As of last Thursday afternoon I had no plans for the weekend. That quickly changed when a group of us decided that Friday would be the perfect day for an outing to the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains for a day of snow fun. On Friday morning we all took a bus from Granada's main station to the cluster of ski lodges up in the mountains. It's really not that far from the city, but with the speed of a greyhound bus climbing the twists and turns of a mountain road the trip took about an hour, allowing for plenty of gorgeous scenic views of the hills that surround Granada. At one point we even saw a wild mountain goat, horns and all, peering over a rock!
Once we arrived, we chose one of the first reasonably priced outfitter stores where three of us opted to rent snowboards while four chose to spend the day skiing. Since I was a complete novice, I thought it would be a fine opportunity to try something I've always wanted to do and attempt to learn to snowboard. And everyone knows snowboarding is cooler than skiing anyway. ;)
My 'board and boots
Before we started, my friend Annie, an experienced snowboarder, helped me out a lot, giving me pointers and making sure I didn't kill myself on my first attempt. Later, one of the guys in our group gave me some kind and much appreciated encouragement by telling me how his first experience on a snowboard ended with a broken arm. Needless to say, learning to snowboard is about as difficult as you would think. Until you get the hang of it, you have to be able to control EVERY muscle in your body to stand, balance, coast, turn, slow, stop...not to mention to survive the inevitable wipeouts on the compacted snow!!
Regardless, I enjoyed the challenge very much, and had loads and loads of fun. The first slope we went down was probably not the best choice for a beginner like me, but starting off with something difficult was appreciated, because afterward the easier slopes were far less daunting.
As you could have guessed, I spent a good deal of time hauling myself up from the snow and repositioning myself after falling numerous times. Luckily though, my balancing skills are up to par, and there were only three instances where my wipeouts were maddeningly painful. It was impossible to stay frustrated with my imperfect performance, though, since I was having such a good time with such fun people.
We could not have asked for a more perfect day to go, too. The sky radiated electric blue and remained completely cloudless all day. And since it was sunny and not windy at all, I could have easily been comfortable in just two of my four layers. (It also helped that I quickly worked up quite a sweat from my exhaustive attempts at navigating the snowy hills atop my 'board.) The mountains here are massive and unbelievably beautiful, and even looking up at them from Granada makes me feel so small. It felt wonderful to actually be standing among the peaks of snow and not just staring at them from the city.
From my observations, the mountain where we went appeared to be one of the tallest in the area. There were several different slopes of all different skill levels, and all the runs were long and very wide. So even though there may have been a lot of people there, it never seemed very crowded, and it there was plenty of room to avoid running into one another.
Now I can see why people enjoy the skiing atmosphere so much and how it can easily become an addiction! Watching the people who obviously had lots of experience smoothly fly down the slopes makes me wish I was that good!!
So, that was Friday. We returned to Granada a little before 8 p.m., and I was so happily tired I just came home for supper and went to bed early for once.
Saturday was mostly a lazy day, but in the evening five of us had made plans to attend a flamenco show, yet another thing I had wanted to experience while here. To make a long story short, we had a bit of trouble finding the place since it was out in the Sacromonte on the out
skirts of the city. The area surrounds the Alhambra and is notoriously inhabited by hippies and gypsies, and well-known for the cave dwellings there. We took the wrong bus and ended up on the wrong hill, but after asking several people for directions and following the flow of foot traffic, we finally found the theater. The Sacromonte is a beautiful area with its white walled homes and little cafes lining the streets, and the lighted view of the Alhambra is especially breathtaking at night.
Flamenco in the Sacromonte
We were pleased to find that the flamenco show we chose was in a legitimate theatre, up further on the hill away from the bars and cafes, since some flamenco events are known to be tourist traps. Flamenco is very dramatic and intense, and I liked that there were live guitar and violin players as well as a flamenco singer to accompany the dancer. I liked it more than I though I would, and I especially enjoyed the music. Looking at the theater's calendar of events, we noticed very few of the flamenco shows included a live band, so we were fortunate to choose a good Saturday for going!!
After the show we went out for tapas and finally ended our night with a stop at a cafe where we ordered a slice of a berry-smothered vanilla cream pie. It tasted amazingly delicious. We weren't really planning on going out for something sweet, but when a cafe is open after midnight with its display of chocolates, pies, cakes and pastries viewable from the street, we understandably couldn't resist. A "sweet" ending to a fun Valentine's Day.
I really like how easy it is to find things to do here, and there is never a shortage of ways to go about trying new things or people who want to be as adventuresome as time and money will allow!
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