Las Alpujarras

I actually went to the Alpujarras a long time ago, I've just been lazy about blogging. We went to Nerja, a beach, on this trip as well. We spent a day doing a 6 hour hike through the Alpujarras area of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was an hour drive to the hotel and the hiking spot from Granada. It was also only a two hour drive from these mountains to the beach. Granada's location is famous for allowing someone to go to the mountains and beach all in the same day. On a clear day, you can see the Mediterranean from the mountain tops. Unfortunately, it wasn't a clear day. Since Sarah and I are both from the University of Oklahoma and were wearing OU t-shirts, we felt the need to take the stereotypical pic for study abroad students from OU. Though it isn't a good picture, it is memories!

We went to the mountains during the fall so it was pretty to see the leaves change as the trail went through the forest. Unfortunately, I had terrible allergy problems on this trip which made it kind of miserable. It was really dusty and 60 students walking along a trail made it even more so. It was pretty though, so I'm glad I did it.

The Alpujarras is also a historic and very old region of Spain. The pueblos in the mountains have been there since the Moors came to the area and established them. While on the trail you may see leftover parts of presses or items of the agricultural livelihoods of the people in the mountains. Below is a picture of them.

The white pueblos can be seen along the trail. We walked through several. They made me feel like I was going back in time. Though Spain is a first world country, the homes here seem to lie outside of the stereotype of wealth. Many do not have doors and look dilapidated. It is beautiful, just in its own way. There were many times when rural Spain seemed like a different country than urban Spain.

I can't believe I actually saw a man herding mountain goats through the pueblo (village).

Each pueblo has a little church. These are all white pueblos I might add. 

After we walked through the one in the pictures above, we saw the next white pueblo and even the one after that while walking on the hiking trail.

The picture below shows what I mean by beautiful but dilapidated

My last picture is just of one of many waterfalls we saw while hiking through the forest. There are areas of the hike that were very dry, like my picture with Sarah. There are pictures like the one below which are very green with streams and waterfalls. There were also some areas where all the leaves were changing. Overall, the Alpujarras were varied and beautiful. Their pueblos seem like small, close-knit communities locked in the past.

London: Yay for English!:)

When I told my host mom we were going to London for four days, she acted disgusted and asked, "Why? You need to spend more time in Paris!" Women in Spain feel no qualms about giving you their opinion…on everything. Sarah and I were both like, WE DO NOT SPEAK FRENCH (my host mom does). I do want to see more of Paris, but we were like…YAY ENGLISH! Let me say that London felt a lot like the United States compared to France or Spain. After all, she is the mother country. In general, it seemed a unique blend of both old and modern. Many places in Europe feel antiquated and locked in the past, but London was very original in its mixture. All the technology was what we have in the US. That may seem weird to say, but the computers here in Granada are like the computers we had nearly ten years ago. I had a student in one of my English classes today (I teach classes for an internship) ask me if the technology was more advanced in the US. It was difficult to word my response in a way that didn't come off as snobby. Anyways, London was fun! And here are some pictures and stories of what I did. The picture above is of Westminster Palace (Is it incredibly idiotic that I didn't know Big Ben was a part of Westminster Palace? Sad, I know.) And below, another picture….the building is huge.

Aaaaand another picture…but notice King Richard the Lion Heart raising his sword below! Surely you remember Robin Hood;).  

Here is a picture of Sarah, Caitlin, and I. We went to London together. Caitlin met Sarah and I there.

So I got super excited when I saw this statue of Oliver Cromwell. In college I took a class called Tudor History and another class called the Idea of Freedom (in which there was a book called Inventing Freedom, which talks of him) and between the two Civil Wars in England over the King vs. Parliament and Protestantism vs. Catholicism are fascinating. Especially since those issues spilled over into the American Revolution.

Parliament Street! While looking at Westminster Palace we kept walking and saw the governmental buildings of London. I don't know where to input this comment in the blog, but I also saw Fleet Street and freaked out. My friends thought I was weird throughout this for my historical nerdiness. Fleet Street is the street where Bloody Mary (Mary I) held her public bonfires to burn protestants. When british people call cigarettes a "fag", the word comes from the wood used for those burnings. If someone brought a log to add to the fire of those to be burned alive (in order to purge them of their 'heresy'), the logs were called fags. The people who brought them received a special dispensation for their sins by engaging in such a 'pious' act. Anyways, such is the bloody history of Fleet Street. Now, it's just a bunch of stores on a normal street. But I did take a picture of the street sign (not much to look at so didn't post it). It's cool to me because my professor in Tudor History joked of the underwhelming nature of Fleet Street and how now it's just a sign. At the time, I never thought I'd see it.

So I started with Westminster because it was pretty, but really we did that the second day we went around London. The first day, stepping off out of the train station, you see this: St. Pancreas Station. I thought it was King's Cross, but no King's Cross is right next to it (they are hyphenated as a single destination for a lot of transportation). St. Pancreas is the international train station. However, it is the station used in the Harry Potter films as King's Cross (according to Sarah and Caitlin who were obsessed).

Buckingham Palace: to be honest, underwhelming. We didn't even know it was the palace when we saw it. We looked like idiots asking a british person where it was. It just looked like a governmental building. I am sure it's pretty to tour, but unfortunately it wasn't open during the season we were there. 

We bought tickets to the Mews and the Queen's Gallery. We thought that they were part of Buckingham Palace. No. The Queen's Gallery was in some normal side building. The art exhibit was on Georgian Royalty (the dynasty during the American Revolution). Disappointing since they should know all we (Americans) care about is the crazy one who used too much lead-based cutlery to eat. They didn't talk or have paintings of him, just his father and when crazy George was a boy. Lame.

The Royal Mews was okay, if you are a car person you'd probably love it. It has the horses, carriages, and cars that the Royal family uses. Below is the most…fancy of the royal carriages. It was neat, it's just that we paid like 30$ for those tickets and felt a little jipped.

Fish and chips. When in Rome right? Well I tried, I really did. Then I pulled a bone out of my mouth and I was done. Sarah and Caitlin glared at me a lot…but I was sorry. I just couldn't do it. But they liked theirs. So if you've always wanted to try it, I wouldn't be discouraged.

The Tower of London: My absolute favorite part. Sarah and Caitlin were bored to death (I was quite annoyed at their Harry Potter obsession though, so we were even). What are those red flowers below you might ask? Hundreds of thousands of poppies. Oh, and they aren't real. They were each individually hand-made using clay to represent the veterans who died in World War I. Quite an amazing site. We were lucky to get to see it since the flowers are for sale to raise funds for veteran services. 

Why was this my favorite part you may wonder? Actually you probably aren't wondering. The history:). I felt very…alone whenever I saw one of the biggest historical mysteries of all time and my friends didn't care at all. Below is a picture of the famous staircase where two princes were killed (or were they?) in the Tower of London by their evil uncle. He had locked them up while he was ruling as regent, but he wanted to be king. He claimed they disappeared, but many of the common people saw him as a murderer and hated him. Later on, construction to preserve the Tower was taking place and workers found the skeletons of two little boys underneath a staircase in Bloody Tower. Historians today still debate what happened, though I for one think he had them killed.

Below is one of the hundreds of engravings in the walls of White Tower. Queen Elizabeth was imprisoned here by her half sister, Mary I. Elizabeth's mother, the infamous Anne Boleyn, was also imprisoned here awaiting her execution. I wrote an essay in my Tudor History class on the Act of Treason (1534) which made it to where calling Henry VIII any bad names was grounds for execution. Anyways, he locked up many people he saw as potentially dangerous to his reputation. They and others covered the walls with their engravings. There are even some men who were captured as American Revolutionaries who made carvings on the wall. 

And of course, the Tower Bridge, which I did walk across.

Walking up the stares out of a Tube station to get to the London Eye….and using zoom...

This is a picture I took by Westminster Palace with the London Eye in the background.

Crossing the bridge...

Shazam! Well…yes it is lit up because they cancelled our appointment when we got there. So we went the next night.

The inside of St. James Cathedral, which was actually probably my favorite cathedral I've been inside. It still felt…religious. It still has services and people for you to talk to if you have questions. I didn't feel like it was only a museum. I know technically many catholic cathedrals, even Notre Dame, have services, but I felt different in this one.

Kensington Gardens (after I went to Hyde Park…I mean that one's in like every regency novel ever).

Still in the Kensington Gardens, but this is my last picture. I chose this one because I wish I had seen rural England. When we were taking the Chunnel back to Paris to fly back, I saw bits of the English countryside, and it was beautiful. There were rolling green hills like out of a movie. So though London is awesome, I wonder if the English countryside should get more credit than it does. In the city, the rainy weather can seem dreary. But in the countryside it seems…ethereal. All the sudden the stories of fairies and elves make sense. It seems…magical and wild.

Paris!

Paris was my favorite place I've visited in all of Europe. It is everything I had heard it to be and more. I was skeptical going there….but I was wrong. We were only there thursday night, friday, and until saturday afternoon. Which is long enough to know that I will want to come back someday and see it thoroughly. Below is a picture of one of the locks that is part of a famous tradition in paris. The tradition is for a couple to write their names onto a lock, lock it to this one bridge (which is now full) and throw the key into the Seine river below. Many a honeymooner has done this, so much so that one bridge is covered in locks and the tradition has moved on to other bridges. I think it is very romantic:).

Above is a picture of about half of the outside of Versailles from the front entrance. It was huge and overwhelming. I've never seen a building that big anywhere in Europe, but it is the biggest palace in the world after all.

If I remember right, the picture below is the room in which the monarchs stepped out onto the balcony to deal with the murderous mob of people below. The whole Reign of Terror bit for Luis XVI and Mary Antoinette. Notice that it is incredibly packed in all of these photos. Unfortunately, it was also stuffed with people who do not have the American notion of personal space. It was about 85% asian tourists, which was kind of surprising to me. The whole time I was like…BACK OFF. I would not recommend Versailles for anyone that has a tendency to get claustrophobic. I don't have that fear and I was stressed the entire time. Perhaps going not going on a weekend day (we went on friday) might help. The silver lining to that is that you feel like a bird set free when you get the gardens of Versailles.

Hall of mirrors. The famous room where the King and Queen of France met other dignitaries, hosted balls, and other important state events.

Versailles also has a museum inside of it as well. It was pretty cool, and significantly less crowded. 

Looking out over the Gardens of Versailles (It goes on for so long you cannot see it's end).

France (or at least Paris) has this awkward tendency to put random pieces of modern art alongside their historical works. It makes no sense and was awkward/laughable to me. 

Eiffel tower during the day. We actually only walked to the first floor (lame I know) but there was a restaurant there and we were tempted. Below is one of the best meals I've ever had in my entire life: ox cheeks. Yes, ox cheeks. To be more specific, ox cheeks with this ham/mushroom sauce on top and mashed potatoes. It was amazing. In Paris, we could not find a cheap restaurant. Though you may pay thirty dollars for a glass of wine and your meal, it is awesome. They don't really give cheap options. Like the night before I could choose duck, some sort of seafood, and different types of steak. When they go out, they must go all out I guess. I loved the food in Paris! The wine was great too. Just be prepared to pay for it;)

Walking through a garden trying to find the Louvre. At the time, I didn't know the building was part of the Louvre.

Ah the Mona Lisa. I did take a selfie with it, but it didn't look good so I didn't post it. We only actually saw 25% of the Louvre (after 6 pm it's free for students…but we only had like an hour and a half since the river cruise was at 8:15). I would love to go back and see it all someday.

A view of the sunset from a window.

The Venus (something). It's the other really famous piece of art housed in the Louvre.

I'm pretty proud of this picture. When we were exiting the Louvre, this is what we walked out to.

That night we took a night cruise along the Seine River. It is the "city of lights" after all. Paris is beautiful at night. Below are some pictures of Notre Dame.

And one of the best things to see in all of Paris, the light show of the Eiffel Tower at night. I tried to post a video, but it didn't work:(. If you see the Eiffel Tower, you have to see it at night. It is breathtaking, almost to the point of tears. It's magical, like Disney World for adults.

I'll post some pictures of London soon, but I'm pretty busy this week with a project, essays, and an internship I start tomorrow!