Granada, tierra soñada por mí

Warning: If you studied abroad in Granada and miss it like crazy, proceed at your own risk.

I studied abroad once upon a time and fell in love. No, not with some beautiful Spaniard, but with the city of Granada. I spent 5 perfect months there and when they finally made me leave I dreamed of the day I would finally return to what had become my home.

It was surreal to be back, to see that nothing had changed while I felt so different from the innocent, scared 19-year-old who stepped off a plane there three years ago. Waking up in my old bed the first morning I had a momentary panic attack worrying I´d slept through my 8 am historia class until I figured out what year it was.

My return was everything I dreamed it would be (although two days was not nearly enough time). I saw my host family again, slept in my bed, walked the dog, ate so much delicious food, drank pomegrante juice and ate pomegranate seeds (hoping that maybe Persephone-style, I´d be "forced" to spend a month in Granada for every pomegranate seed I ate), watched TV with my family while enjoying the warmth of the brasero (most wonderful invention in the world, a table covered by a blanket with a space heater underneath, sit down on the couch and lift the blanket onto your lap and you enter a cocoon of warmth), saw En llamas, and took one wonderful paseo into the city center to "remember", as my host dad put it. Granada was even more beautiful than I remembered. Its hard to believe this was actually my home for five months.

My favorite spot in Granada, Avenida de la Constitución,
 with the Albaicin and Sierra Nevada in the background

The best té árabe in the city

My first sighting of La Alhambra, emerging spectrally out of the darkness above this church.

La Alhambra

Fuente de las Batallas

Christmas at El Corte Inglés

The famoso Café Futbol, site of my first Spanish café con leche, churros, chocolate, and trufa flavored helado.

Isabel La Católica, watching over Gran Vía

I´ll be back soon Granada.

(And back soon to the blog, with more from my week in el sur, once I finish sorting through the pictures from Sevilla, Cáceres and Trujillo!)