El atardecer mas bello del mundo

The title of this entry translates to "the most beautiful sunset in the world."  In fact, Bill Clinton apparently stated that Granada boasts this very claim.  I'm hoping to litter this entry with photos so that the audience can determine for themselves what they think of this assertion; as well as their general sentiments of the city of Granada.  (You can click on the pictures for a bigger version of each one.  Keep in mind my camera is a bit old-school compared to the crazy things out there, but it gets the job done for me!)

I took an obnoxious number of pictures of this sunset.  I think I've settled on this one.

It is a beautiful city with beautiful people; something which is actually quite worthy of noting for us American students.  Everybody here looks great all of the time; i.e. no one goes to class in sweatpants or gym shorts with a sleeveless shirt.  The nightlife fashion is even better, since it no longer feels like walking through an oven.  (It also quite effectively weeds out the foreigners from the locals.)  The stores are lined with modern clothing with very modern price tags (I found a polo shirt for 109 euros... you do the conversion).  The culture here, however, pretty much dictates that you look good, because if dressing up is the first hobby of "granadinos," the close second is socializing and gossiping.

A fountain literally seconds before it shut off for the night!

Wherever I go, it almost always seems as though people are walking with at least one other person... or eating dinner with a group... or having tapas with a partner.  Once outside, you are essentially portraying yourself to the public, so if one person sees you take your trash out in sweats and a hoodie... then the whole city will know in a matter of hours.  It all seems a bit dramatic, but I'm quite the fan of the social aspect here; it's easy to meet people and many are very accepting of us "guiri" so long as we teach them a word or two in English!

Some streetlights along a pathway.

In all, to describe the city of Granada as beautiful is to say that the buildings are amazing, the people are attractive, and the culture is rich... not to mention the food.  It is captured quite well by this quote by (my favorite) Lorca:

"It is ... a city where the one in love writes better than anywhere the name of his love upon the ground."

Edge of a park.