A weekend in Cordoba

I can't remember when the last time I blogged was, but I think it was a while ago.  Since then I have started my own mini series of video blogs on Youtube, they're all on language based topics and you can find my channel here. 

This weekend I went to Cordoba for a few days with Jack and Erin.  Wouldn't usually mention the bus journey but I'm going to because we got a free bottle of water, packet of peanuts and a pastry as well as extra comfy chairs and a film to watch!  Once we actually arrived in Cordoba however we met Erin off of her train and got a taxi to the hostel on the basis that we didn't really know where we were going. The hostel was very nice and just what we needed for the weekend.  We spent Friday afternoon eating, wandering round and then eating some more!  On Saturday we went to the Mezquita, the "must-see" attraction in Cordoba, it's a lovely building and well worth your money to take a look round if you're there.  From there we headed to the Alcazar which has some lovely gardens as well as a tower you can climb to see out over the city.  It was a really hot day so we took this opportunity to sit in the gardens for a bit to catch the sun.  We came across a cheap Chinese for lunch which was really nice, and good for the price too.  We also came across a market stall that sold loads of flags, we got some for LULangS, Jack got a Venezuelan flag just for the sheer hell of it and Erin got a Catalan flag, partly because she'd been looking for one for ages and partly because she found it really funny that she could buy one in Andalucia! After this we weren't really sure what to do with ourselves so we went and sat on the terrace at the hostel for a bit and chilled in the sun once again.  In the evening we did a lot more wandering and then gave up on being good and cultural and had kebab for dinner...  Our bus wasn't until 2 on Sunday but as we had our bags with us we didn't really want to do too much.  We ended up walking towards the bus station and stopping every 5 minutes for a 30 minute break, I'm not even exaggerating!  That wasted away the morning quite well and before we knew it we were on the bus and Granada bound, leaving Erin soaking up the sun whilst she did some work as her train wasn't until a lot later.  I'm in the process of loading my million photos up onto Flickr so if you feel like taking a look they'll be there for you in a bit.

This week I have 4 days of classes (although if I overheard a conversation correctly it may even be 3...) before I go to Seville with Erin on Friday until Sunday.  Monday and Tuesday are fiesta here so there are no classes, meaning just 2 days of classes for me next week and then my parents and my Nana arrive on Sunday for the week!  I'll be back with an update for you after Seville, I doubt anything interesting will happen before then.

A tiring touristy weekend.

This weekend has been a touristy one as Erin came to visit Granada for a few days.  On Thursday I just had one class to go to before going to meet Erin from the bus, I rather unenthusiastically dragged myself up the hill and into the classroom just for the teacher to turn up and tell us that there would be no class.  As you can imagine I was not impressed, not just because I'd got myself up there but also because next week we are missing a class because of a strike and I could really do with the lesson time for Latin if I am going to stand half a chance in the exam.  Still, there is nothing I can do about it, ♫ Que sera sera ♫ and all that, so off I went back down the hill to the flat.  When Erin arrived things were not quite as straight forward as they could've been, the internet says that the bus stop is at Triunfo Gardens so logically that is where I was waiting when I received a text from Erin telling me she had just got off of the bus, yet she was no where to be seen.  Some confusion and rough directions later and we found each other after the bus had quite helpfully dropped her off down the road, not even in sight of the gardens!  With the initial confusion over we spent the afternoon having a wander round the city, and even went inside the cathedral which I'd still not done.  We ate in a really nice restaurant where the food was really moorish (Sorry, I think I have spent too much time around Jack and his terrible puns, I won't do it again...), I had a lovely cous cous dish with vegetables and we also had some arabic tea afterwards too.

Friday brought with it a trip up into the Sierra Nevada.  I didn't really know what to expect but knew that I should make the most of my chance to go up into the snowy mountains and enjoy the views before it all melted away.  The bus ride is only 45 minutes and cost us less than 10 euros for the return which was really reasonable.  The views on the bus journey are amazing and every time you think that you couldn't possibly be driving any higher you turn another corner and up you climb a bit more.  We were prepared for the cold with hats, scarves, gloves, hoodies and gillets but it wasn't as cold up there as we'd been expecting.  In fact we sat outside a bar drinking cold drinks and watching the ice melt before our eyes.  Being so warm and sunny yet surrounded by snow was more than a little surreal I must say!  Whilst we were there we took the cable car up higher, we think it was around 8200ft, to really make the most of it.  It was quite expensive at 16.50 each but worth it to appreciate the views up there, we'd been walking round the bottom of the resort which was absolutely dead, we soon discovered it was because they were all at the next stage up, there were loads of people!  After another sit down with a drink in the sun we headed back down to have some lunch before getting on the bus again.  In the evening we met up with the others to go out for tapas, we tried the Chinese tapas to start off with which was a strange concept but the food was good and that was all that mattered!  The last place we went to had a huge range of tapas to chose from and we had some really good fajitas, will certainly be going there again.

On Saturday we woke up to the rather disappointing sight of clouds and everything looking generally grey but this actually turned out to our advantage because although it rained a little it made our day a lot easier.  We walked (or more accurately climbed) up to the Alhambra where we queued, in order to queue, in order to just queue again! You'd think we were in England, we like queuing there, it's our national sport, but the Spanish don't generally like to partake in such an activity!  Despite all the queuing we had a really good time, but we did an awful lot of walking and consequently by the end of the evening after we'd been out my feet were in no fit state to walk home and we ended up getting a taxi- stupid blisters!  We'd not eaten anything for lunch before we went into the Alhambra and so were rather hungry when we eventually caved in to the temptation of buying a packet of gullible tourist priced biscuits from a stall, half a packet is a nutritious lunch right?!  We did eventually eat again when we got back into town and went for tapas, including another visit to the Chinese tapas place.  In the evening we went to Paddys with the others for a few drinks, finally arriving back at the flat in time to change the clocks and see an hour of our sleep for the night go flying out of the window...

Today I've not done much, in fact I don't really think I've done anything.  I walked to the bus stop (that this time actually was at Truinfo Gardens) to say goodbye to Erin and then headed back to the flat where I have successfully done one load of washing, written this blog and put my photos on facebook.  For those of you that want to see my photos from the weekend I've put them all (or at least am in the process of...)on flickr as opposed to Facebook where I have only uploaded half.

This week is going to be a short one as the Spanish are going on general strike on Thursday so I won't have my classes.  I do have an exam on Wednesday though which I have no clue about the content so that should be rather interesting.  Oh well!  Just 3 days of classes to get through before a few days off and then off on holiday for a week!  I can't wait now, it should be really good.  As well as looking forward to seeing my friends (obviously) I'm really looking forward to getting to see a Spanish Easter parade on Maundey Thursday.  At the end of this week I'll be half way through my classes out here in Granada and a third of the way through my time in Spain.  6 weeks down and 12 to go!

Ah, got to love a good puente.

Last week finished off without to much excitement really, I've now settled on History of Women, Spanish Dialectology, Linguistics of Teaching Foreign Languages and Introduction to Latin, so long as I can register for them all this week then that's me set for the year.  I'm finding them all interesting and actually enjoying what I am learning which is more than I can say for the courses I did in Brussels.  That's the advantage of being here, I've got so much choice!

This week I have also written an article for Third Year Abroad about Granada which is intended to help people that want to come here next year, I did one about Brussels too and they can be found here.

For those of you that don't know what a puente is it's basically an excuse for the Spanish to take another day off of work/class etc!  Puente literally means bridge, and that is because if a holiday falls on a Tuesday they generally choose to take Monday off too.  Today is Andalucia day, not that you'd know it, in a very un-Spanish style nothing has actually happened to mark the day other than everything being closed.

What have I done with this lovely 5 day weekend then?  I have to be honest and tell you I've not actually done all that much!  On Friday after having spent the morning inside I went for a wander with Jack, we didn't go anywhere in particular but we did stop for a drink and end up with one of the stranger tapas dishes I've had, literally a fish.  I have no objections to fish at all, in fact I really like sea food so the fact that my food was looking at me didn't really bother me, I just can't help but think it was a bit of a strange tapas dish though!

On Saturday I went out with Aimee, Michael and Jack for another walk, this time up into the hills of the Albyzin where Aimee lives to appreciate the great views as well as while away a couple of hours at a bar where we once again were provided with whole fish for tapas, maybe it's not as unusual as I'd thought it was.

Sunday was a nothing day, I went through my notes from all my classes this week to try and get some sort of understanding of what I had supposedly learnt!  I think it helped... I hope it did because one of my classes is split into 4 parts which means I actually have a test next week that counts towards my end result for that course, bit scary this early on!

Monday was, to be honest, a fail of epic proportions... we had decided to make the most of the weekend and do something worthwhile and thought we should head up into the Sierra Nevada to appreciate the views.  This would've been a great idea, if we had booked our bus tickets.  Unfortunately we turned up at 9.30am just to find there was only one seat left on the bus, and for 6 of us that wasn't going to work.  We decided to make the most of actually being up and getting there by having a coffee in the bus station cafe, how exciting are we?!  After going back to the flat and realising nothing productive was going to get done I went to the shop to stock up on food etc and then went out for a wander again.  We went up to the monastry near the uni as well as up a hill that seemed to head to no where (it didn't, we just turned around and went back down) and then a lap around part of the city.  Tapas called yet again, but this time it was bread and meat followed by fried squid.

Which leaves me with today, and if I'm honest I'm not really sure what on earth I have spent my day doing!  I've read through my French essay for Lancaster and marked on the corrections I want to make but that can't have taken me all this time surely?!

Well, it's a hard life for an Erasmus student so tomorrow I have to head back to classes again, but don't feel too sorry for me now will you, I may have 6 straight hours of classes tomorrow from 8.30am but I only have 1 class on Thursday and then I'm done for the weekend again!  Maybe next weekend I'll actually get some of my dissertation done like I'd intended to do today...?

I have a feeling Granada is going to be hard work...

So over the last 2 days I've been to the first lesson of all my courses, the way the Granada timetable works it means that Monday and Wednesday are the same and Tuesday and Thursday are the same.  I'm taking History of Women, Universal History of the Modern World, Introduction to Latin and a course on Spanish Dialect.  They all look like they are going to be pretty hard work and unlike in Brussels where I was in classes for just Erasmus students, except for my Law class, I am in classes with Spanish students studying for their degree in the subject, so it's harder to understand and certainly of a higher level.  I don't have to do well for Lancaster but I'd like to do OK so I think some effort is going to be required.  Mental effort isn't the only sort kind of effort I'm having to put in though, exercise features fairly high on the list.  Yes, I am living only 10-15 minutes away from the University, but the problem is the walk is entirely uphill, we're not talking a small hill either by any means.  Walking this at 8.30 in the morning twice a week is certainly not a pleasure, especially as on 2 days I have to descend said hill and re-mount (is that a word...?) it about an hour later.  Currently my legs are screaming out at me to stop, but seeing as I really don't have another option I am going to have to "man up" and get used to it, pronto!  At least I only have a 4 day week, so Fridays will be spent with the intention of moving as little as possible!

Next Tuesday is Andalucia Day, I'm not sure if anything special happens around here, other than everything grinding to a halt I presume, but what I do know is that the Spanish love their puentes (which means bridges) meaning that no only do we get Tuesday off but to bridge the gap between the weekend and the festival we get Monday off too!  I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with a 5 day weekend though, it's not as great as it seems, at home I'd happily do nothing for a few days but here I get easily bored and that just makes me miss home even more.  Shall have to try and make some plans for the time I guess!

I know I shouldn't wish away time, but now she has booked her flights I am really looking forward to Erin visiting in March, it's the first of the list of things that I'm up to and it gives me something to look forward to.  Especially as 3 or 4 of my best friends in Lancaster are celebrating 21st birthdays in March so I know I'll be missing out on all of that.  Everything I've planned basically happens in the middle of my time here, I've got nothing for the first month-ish and nothing in the last 6 weeks other than my exams.  Anyone fancy a holiday in Granada in March or May/June?!

In some ways it is fairly depressing and in others quite exciting that I'm already having to think about next year.  The depressing one is that I've started my translation for my dissertation, in the hopes that it'll give me a good start when I get back in September.  The exciting one is that I'm running for President of the Languages society at Uni, I've had to send a video of my speech though, I'm not going back to England for that funnily enough!  I'll let you know how that goes when I know, I think it's a good few weeks away yet though.

I think I've probably bored you with enough of my updates now, time to go and cook something at least vaguely edible for tea and probably have a shower to avoid getting up at 6.30 tomorrow morning! Adios :)

Lots of walking, lovely tapas and a new French flatmate.

After arriving on Monday and getting moved into my flat nice and quickly I have spent the last few days getting to know Granada as well as shopping for bits and pieces and making my room feel more homely.  Mum and I have done loads of walking and I reckon I've pretty much got to grips with where things are, I've put up a map of Granada on my wall in the hopes that I'll some how just magically absorb it and instantly know where I am, if only things worked like that, a bit like the theory of sleeping with a dictionary under the pillow, although I must say I have been tempted to try it!

Mum left yesterday after we'd spent our last day doing yet more walking (we decided to go up the hill to the Uni, no need for a gym membership with that walk every day, usually more than once...) as well as having a nice meal up by the Alhambra.  Saying goodbye was hard as it always is but I know she'll be back out again in less than 3 months and I have plenty of other things to look forward to before then.

Today I had a meeting at the Uni in the morning, it wasn't particularly exciting so I won't bore you with any details.  Later in the afternoon I met with Jack, Aimee and Michael for a wander around the city.  This short wander turned into a rather long walk when we decided to head up to Albyzin to some tapas bars.  We never did find them, to cut a long story short we walked up hill a long way and then back down again but it was through a very pretty part of the city so I'm not complaining.  When we got back to the bottom we had a drink, tapas and some more food in a street literally off of one of the main streets we'd started on!  We may not have achieved quite what we'd intended but it was a nice walk and a good way of using up a few hours whilst we can, this time next week we will have started classes.  We've decided that we'll try again next week and head up for a wander round where near Amiee lives as apparently there are some really good views, which there should be considering the climb to get there!

When I got back tonight I discovered that I have a new flat mate, and she is French.  I think I have already spoken more French with her than I did with my flat mate in Brussels the whole time I was there!  She doesn't speak much Spanish or English so this is the best way for us to communicate, good for me as I really need the practise, I shall make the most of it before she realises she is in Spain and so should really have a go at Spanish a bit more!

Tomorrow brings another wander in town and then we are going out for tapas in the evening so we can say we have been nice and cultural.  Maybe on Sunday I'll get around to looking at my translation for my dissertation?

A weekend in Luxembourg- we did a lot of walking!

Walking.  This seems to have been the theme of our weekend, and don't get me wrong, I enjoy wandering round and discovering places but I have a limit, and I think my legs have found it this weekend as they are no longer functioning at full capacity I must say....

The journey to Luxembourg city from here isn't too bad, just over 3 hours on the train.  It all went swimmingly, until the little screen on the train started saying "Terminus Arlon" (a town in Belgium...) and we started worrying just a little!  Luckily it must have meant that Arlon was the last stop in Belgium as the train soon continued onto Luxembourg.  Phew!  We arrived in a rather cold Luxembourg in the early afternoon and headed off to the hotel to dump our bags.  After filling in a form that seemed to want to know everything but my inside leg measurement we got into our room.  We decided that the best thing for us to do first would be to go to the tourist information centre to get ourselves a map (as you will later learn it obviously wasn't good enough...).  Seeing as it was still mid-afternoon we wanted to wander over to the European area and see everything over there and it made sense to get it over and done with first as it was on the other side of the city.  So off we went, in the direction that according to our map and the signposts would lead us to the area with all the EU institutions in it.  After a while we were faced with a long path, leading uphill, through the trees.  For some reason this didn't strike us as odd, I just remarked that they must send the tourists the scenic route as presumably all the people that work in the EU institutions don't walk this way!  So up we went...it didn't take too much longer for us to realise that we clearly weren't going to get there that night.  The problem was this being abound 4.30-5pm in November it was starting to get dark and we were on a rough path, through the woods and round an old fort, with no lights.  Brilliant.  The choice being either to turn back where we'd come- hardly a short distance, or continue we decided to march onwards.  Eventually we ended up at what you could loosely term as civilization.  I hesitate in calling it this as there seemed to be no people, shops or anything of the sort.  By now it was too late to be heading for the EU stuff and about time to be searching for food.  Problem.  Luxembourg is basically on 2 levels, the high town and the low town.  They aren't very well linked-other than by a great many stairs and you'll have a job locating them.  So this is how we spent a large part of our first evening in Luxembourg, trying to "escape" the Ville Basse and get back where human life could be found.  We managed this - via an epic flight of stairs and a series of rather steep hills.  Nice relaxing welcome to Luxembourg....  Food was soon located, and you know you're in a posh expensive restaurant when they take your coats and give you some pea-mousse thing whilst you look at the menu.  It was a fish restaurant and all the food looked (and tasted) very nice.  We did feel a bit like (bad pun coming....) fish out of water though as we were most certainly the youngest people in there.

Saturday-
On Saturday we had to head to the European area, after all the mess of the night before we had worked out where we'd gone wrong and how we'd ended up underneath the bridge we'd actually wanted to be crossing.  As it turns out it is probably for the best that we'd not made it there the previous night as there was a lot to see, it took us a good hour or so to walk round and wouldn't have been so good in the dark.  The geek in me wants to go and see the rest of it in Strasbourg now seeing as I've seen the European Commission and all the other bits here and now (here comes the list...) the European Investment Bank, European Court of Justice, European Court of Auditors and the European Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg.  I'm pretty sure we also saw where the main translation centre is too.  I've been looking into all the types of translation jobs they need in the EU, I'd love to translate for the Court of Justice but that would involve some form of Legal qualification which I don't have, well I can dream can't I?

After this we did a hell of a lot more walking!  I've put some photos on Facebook but for those of you not on there I'm about to stick them on Flickr too so I'll give you the link, just give me a chance to get them up there.

2 observations about transport in Luxembourg- there are loads and loads of Audis, especially in the European area where at least I'd say 1 in 3 cars were Audis.  Also Luxembourg, despite being tiny seems to be the European Capital of busses or something, there were hundreds of them, often with the very useful destination on the front of "Luxembourg".

After exhausting all the views and monuments of the city, writing postcards and drinking expensive (but very nice) coffee we went to the restaurant next to the one we'd been to the night before.  Whilst we were looking at the menu outside the waiter from the other restaurant came past and said hi, 2 young female students were probably a rare occurrence for that place, must've been easily recognisable or something!  When we were inside we were offered the English menu and caused some confusion when we asked for the French, and one of the waiters clearly wasn't sure as he insisted on speaking to us in English each time, although the others did at least stick to the French.  When we ordered the waiter asked me if I was sure that was what I wanted, did I know what it was?  I thought I did having read the English version of the menu outside but evidentially it was a different thing entirely.  What I was ordering, the internet now tells me, was part of a pigs large intestine.... yuuummmmm :S  I'm glad I didn't go for that in the end then...  As the exciting, party-animal, Erasmus students we are, we then returned to the hotel, got into our PJs and watched Danse avec les Stars.....

Sunday- To round off our trip we headed to the Museum of the History of Luxembourg City, presuming that the museum would be some what relative to the size of the city itself, it was surprisingly big though but a nice way to spend our last morning before heading back to the station and returning to Brussels.

I know I've already told you how much we walked, but seriously, my legs really really ache now.  I've had my exercise for the week.  Maybe I don't need to climb the stairs every day?!

My Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bexnobes/