The first weekend trip of the semester was this weekend. The bus ride was three hours and was our first time driving in the country side. I noticed that much of the landscape I was used to from past travels is very much modernized. Many of the run down ruins of old houses and ranches that used to be seen are now covered up by newer buildings or removed. There are many projects being built like apartments and bridges though a few have been temporarily abandoned. We were very excited to see mountains (at least I was since all we have in Wisconsin is Rib Mountain and it's not technically a mountain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rib_Mountain ). It was great having a geologist to talk to (Luke) about the mountains. Grenada itself is a beautiful city, our first stop was the hotel where we then returned to the bus and rode to Alhambra. My camera decided to stop reading the card so there are none of Alhambra this time around (I have been there before). Something that was not there before was the lion fountains, I had others take pictures of them for me since I was unable to. The throne room was an amazing place where Isabella gave Columbus boats to reach Asia by going across the Atlantic. Also in Grenada is "La Capilla Real" where Fernando and Isabella are buried. No pictures were allowed so I only have a few blurry ones. After a hike on Saturday to to see the gypsy neighborhood and the caves where they lived Donelle, Liz, Hannah and I went to explore the river and ended up going on the other side of the valley where the Alhambra was seated. After climbing up a road we wandered along a path where other hikers were visible. on our way we noticed paths leading up the mountains but they were of rough terrain and steep. So naturally I had to explore them. These paths led to actual gypsy caves (none were occupied when we were there) and there we saw some furniture scattered about in these crevices on the side. The view from higher up was amazing.
As for the social part of this trip I definitely got to know Hannah, Donelle, Gretchen, and Liz better since we all spent most of the visit in each other's company. The fish in a tank joke was a success in my eyes even though Liz in her jolly mood didn't laugh (thanks Hannah for finding my joke funny). As for the experience of the others I'm sure a thing or two was learned about drinking and impressions. Let's hope that kind of thing doesn't happen to us again, especially in Morocco.

(for those interested; here is the wikepedia page of Alhambra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra)

 We played many games of chess until Donelle finally crushed me.

 This guy was driving backwards and downhill while carrying heavy objects. It made your heart skip a beat until you realized he actually was in control.

 We went down this little path and found rosemary. We had our "leaf lady" deterrent. Most of the pictures I took were with Donelle's camera.

 This car is from Madrid I think. I figured I'd post a license plate so people could see what they looked like out of the States. If I should take this down message me personally (I'm not notified of the comments on the blog, or at least not that I'm aware of)

 One of the gypsy neighborhood "caves"

 Gypsy wedding.

 Donelle and Grady enjoying the view.

 The view.

 I found a map!

 Liz and Alhambra.

 This is taken from one of the many paths on the mountain side that I scampered up. In front is Hannah followed by Donelle and Liz in the back.

 Tessa and Britini at the top of the gypsy neighborhood. Behind them is a church where we saw the gypsy couple go into. the couple had been walking around the neighborhood.

 This here is the wall opposite the Alhambra and where the gypsy neighborhood was.

 One gypsy cave.

 This was a little public transportation device. It was fully electric I think.

 Every frozen yogurt place has a funny name. This one was especially funny to me for reasons related to an inside joke among my Platteville friends.

 The city buses are Mercedes-Benz, Granada also has 10 new buses that are of double length it would seem.

 On our wanderings we encountered this fine fellow who we keep trying to prove wrong (in hopes of easier interstellar colonization).

 This is the front end of a typical city bus in Spain. The ones in Seville and Granada are both red while Cordoba has green buses.

 Hannah!

Luke!