La montana: The mountain

So...yesterday while we watched the sunset and the Alhambra...we thought it was disappointing that we were at the wrong place to see the sunset OVER the Alhambra, because we were North of it. "The perfect place to watch from," we said, "would be the mountain BEHIND it." Well, it didn't take Christi long to realize that we actually wanted to try it, and it took her even less time to tell us that she in no way shape or form encouraged such an activity, ESPECIALLY at sunset, since there would be no lights at all.

With this in mind, Team Aldana (minus Brian), who had been wandering the Generalife together, decided that we were going to climb the mountain behind the Alhambra. We had exactly 40 minutes before we had to meet the group at the bottom of the mountain, so we made our way up the road, despite some of the male-minds wanting to trespass, or jump fences to go straight up the mountain...

We actually found a path (though not at all what Americans would consider a good walking path, being unpaved and at an angle greater than 45 degrees), and proceeded up said path until we hit a marked point. From there we dropped what was dragging us down on our climb (namely backpacks, jackets, etc), and literally RAN toward the west side of said mountain (we climbed up the south side), cameras in tow. The results were as follows:

THE COUNTRYSIDE-to the east

THE COUNTRYSIDE-to the south

THE COUNTRYSIDE-to the north

LA ALHAMBRA-to the west

TEAM ALDANA -minus one AL (Bri) and DANA (me)

THE SUN THROUGH THE CLOUDS

Yeah--it was pretty much perfect up there...and it was also pretty much 4:52 and we had to be down the mountain in 8 minutes!

Sooo...we took one of the shorter paths down...I went first, and Ben went last--"wave Ben!"

And THIS was the bottom of the path...who knew they had cacti in Spain?!

So we go down the hill singing "We are Aldana," and using our mad track/cross-country running skills (plus bags and jackets), and we manage to get to La Alhambra JUST as the only bus pulls in to go down the mountain... WHAT LUCK! We jump in for a euro, and ride down the mtn, passing Billy and Felipe on the way, and make it to the plaza...5 pm. And it's a good thing for Christi that she had set up a tour afterwards, too, because the sunset wasn't too far off...