Las Alpujarras & La Herradura Over the course of a week, I trekked from some of the highest elevations in Granada to some of the lowest. Alpujarras There are a series of small pueblos in the mountains about an hour outside of the city in Granada. The area is known as Alpujarras and our group took a curvy bus ride up this hillside and spent the majority of the day hiking back down. See my photo album for some beautiful vistas! One aspect that stood ...

Sacromonte & The Albaicin Why is this city different from all other Spanish cities? No, the answer is not found in your household Haggadah, but rather, in the Moorish quarter of the town. Granada is the last place Arabs occupied during the Spanish Reconquista, and so, has some of the strongest Arab influences through out Al-Andalus. The majority of these remnants lie Sacromonte and the Albaicin. While the city of Granada is noisy, crowded, and new, Sacro...

Las Cuevas Aracena, Spain is a little known town in the western part of the country with one claim to fame: caves! A few weeks ago, I received an email offering an inexpensive trip to the Huelva region to go spelunking within these ancient caverns. It was a no brainer; sign me up, please! And so, my friend Keelia and I packed a backpack with snacks, a change of shirt and underwear, our cameras, and off we went. The Company Most of the people on our tri...

For the first time this semester, my friends and I planned a trip of our own. What better place to travel to than the heart and capital of Andalucia: Sevilla. One of the first differences I noticed from Granada were the colors. While Granada consists of pearl white and grey, here, everything is yellow, peach, and bright white. Sevilla is also on average much warmer than Granada, and the weekend we chose lived up to this expectation. For the first time in months...

The Alhambra In order to reach the walls of the magnificent and enticing Alhambra, you need to trek up a steep and stony path. Once you have contributed some sweat and are regretting the fact you are not in better shape, the two tall wooden entrance doors to the Alhambra fortress appear. Suddenly, your breath is regained as you gasp at the ancient jewel. Beyond this threshold lies a sight you have never seen before nor will ever see again. Three descriptions...