Grenada

It's early morning here in Grenada and most everyone in the hostel is asleep but me. I'm still fighting a little bit of jet lag, but more than anything, there is the loudest snorer in my room that I think is in an alcohol induced slumber, otherwise she would be waking herself up too. Amy and I were separated tonight due to the availability of beds, so as far as I know she is still asleep in another part of the house, although we're set to meet at 8:00 today in order to get the heck out of Grenada.

While beautiful, we are having a trouble booking a place for tonight as it's Semana Santa and tomorrow is Easter. I have some great pictures of a processional that took place in the streets last night associated with the holiday, lots of Jesus statues and religious figures. Get excited.

We spent the majority of yesterday traveling, starting with our second-chance Gatwick to Malaga flight, followed by two bus rides, a walk and a taxi to Grenada. Not a short day by any means. We eventually found our hostel to discover that for some reason we're the only Americans here and they don't really seem to like us. Well that's fine, I'm not sure we really like them either. So far, this particular hostel (while getting decent reviews) has turned out to be a piss-poor excuse for a fraternity, with a hippie spin. Amy and I couldn't help but draw comparisons, but I think can agree that while being a sorority girl had it's pitfalls, we'd happily go back to the Kappa sleeping porch over this.

Our eyes are watering from the incense and we could not look or sound more out of place. Perhaps the fact that we're the only people speaking a non-spanish language didn't help us make friends, but I think we both thought that wouldn't get in our way since we can both converse to a certain extent. Also, I think we had just plain hoped to make some friends here and meet new people.

Our bright spot in the day was dinner at a small restaurant that we chose because it had a prix fixe menu for 9,50 euros (feeling cheap after the last few days). Our waiter was a college-age guy named Manuel and through Spanish and English on both our parts, told us about Grenada and a little bit about him. Having had such a chilly response from everyone else, we didn't think he had much interest in learning about us, but come to find out, he lives with two girls from Bellingham. Small world, but no surprise since they're probably hippies who went to Western and just couldn't get enough of that shit (sorry Anne).

More later, with pictures. My camera is stuck in a dark room right now with hostile hostel-ers so no dice for now, but it really is a beautiful city and if we were able to get in to see the Alhambra we would definitely give it another day.

On to Seville.

Cathedral in the center of town -- where the following procession ends for Semana Santa.

Float carried by men who literally practice for months in order to carry it without any problems. It's followed by another of the Virgen Mary and accompanied by members of the church.

Not the KKK, promise, but this is where they drew inspiration from.

Cathedral in the center. Center of the Semana Santa events.

Grenada at dusk.