By Jakob | Sunday July 15th, 2007
The second village we visited was Pampaneira. This is one of three villages which is clinging to the side of the deep Barranco de Poqueira ravine and is one of the most dramatically sited, and most touristed, in Las Alpujarras. The white washed stone houses seem to clamber over each other in an effort not to slide down into the gorge, while streets decked with flowery balconies wriggle between them.
The white color is not chosen merely by it’s abillity to illuminate or repelle the sun, but because in these houses not only people live. At the first floor, or cellar plateau, the domestic animals, like goats or cattle, live and at the top floor the house products, cheese, olives and wine, are stored. The color keeps away insects and this was especially necessary during the European plaque, thus not infecting the people living at ground level/first floor. Furthermore they benfit from at cooler temperature in the house.
By Kasper | Sunday July 15th, 2007
This morning we got up at 8.00, oversleeping half an hour. We met up at the “Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones” (The congress center) with the bus and the about 20 other people going on the trip to the Alpujarras. And guess what: We have our camera up and running. You can see pictures from our trip in the picture section.
The Alpujarras is the name of the canyon south of the Sierra Nevada. The area is known for both its architecture and its production of ham, cheese, wine, water and olives, and this trip were to intrduce us to them all.
Our first stop was the main city of the Alpujarras, Lanjarón. This city has a good setting on the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada and lies at the entrance to the Alpujarras. This pueblo (countryside village) is mostly known for its water… The water that comes down from the Sierra Nevada is bottled here by one of the biggest water-selling companies named after the village; Lanjarón. This water is exported around the world, while far most is consumed within Spain.
Once a year this small village turns itself into a watery mayhem in the days of the 22nd and 23rd of June at the annual water festival. The concept is pretty simple: poor water on everything and everybody. Best compared to the worlds biggest water-battle. Tourists are adviced not to bring cameras, mobile phones and other electric equipment to this event as they are bound to get soaked.
Well anyway, we stopped for a small hour where we saw some of the small backyards and studied the city architecture, built to encompass the masses of water that from time to time comes down from the mountains.
From here we were off to the small village of Pampaneira.
By Kasper | Friday July 13th, 2007
All real websites and blogs needs to have competitions - and so does ours. We therefor now launch the big “What you can’t miss in Granada”-Competition.
The competition is simple. Find a site, monument or other place of interest within the vicinity of Granada and write a comment on the page GRANADA with info on the place. After visiting all the suggested sites we will rate them against each other and find a winner who we will price with a little something from Granada.
Besides giving you the opportunity to push us around a bit while in Granada, we get the opportunity to see things we might not have stumbled over by ourselves. And then it could be a fun as well…;o)
A short sum-up of the competition rules:
- Find a site, monument or another interesting sightseeing destination in Granada or in its near vicinity that we absolutely can’t miss while in Granada. The site can be a place you visited yourself, something you have read about in a book or on the internet - the possibilities are endless. You suggest where we go - and we go there (as long as it’s within our geographic, economic and practical capabilities).
- Post some details about this in a comment on the Granada Page and we’ll go visit your suggested location.
- After visiting all the locations suggested by you, we will rank the sights and choose a winner who will be priced with a little something from Granada.
Thank you for your effort!
Jakob|Kasper
By Kasper | Thursday July 12th, 2007
Yesterday we wanted to put our spanish skills to a test, so we got tickets to the brand new Transformers Movie. It was on in a cinema not far from where we live in a shopping mall by the name Neptuna. We have marked it in the map in the map section.
In Spain they don’t use subtitles, but dub their movies into spanish. This was an interesting experience. Not only did we confirm that the spanish language is spoken very rapidly in its natural element, but we also got to the conclusion that we have a relatively long way to go before we can see a movie in spanish… In other words - it would be hard for us to write a fair review as we didn’t get much of it. But hey - it has some astounding special effects and was visually very true to our childhood memories of the Transformers, although it it stroke us as slightly worse dramatised, but in all other aspects very much alike Independence Day.
It probably deserves to be re-seen in a language we actually understand…
By Kasper | Wednesday July 11th, 2007
As you might have noticed, it has been a quiet couple of days here at J|K. We have now entered the past tense forms in the spanish language and they are to say the least a bit complicated.
The first week went on with present tence forms and “Presence Perfect” (Preterito Perfecto) forms and the bit of past tense forms that in spanish relate to general descriptions in the past tense (Preterito Imperfecto). Up until now the extent of irregular verbes have been manageable, with most of them being somewhat intuitive.
This has now changed… Let me give you an example:
[TABLE=2]
We are presently learning the column named “Preterito Indifinido”. It may be a bit hard to see from this single verb, but the systematics are (for me) not easy to see through. This has neccesitated some long hours of repetition. It’s fun in its own way, but i also makes you a bit odd.
Our camera has run out of batteries (and smart-as-I-am Kasper) has forgotten the recharger. I will try to find one down here so that we will be able to once again present you with pictures from down here.
It’s not all verbes and gramatics, though. Today we signed up for an excursion this sunday to 3 small villages not far from Granada. Among other things this trip offers tastings of local wine, ham and cheese and a quick trip to the beach. More will follow on this trip (hopefully followed by a range of pictures as well…).
Hasta Luego! (See you soon!)
By Kasper | Sunday July 8th, 2007
One more small thing. Today was the release of the New 7 wonders of the World. In Granada there was a gigantic party to celebrate a potential appointment of the Alhambra as one of the new 7 wonders. 21 sites were nominated amonst these the Alhambra. The appointment was made by vote by people from all over the world. Alhambra reached the top-10, but wasn’t appointed, which clearly was a big dissapiontment for the thousands of people in the presentation.
And I wonder… among the winners were of course the Great Wall, Chichén Itzá (Mexico) and The Taj Mahal (India) all worthy candidates. But I am a bit surprised that Christ Redeemer and the Roman Colloseum won over Alhambra. But hey - the world has spoken. Anyways - it was fun to experience the presentation.
By Kasper | Saturday July 7th, 2007
As written earlier, Alhambra is an astonishing castle built by an Arabian king in the 13th century. The gigantic castle and it’s palace and gardens dwell on the side of a cliff in the great Sierra Nevada mountain range.
Today we decided to put down our books and go study one of the most significant remnants of the Arabian presence in Spain. The Arabian culture has indeed had a major influence on the Spanish culture, and especially the Valencian area. Granada became center of commerce in the 13th and 14th century with its Arabian sultanship lasting as long as 1492, where the Spanish king drove out the Arabian forces.
We arrived at Alhambra at 5 o’clock and quickly found out that we were in somewhat of a hurry if we wanted to see the entire Alhambra before closing time. Eneough with the practicalities.
Alhambra was astounding! We started out by going to the sultans private gardens, the so called Generalife. These are built on the cliff opposite the castle, and were the sultans refugee and private home. These consist of a small palace and an impressive garden complex with small and big pools of water and a multitude of flora. The water is central for the arcitecture of the Alahmbra which is undelined by the many streams flowing through the Generalife even flowing inside the rails of one of the outdoor stairways.
From here we went on to see the Alcazaba, which is the military part of the complex. Here we entered the watchtower and were presented with a picturesque overview of Granada and Sierra Nevada.
Finally we entered the Palacio Nazaríes. This is part arabian and part spanish in its architecture, where most of the original (and somewhat restored) Arabian decorations are still intact. The palace is hard to describe, as the ornaments, decorations and mosaiks surpassed even our well developed imagination. Please see our picture gallery for a view of this fantastic place.
All trips like these are bound to contain at least one wierd experience. We had ours going on our way to see the watchtower. Here we ran into Andreas and Teddy from Jacobs school. They are in Spain to study spanish in Malaga - very strange coincidence.
By Jakob | Thursday July 5th, 2007
The school is in the centre of the city and we meet every morning at 08:40 for our individual lesson (only Kasper and I). Estela is our teacher , she is a muy bonita chica and she teaches in grammar. After one hour four other people join the class and we quickly go through what we have learned and continues with the plan until lunch time.
The four other people are; Jutta, Diana and Jonas from Germany and Kari from China. After the gramma lessons Kasper and I goes out for uno bocadillo (a sandwich) at a nearby cafeteria. At 12:30 we start the next lesson where only Jonas, Kari, Kasper and I participates. The goal with this lesson is to expand our vocabulary and we talk about anything from our individual countries to the culture in Granada. This is usually more relaxing than the grammar lesson but it is important as both Kasper and I feel we are in lack of words. The other students are at the same level as me, Jakobo, or better and Kasper is hanging on tight. Today Kasper had his first individual lesson from 14:00 - 15:00 and it is surely going in the right direction.
At 14:00 or 15:00 Granada city slows down as the temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius. The concept of having siesta has reached a new level for me. 40 degrees is very, very hot and at that time all shops close down and people are coming home from work for a few hours. The Spanish people eat lunch at around 15:00 and don’t go out until the temperature drops. At app. 18:00 the city starts awakening again and the shops are usually open until 21:00 o 22:00. Most bars and cafés are open all day and the activity is at its highest around 21:00. At this time the climate is durable and people are off from work. An important fact about Granada is that it is a university city which means there are a lot of young people here. For those of you who knows the “Erasmus delegation” this is a very attractive destination for exchange students participating in this programme. Thus, you can imagine how much partying this city encompasses. This we must explore in the forthcoming weekend….
By Kasper | Wednesday July 4th, 2007
As many of you might know Granada is the home of the astonishing Alahmbra, a gigantic castle placed on the side of a cliff among the great Sierra Nevada mountains. The Alahmbra was built in the thirteenth century by king Mohammed ibn Yusuf ben Nasr, and is by such one of the most wellkept signs of the former arabic precense in Spain. On a small arabic note, aparently most words in spanish beginning with “Al” origins from arabic, which is very interesting as these take up a significant part of the spanish language.
Alhambra ranks no. 1 on our to-visit-list. To get a feel of Arabia today we visited the Hammam “Baño Arabes” (arabian baths). These baths are told to be similar to the original arabian baths on Alhambra, and are beautifully decorated with mosaiks, small fountains and marble floors. We went for the entire treatment: hot and cold pools and 25 min massage. Both a physical and mental stimulating experience. Girls - if you ever go to Granada - go visit Hammam. You can find the baths indicated in our map section.
By Jakob | Tuesday July 3rd, 2007
Hola amigos,
We have added a new feature on our blog. A map shows where the posts relates to, which gives you an idea of where we are and have been.
Enjoy
By Kasper | Sunday July 1st, 2007
We arrived to Madrid Bajaras Airport after 6 hours in the hands of first SAS and then Lufthansa connecting via Dïusseldorf. We arrived to clear skies and 35° C.
After being hustled by a very local taxi driver we got accommodation at a very central hotel. So central in fact that we were neighbour to the main activities of the annual Euro Pride (gay parade). We felt suddenly very alone…
After grabbing a bite to eat we escaped through the crowded streets of Madrid to our hotel and tried to get a couple of hours of sleep before we had to catch our flight this morning at 8 o’clock.
We got up at 5.30 and took a cab to the airport, which surprisingly cost half of what we paid the night before (for all you considering going Madrid, a cab ride from the airport to ‘El Centro de Madrid’ shouldn’t cost more than 35€). Arriving at the airport we had our first encounter with Spanish efficiency… Absolute chaos. The terminal was overly crowded with people waiting to check-in. It took us 75 minutes to get to the check-in counter, which left us with 20 minutes for boarding. We ran, and after Jakob had to strip down in security we arrived at the gate 5 minutes before closing. From this we concluded that Jakob is actually pretty good at stripping. Or fast anyways.
We landed in Malaga at 9.30 and took the shuttle bus to the main bus station. After a small meal we boarded the bus for Granada where we arrived at 2 o’clock. The bus ride from Malaga to Granada led us along farms with endless rows of olive trees, mustard fields and over the outskirts of the impressive Sierra Nevada mountains. From the bus station in Granada we headed off towards the centre of the city to collect the keys for our apartment. No problems there. Arriving at our final destination, we were quartered in a private apartment with two Spanish guys. To our big surprise not in separate rooms as agreed with the agency, but together sharing one room (with single beds). ‘Euro Pride’ was suddenly very close again… We will discuss this with the agency tomorrow.
After unpacking we decided to get view of the city, and a bit of sun on the pale white skin. First stop was a ‘Café con Leche’ (Coffee with milk) at one of the city many plaza’s. Studying the map supplied to us by the agency, we found a public swimming pool, and decided that the app. 40° C called for an investigation of this finding. Without much ado we quickly decided to buy a 10-trip punch card to the pool, and headed back onto the small streets saving the experience of the refreshing pool water to another day. On our way to dinner, we stopped by a catholic church and were lucky to participate in the afternoon mass. Quite an interesting experience.
By the way: The big summer sale apparently began today lasting July out - Bad for the economy, but good for the wardrobe.
We are heading off to bed in a couple of minutes. We have our first lessons tomorrow morning at 8.40. Two days filled with travelling, homosexuals, cab drivers and flat-sharing have passed and we are now looking forward to learning some Spanish.
Jakob|Kasper
By Jakob | Thursday June 28th, 2007
So… im sitting here looking out the window…. now an overall enthuisiastic sight. Save some money and take a shower outside….. well that’s one way to put it. As the rain beats on my window and the wind almost shakes the hinges off my windows, I really start looking forward to four weeks in Spain.
My attention returns to the soft blue light from the screen and checks for the 57th time if the download from the FTP server is done. 20min to go…… zzzzzz….. Im downloading a spanish programme that Kasper gave me access to yesterday. From the description, the programme focus on direct learning by creating relations between your brainhalves…. hmmm ….
‘By creating a picture in your mind and using your imagination you access the right brain. The right brain is the creative side of your brain. The right brain learns fast. Just look at the world’s masters of right brain imagination and fast learning. Children!’
Through the use of mnemonics (flashcards) and cognates - listening, speaking and writing exercises will be executed through 31 lessons. It reminds a bit about the course at Studieskolen (language school in Copenhagen), Sugestopedia, that I attended.
Ok it actually became boring writing so much and actually saying so little…. anyways… it’s done downloading and now I will see if this is anything worth spending time on.
It’s going to be nice to get something else than a bluescreen tan.
Hasta luego,
Jakobi
A shortcut to learning Spanish
Mnemonic Flashcards
By Jakob | Tuesday June 19th, 2007
Será un Web site, o Blog, muy agradable
By Kasper | Monday June 18th, 2007
We’re meeting up at Baresso at ‘Nørreport’ in a minute to discuss further development of the blog and how to make it to sensible use during our trip. In the last couple of days we have booked flights, the course and appartment. Everything seems to go our way. The tickets came out a bit more expensive than calculated. We ordered the trip Madrid - Malaga from a spanish travel agency, which became our first challenge with the spanish language as it seems none of the representatives speaks english. It worked out through a half hour consversation in “Spanglish”. Although we have received our itinerary, I still hope we actually have seats on the Madrid - Malaga flight. It seems alright though…
By Kasper | Friday June 15th, 2007
A blog…
…to tell about our experiences in Granada,
…to avoid the endless streams of mails to family and friends,
…to practise spanish and english.
Welcome!
Jakob and Kasper are two brothers travelling to Spain in July 2007 for an intensive course in Spanish. The blog will hopefully be stuffed with pictures and small tellings of our experiences and learnings. Please feel free to post comments and send us greetings.
Br,
Jakob & Kasper
