Time has flown by, yet it feels like months have passed. As a natural foodie, I have my favorite spots in the city figured out: espresso from Dulcimena, falafel from Kebap Damasco, and tapas from Los Diamantes. I love exploring the city without a concrete plan. Granada is the right place to just walk around and appreciate its beauty. In fact, I realized that I’ve missed a hidden gem situated next to my apartment: el río genil! The river flows by the Plaza de Humilladero and has gorgeous paseos on its ends. I’m not much of an outdoor runner but I had to take advantage of the path.

Photo: Mukund Desibhatla

Whenever I get the chance, I run a couple of loops of the paseo, each one averaging around 1 mile. I love to go at night when la noria (Ferris wheel) lights up and illuminates the street. The path bends around the Fuente de las Granadas and shows an incredible view of the river. 

Photo: Mukund Desibhatla

Speaking of views, I’ve really pushed myself to explore the best miradors of the city. I’ve met many fellow students at Intercambio nights, including James (left) and Edmundo (right), who are pictured above. The three of us decided to grab a coffee this week, and Edmundo suggested the rooftop bar at Hotel Gerónimo. We sipped cortados over the sunset and enjoyed views of the Alhambra, Albaicín, Catedral and Sierra Nevada.

Photo: Mukund Desibhatla

The true highlight of the evening was practicing Spanish with each other for hours. It’s extremely comfortable to converse with study abroad students in English, but I am grateful for our determination to challenge ourselves.

I was most excited to participate in Cookele this week! The setup is a cooking class with interactive Spanish instruction, and we had a UConn takeover for this session. We tasted a spread of olive oils before hopping on the project of the day: la tortilla española, essentially a sautéed potato omelet. We paired this masterpiece entrée with a fresh salad and a pitcher of homemade sangría.

The food was delicious, and we went home with a new range of kitchen vocabulary. I’m thrilled to try these recipes when I return to the US! That’s all for this week, thank you for reading another piece of my cross-cultural journey. 

While I enjoy basing “La Casa Morisca” around the city of Granada, I couldn’t help sharing my first trip to the Swiss Alps last weekend… 🙂

Photo: Mukund Desibhatla