless of what else is going on in his life. Ah, the Spanish lifestyle!

Tapas with some members of the band after the concert. 

The second highlight of my visit was meeting Sarah’s friends and roommates.  And this is where the “young” of the blog post title comes in. In an earlier post, Sarah described the “fun and games in the party piso”; and yes, indeed, that’s what happens in Sarah’s apartment with Sarah, Rebecca (an IES student who also stayed for the year), Alberto and Nabil as roommates; and often joined by Annie and Silvia (two other IES students who stayed for the year), and Esmerelda and Mariam. It doesn’t look like anyone does much work but they sure are having fun!  Sarah made a great dinner one evening (a Spanish chickpea, spinach and tomato dish) and we hung out and chatted in Spanish and English (for my sake).

Sarah is an anomaly in Granada, and that’s apparent pretty quickly. On top of being an American (and American students are pretty easy to pick out even in this city of 80,000 students), she truly doesn’t look like she belongs – her coloring is wrong (there are few light-haired, fair-skinned Spanish people in Granada); she spells her name with an “h” at the end which no one understands because every letter in Spanish makes a sound (when she tells people that her name is Sarah with an “h”, it comes back Sarha); and she puts up with endless teasing (especially from her band friends) about being a vegetarian in the land of jamón. But, Sarah has a great attitude about sharing who she is with her new friends.

Other Cities in Southern Spain:

We spent a few days in Sevilla and Cordoba, both of which I loved. In Sevilla, we walked along a beautiful river and took a rowboat out for a spin in a park (thank goodness Sarah could steer, thanks to her recent rowboat experiences in Madrid), were impressed by the cathedral (wow!) and the Alcazar castle with incredible gardens, and saw a traditional flamenco show (ole!). 

Next to the Granada section of the Plaza de España in Sevilla.

Traditional flamenco show

In Cordoba, we found the Cathedral/mosque to be incredible with the cathedral having its own delineated space within the mosque, and the bridge over the river was beautiful.  In both Sevilla and Cordoba, we did walking tours of the Jewish areas and it was truly sobering to realize that the entire vibrant and thriving Jewish population of Spain was obliterated during the Inquisition; the statue of Maimonides in Cordoba is a wry reminder that the most important Jewish philosopher of all times lived in a city with little religious tolerance or respect. In our wanderings through southern Spain, I was haunted by the obliteration of the Jews; you know that it happened, but actually seeing where it happened provokes a sobering reaction; there is one synagogue left in Cordoba and two in Toledo (Sarah has seen all three) from the time when Jews lived in those areas.

Maimonedes statue in Cordoba

We took  a two-day trip to Nerja, a beach community close to Malaga, and had a wonderful time walking along the beach, eating paella at a restaurant on the beach and enjoying warm weather. We agreed that Nerja is probably awful in the summer, overrun with tourists from England, and not a particularly nice beach when crowded. Two side trips to the Nerja caves and the hill town of Frigiliana were more-than-pleasant surprises – much better than we anticipated and we highly recommend them, especially Frigiliana which has beautiful views throughout the town.

View of the Nerja ocean.

View of the hill town Frigiliana

Sarah kept asking me whether Granada was my favorite city of the trip. How could it not be with Sarah sharing it with me? My time in Andalucía was so special thanks to my wonderful daughter and guide sharing her excitement and passion for Spain, and especially for Granada. I am grateful that we had this time together. One good time produces another, and we are already planning our next adventure!