Alyssa and Esther Love Traveling.: Alhambra: The Day We Almost Died of Hypothermia.

WELL
Just when you think the adventures of Alyssa and Esther couldn't get any better...they did.
Today was Alhambra day! Something we were both SO excited about! BUT we were NOT excited about it being a "high" of 32 degrees...in fact, we were dreading even leaving the house allll day and were tempted to just stay in our PJs in our warm beds all day instead. Instead, we just put on 5 layers of clothes (seriously) and ventured out into the cold anyway. STILL wasnt enough for our warm socal blood, but we just sucked it up and made it to the Alhambra as indicated on the time on our ticket.

Oh, we just loved it up there. All these beautiful Islamic archways, domes, fountains, gardens, lattices, bathes, tile work...it was just so amazing. First we wandered around the gardens, then found these cool old baths (like the ones we're going to tomorrow!), then went to the palace Charles V built which is a huge circle...so pretty, then we climbed up into the actual fort and could see the ENTIRE city from up there! We already couldnt feel our fingers and toes by this point, and our faces were red with cold...BUT THEN.

BUT THEN.

BUT THEN.

Luck continued to follow us to the Alhambra. and...
IT STARTED SNOWING.
FOR REAL!!!
THIS IS WHAT IM SAYING!!!
I told you it was cold!!!! We were on top of the world and it started snowing!!! It was SO amazing!
Imagine two little California girls squealing from the cold and delight of the snow on top of a medieval Islamic fort on top of Granada. Pretty. stinkin. awesome.

So we were in high spirits as it continued to snow THE REST OF THE DAY.

And were onto our last and most exciting stop. The palace! so excited, right?!

yeah, this is where it gets interesting.
Apparently, the ticket we reserved on the internet a month ago for the time slot of 2pm, is NOT to get into the Alhambra itself, instead it is to get into the palace part of the Alhambra. Yeah. How am I supposed to know that when the signs telling us this are in an entirely different part of where we picked up our internet tickets?!

Well, the lady at the line didnt seem to care and we had to walk alllllll the way back to the front (some crying may have been done at this time, since the palace was THE thing to see...and because we were already sooooo cold and tired) and decided to just ask the front if there was anything we could do. "Luckily" for us, we were able to just buy an entirely other ticket to get in to the palace in a half hour. So thats 2 tickets for 12E each. Great.
After a quick cup of tea and a sweet to make us happy again, we were off to the palace. Pretty sure it was even colder inside the palace then it was outside (how is this possible?!)

we were so glad we sucked it up and payed the extra 12E! The palace was just BEAUTIFUL. And these are kind of medieval "ruins"...I was trying to imagine it in its heyday and was just overwhelmed with beauty. Architecture like the Taj Mahal...but I was trying to remember the shiney Taj and put it in this place and OH MAN what a sight it must have been!

By the end of the day we were so cold (literally, numb fingers and toes and noses...pretty sure we almost got frost bite) that we were just snapping pictures of each other...

"go stand there and smile."
"ok."
"ok, good enough, lets go."

and then we'd laugh because we realized how cold and horrible it was but how beautiful and funny it was at the same time. You wont be able to tell how horribly cold we were from the pictures...good actresses.

It snowed all the way home...and we couldnt wait to be back in our snugly beds that we could hardly leave this morning.
So here we are!

It was quite a day...almost died of hypothermia, SNOW, drama with the tickets (AGAIN, what is with Spain and their ticket agents being jerks ALL the time?!), beautifulness everywhere...whew, we are exhausted.

Cant wait for our Arab bath tomorrow! Try not to be too jealous!

Here are some pictures of our day today! We have a TON and cant wait to share them with you when we get home...this is just a teaser. It was so beautiful!

With love,
Esther (and Alyssa reading next to me)