Gypsies

It's been a pretty quiet weekend. This is the first time in 7 weekends that I've been in Granada! From October 26 to December 3, I've spent all of 14 days here. That's insane. But now, I'm on day 5 of tapas- which is a little embarrassing and a little impressive if you ask me. Tapas are literally the best invention ever. If you order a drink (coke, beer, wine, mixer) you get free food! (like an appetizer) Depending on the bar or restaurant, it can be huge plates of food for two people or just a small plate of olives. And it only costs 2-3 Euro, depending on what you get. Mixers are more, but usually coke, wine, and beer are around 2 Euro. I've been taking lots of pictures of the tapas we get so I'll post them later!

I promise we didn't just eat all weekend. We went hiking to watch the sunset a few days ago! We went up behind the Alhambra and hiked around there. It's a nice lookout and has a great view of the city.

So peaceful

Made it to the top!

The sunset was beautiful.

Naturally, every time we do something there's an absurd story that goes with it. I think we have signs on us like "Please make my life difficult".

We've always heard of the gypsies that live in the caves on the way up around this area, but we've never seen them. A girl in our program was invited inside a cave and had tea with some gypsies- it sounds so cool but we've never done it. So as we're walking up our hill this lady comes out of this cave and says "Come look at my museum! Come inside and take pictures, sit down, come look at the museum!". I'm thinking, cool but no way. I'm here to hike, maybe on the way down or something.

Anna is already in the cave.

So I follow. We get inside and it's the smallest flamenco cave I've ever seen. Lamest museum ever! The lady offered us beer and I just said no thanks. It's 3:00 in the afternoon! Seriously? I really don't want or need a beer right now. No thanks, no thanks, no thanks.

Anna already has the neck gone. She's sitting down and enjoying her gypsy beer.

So Miranda (another girl with us) and I politely take a beer and sit down. Anna is just loving life. "You guys this is so cool! We're making memories! We're drinking beer in a gypsy cave right now!"

Neither Miranda nor I have touched our beers. I have never been so uncomfortable in my life. It was so sketchy! I was convinced they had been spiked and that Anna would start foaming at the mouth any minute.

Once Anna finishes her beer, I set mine on the table and we leave. The gypsy lady comes up to us just as we're walking out and says we each owe her 2 Euro. Now there's no way I'm going to pay for a beer I didn't want, didn't ask for, and didn't drink. So in spanish I explain that I'm not going to pay her. And she starts freaking out. We owe her money! The beer isn't free! You took pictures in my museum! Oh my gosh, she was all up in our business and pushing us for money.

Anna quietly puts her head down and hands over 2 Euro. Tail between her legs, but so proud of herself for drinking beer in a cave that she can't even feel bad about it.

By now I was so scared and mad that I just grabbed Miranda and walked away from the lady. She yelled after us about money or something, but we were too busy focusing on getting as far away as possible to listen to what she said. I kept looking behind us to see if some gypsy was chasing us to push us off a cliff or to put a curse on us. The last thing we need is some freaky voodoo throw down. But we survived. I guess that's one way to get the heart rate up.


We are in our last days here.. in 10 days I will be home! That's so weird to think about! I can't wait to show all my pictures, recipes, and cool stuff from here. I'm so thankful I get to come back. I don't think I would be ready to leave if I didn't know I had more time coming.. and money ;)

See you soon!