Finally spring break

Spring break was a welcomed relief from the frequent deadlines, group meetings and the drain of never feeling caught up.

Sandra and I were hitting the road Saturday at 10 am to the South of Spain. My co-captain rustiness on unfamiliar Spain roads landed us in a laughable, then not so funny, then laughable again mess; 5 U-turns later and we were finally outside of the province of Madrid headed to Granada.

Granada was a beautiful city. Walk past the Corte Ingles (large department store) and into more of the center of the city and the city's true flavor is everywhere. There is an Arabic, Spanish culture that you can't miss. (We still don't know why) Saturday night in Granada seemed to bring out all of the bachelor and bachelorette parties. From what we say, the M.O. was to wear matching outfits, one of the crowd pleasers was a group of men that all wore wedding dresses and their groom wore a giant inflatable penis costume.

We held up in a Morrocan tea shop and enjoyed fruity-spiced teas and huka. Night one, we finished dinner by 7 pm. We were in bed by midnight to wake up for the Alhambra will call line. Has Madrid taught us nothing?

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Habitat, please tell Barbara Snyder I made it to the Alhambra!

The next night on our way to dinner we ran into a Semana Santa procession, which was incredible to watch.

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Semana Santa procession, they take place every night from Palm Sunday to Easter

We had a 5 euro/ per person 4 drinks and 4 small dishes at Poa. Incredible. Then we headed to a club that one of our waiter recommended the night before. The first song that came on when we first walked into the dancing area was Usher’s More, a new fav and we danced!! And danced and danced. We both picked up that the crowd was ripe with good looking men but they weren’t dancing with us. Hmmm It took us a little bit but we realized our friend had sent us to a gay bar. I wish I had known! I’ve always heard they are a blast but I was so distracted trying to get to the bottom of the situation!

From Granada we headed south to Marbella to catch Verity and Lorne. They were in a cozy home on the beach. We enjoyed a long walk on the beach then a black paella dinner (black paella is achieved by using squid ink!) It was deliciousss!!! We worked the next day, did some homework, went for a bike ride along the beach, stopped and grabbed lunch. But it started raining.

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Walk on the beach, Sandra, Verity and I

That evening we headed into the city Puerto del Sur to the affluent area of the city and walked yacht row. Close to midnight we celebrated Sandra’s birthday with a firework in her piece of cake.

The next day Sandra and I headed to Tarifa, the most south city in Europe that is a 30 minute ferry to Tangiers. We didn’t take the ferry but we did walk all around the city dodging the temperamental weather. We had outstanding lamb cous cous on a restaurant on the beach enjoying our overcast view of Africa. Now that’s a 30th birthday.

The next morning w booked 25 euro sixty minute messages, check! And then headed to Sevilla where we would meet Anne and her mom Maureen, in from Dublin. Sevilla was also having the Semana Santa processions, in fact every night there have been processions in every city. We saw part of the city in the night time, but successfully dodged the rain in between pubs. At some point Sandra switched to coffee and tea. We agreed that in Madrid we’re unstoppable, anywhere else we’re one-track minded machines.

The next day we brought the Spain guide book and went to the oldest café in the city, right next to the candy shop, down the road from the City Hall. I had heard that Sevilla was gorgeous but the night before was a difficult night to form an opinion. The line to the cathedral wrapped a block, so we thought it was best to pass. We walked around until we met again with Anne and Maureen.