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We've made it to a new area of Spain: Andalusia, home to sunny beaches, the Sierra Nevada mountains, and the awe inspiring Al-hambra. Our hostel in Granada is a blast. Its in the center of town, its really cheap, and best of all is the rooftop patio, from which we can see all of Granada spread out before us, with towering blue peaks capped with snow as a backdrop. It was especially nice when I was up there at dawn this morning, with the sky all pink and the city lights sparkling. I guess I thought it was pretty yesterday afternoon, too, with thousands of swallows circling above, but the little bar up there was having happy hour, so that may have had something to do with it ;) Also, this is a great place to meet people. With so many hip travelers passing through here, we've already met a girl from Argentina, a guy from Chile and a girl from none other than our very own Boston. But, the whole reason we are here is to see the Alhambra, and today, after waiting in line for two hours, we did. It was worth it (much more so than the Vatican, whose line was twice as long and which was only half as impressive). The fortress has been around about 800 years, but its still pretty imposing. And if you know anything about Islamic architecture, you can just imagine the palace complex, from which the Moorish sultans ruled for centuries... keystone arches, colorful mosaics, flowing fountains, sprawling gardens, and Koranic poetry written in Arabic all over EVERYthing. You can tell which symbol means "allah" because its repeated over 900 times within the palace. It's sublime. And just imagine, all those elaborate windows used to be full of stained glass, and all that scrollwork used to be brightly painted... throw in some heavy curtains, a lot of silk pillows, and a few royal Moors, and there you go, you're back in the 13th century at the height of Islamic art and science. If, that is, you can somehow ignore the 7,000 tourists PER DAY who tromp through there, blocking off your views and crushing you into corners. But I guess since I'm one of them, I can't complain too much.
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