The One Where We Walked Around Granada

Continuing on with the blog marathon - Check below/the bottom for previous posts as I'm updating a bit more rapidly as of late.

This day was a big romp around the city of Granada. We began our day going to El Parque de los Ciencias, which isn't actually a park, but a museum. I didn't take any photos inside, I don't think they're really keen on that. There is, however, an outdoor area with a lookout tower.

 Here in the foreground you can see the various parts of the museum, with the rest of Granada sprawled out in the back.

 I can't believe she paid 25 cents to look at my muscles through this thing. I mean, I'm pretty muscular as is, no need to zoom in.

 This one is for my brother and his soon-to-be wife. There's a pretty cool little comic shop/game store here, and they have all the board game award winners that were all so fond of.

 I honestly thought about buying one of these as a gift, but the entire instructions, as well as all the pieces (cards) are entirely in Spanish. Would be a great learning opportunity!

 Next: the Mirador that overlooks the Alhambra. I've posted photos of this place before. On a nice day with some people playing music, it's a very pretty place.

 Call me creepy, but I took a photo of my Spanish Culture professor here. He's the guy with dressed up super nice with his arms behind his back. Probably one of the most confident/cheeky teachers I've had, but in a good way.

Something interesting about his class: Looking back, I think he used a scare tactic on the very first day of class. I suppose he just wanted serious kids in his class, because what he did was have us, one by one, in front of the class, translate something that was written in English into Spanish. On the first day. In a culture class. For seemingly no reason at all. You could tell some kids were quite disheveled by this. Some took 2-3 minutes trying to get it, while the professor just sat and waited. It was really peculiar.

The results? It must have worked. The following class, there were at least 7-8 people less than the first day. We haven't done that activity again since that day.

 A guy juggling. Juggling is actually pretty popular in this area. Generally something done by the hippies. What does that say about me?!

 As we began to walk back home after visiting the Albaicin, we noticed a ton of people lining Gran Via, one of the biggest roads in the center of the city.

 Turns out there was a procession, or what we would call a parade. Processions are religious based, where parades generally are not. You won't see many convertibles with people sitting on the back here.

 I definitely thought that was a real person standing atop this at first. I was mistaken.

 You might notice the feet underneath this "float." Pretty different than what we're used to in the states. All these people take one step at a time, very slowly. They walk in time, just like a band, to avoid tripping. Apparently, this job is very prestigious, and they essentially train all year for this activity. Also - notice the kid with the backpack?

 He carries water. After a given distance or amount of time, they will stop, lower the 'float', and rehydrate and rest.

 Caught this guy texting. For shame, man.

 After the 'float,' the band appeared. Sounded like mostly horns. Because they were behind the main attraction, they had to walk pretty slowly. In fact, it took quite a long time for the parade to finish. I'd say we were waiting for about 30 minutes before we could cross the street, and all that it involved is what you see above. But, I can't really blame them, that thing looks super heavy.

There is a week in Spain called 'Semana Santa' or Holy Week. During this time, many different cities across Spain hold different festivals. In Granada, nearly everyday during the week there is some sort of procession. I was out of town during the time, so I did not get to see any. Unfortunately, it was quite rainy that week, and they had to cancel many of them. Sadly, they don't reschedule them either, they just get canceled until the following year. Big bummer.