Hola everyone!

I'm in Barcelona now, just left Granada, and I only have 2 weeks to go till the lloooooooong flight home (25 hours!). The good thing is that our apartment here in Barcelona has internet so I will be able to put lots of photos and things up.

Granada was really beautiful, it is built in the mountains and at the centre there is this huge Arabian Palace called the Alhambra. On Saturday I was woken up by Dad yelling "why isn't kate up yet!" because he had gone to buy tickets to the Alhambra and they only have a half hour slot in which you can enter the palace. So I leaped out of bed, got dressed in a few seconds ate a banana and then we sprinted up thoseee (right) long stairs (this is only a portion) to the Alhambra. It was sooooooooo beautiful, all intricate stone carvings and tiles, and elegant arches and pillers - definitely something out of Arabian Nights. It was slightly spoilt by hoardes of Asian tourists walking past at a thousand miles an hour, but still gorgeous. My favourite area was this huge courtyard (above left) with a still pool in the middle that reflected the buildings. Unfortunately in our great rush that morning I had left my scarf at the apartment and had not put on thermals - therefore I shivered my way through one of the most beautiful muslim palaces existing! hehe We also explored some very cool terraced gardens and little garden rooms surrounded by perfectly flat hedges (Mum spent quite some time pondering how they achieved this desired flatness - we only discovered the answer a few days later when we saw a kind of tractor with a long flat saw fixed at a set height).

That night was New Years Eve, we went to the main square in Granada and joined the massive crowds - clutching our little packets of grapes. In Spain they have a custom of eating 12 grapes, one at each strike of the bell at midnight - it is supposed to bring happiness. So we joined the grape holding crowd (thats us - right) and anxiously waited for the clock to strike. Unfortunately due to our lack of spanish lknowledge I started a few grapes late (while emma started early), so I still had a few grapes left at the end! quel horreur! I dont know if this cancels my happiness or maybe the happiness increases with each grape. I think I would be happy with a 10 grape year - but I am determined to have a great year no matter how many grapes I fail to et (what a tongue twister) -then lots of fireworks went off - straight over our heads!

Soo, that was fun. Our other days in Granada we spent exploring the little old quarter with its tea shops (lots of tea smoking places!) and little markets (see left) and churches. I got my name written in Arabic (which looks very cool - I am a bit suspicious however, it could say anything and I would have no idea... hmmm). We saw the tomb of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand - the monarchs who restored Spain to christianity, we actually saw the tombs on the day that they celebrated the king and queen taking back Spain from the Muslims - there was a public holiday for the anniversay, this meant we saw very embarassed and funny looking policeman riding about the city on horses with plumes on their hats.

We soon left Granada (too soon - i loved it) and I developed a cold (belugh) and travelled to Barcelona - here - through beautiful mountains with snow and green hills. Today (our first day in Barcelona) we walked to the main market street Les Ramblasand explored around there. Barcelona is so random! On every corner there are people dressed up in weird clothes or costumes, playing snake charming instruments or being invisible, all to try to extract money from passers by. We saw a very cool guy dressed up as Zorro, a flower guy, a robot Don Quixote (a bit strange that one), An invisible man (well okay - not see - hard to explain), a few angels, a skeleton, a man in chains and a honky tonk band (with their own piano in the middle of a square). Ohhhh and there are milions of antique stalls just a hundred metres from ouur delightfully ramshackle apartment (they said 1st floor - but I swear its 5th floo, so many stairs). For dinner we went to a slightly odd restaurant that had their menu classified into different sections and numbered so you could cross reference, I had v. yummy pumpkin soup with roast potato and vegies and then a delicious tarte tatine.

Well, goodnight everyone (I will post some photos of Barcelona tomorrow)
ciao, kate