Mi Aventura SVE en Granada

jueves, 31 de enero de 2019

Exploring the Sierra de Huétor - Marci

If you know anything about me, you are almost surely aware of my obsession with mountains, hills, hiking and taking photos of nature. The area the around Granada is a paradise for me, because of all the amazing natural areas that are within easy reach via bus or bicycle or sometimes even within walking distance. The obvious destinations are the Sierra Nevada, with its imposing, snow-capped peaks towering over the entire landscape and the close-by hills that start within Granada. But there are plenty of other places that are close by and one of them is the Sierra de Huétor. Somehow, in four months of being here, I didn’t do a proper hike in that area!

By saying Sierra de Huétor, I actually mean the whole Sierra de Huétor and la Alfaguara Natural Park and its surrounding areas, which includes the Sierra de Huétor, Sierra de la Alfaguara, Sierra de Cogollos, Sierra de Arana and a couple of other moderate-altitude mountain ranges. So technically calling that the Sierra de Huétor is incorrect but saying “Sierra de Huétor and la Alfaguara Natural Park and its surrounding areas” all the time doesn’t exactly flow well.

I started my trip by climbing an interesting peak called the Peñón de la Mata. While it is not terribly difficult to get close to the top, the very tip of the peak is actually a giant slab of rock with vertical walls that seem impossible to get up. However, there is a little path that can take you up and you don’t need to be a rock climber to do it! The views are truly astonishing, as you can see a lot of the Sierra de Huétor, the whole Sierra Nevada, the Sierra de Elvira and all the surrounding areas of Granada.

After that, I decided to just wander on small paths through the forest and along forestry roads. It was all very Zen. On a weekday in the winter, I didn’t meet anyone for almost the whole hike and all I could hear were the rustling of the trees and the song of the birds. I also saw mountain goats, hare and of course the birds as well. I walked a total of 29 kilometers and one of the most impressive bits was on the way down from the mountains along the road to Víznar. On that forestry road there is a point called Mirador de Víznar, from where you can see the Río Darro valley, the forested peaks of the Sierra de Huétor and the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range.

I feel like the Sierra Nevada always steals the spotlight, but the Sierra de Huétor is just as worthy of people’s attention. Yes, the mountains are not so high, but it is an epic landscape simply put into a much smaller package. It’s easy to get to from Granada and you can be back home for dinner comfortably after an awesome day of hiking. If you are in Granada, I would definitely recommend you to visit it!

If you want to read more about my thoughts on the Sierra de Huétor and find a more in-depth story, go to my own blog HERE!

miércoles, 30 de enero de 2019

The Language Exchange and Learning Spanish

Márton Gorka 2:57 0 Comments

Every Friday, except for when we have projects or holidays, we hold a language exchange in the Las del Tul office. If you are interested, it’s Friday 17:30 to 19:00! It gives an opportunity for Spanish people to practice their English and for us or other foreigners living in Granada, to practice Spanish. We have a series of games we do every language exchange and we switch between languages, so we all get to practice.

The best game is the story cubes I think. They are tiny icons on each side of the cubes and you have to tell stories based on how you throw the cubes, or you go in a big circle and everyone has to develop a big story together. Usually it ends up pretty ridiculous, like raptors invading Leroy Merlin or aliens riding a meteorite, but it is also a nice challenge.

We never only do the same things, so we have played around with speed dating in the past which can be very funny. We also like to play the game Charades with the phone and that is usually a mix of intense and loud explanations and clueless staring. There are many other games we enjoy and now we are trying to broaden our repertoire to keep things exciting for the returning participants. Participation remains low, but we have a few people who come on a regular basis.

The language exchange helps us volunteers improve our Spanish, but I feel like it is not enough. Sadly, we only had one month of language classes when we arrived and there is only so much Duolingo you can do before going insane. During work, our main language is English and my housemates (AKA, the other volunteers) also speak English. Of course, it would be nice to meet more people to practice Spanish with, but I’ve been rather antisocial lately and I usually go hiking in the mountains instead of making friends.

The conclusion which I’ve reached quite some time ago, but never quite acted upon is that language exchanges are very useful, so I should go to ones organized by other groups, not just ours, in order to improve my Spanish. I guess that’s a goal for February!

jueves, 24 de enero de 2019

Trip to Porto, Barcelona and Madrid

kursat 8:37 0 Comments

Eventually I start to travel around where I live =)

One of my best friends lives in Porto, Portugal. I really missed her! She is doing a short term EVS there for 2 months. We started thinking about having a nice trip to Barcelona, Madrid and have a New Year’s Eve party in Granada. When she found one flight ticket for a good price from Porto to Barcelona, I decided to go to Porto first.

“Wet, smell of dampness and clouds”, I can define Porto with these three words =D. The city of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, I often felt as if I was in the movie. JK Rowling had garnered many things from this city. When I arrived, I was thinking that the time was 06:10 a.m. for Portugal, because there is 1 hour difference between Portugal and Spain. I was on the phone with my friend to tell that I arrived 15 minutes earlier. Suddenly, my friend said that the time was 05:10 because the ticket had the Spanish time printed on it. So now I understand very well how Spain has the same time with Germany =) My coordinator already talked about it.

The flight to Barcelona is “wowww”. It was the first time in my life that I shared a trip with one of my best friends outside my own country. We walked everywhere in the city because we had little money for this trip. We had a night with two bottles of wines to have chat as well, just like used to in Turkey.

EVS is such an amazing program, I have so many friends in Madrid and one of them accepted us as guests in her home. We only spent one night there. I cooked for 5 people who are Turkish and one Russian. We had an amazing chat together. Imagine that you have a good dinner and time at
home but in other country.

Returning to Granada, after 9 days, I felt like I arrived home. I also had a guest in my home ‘till New Year’s Eve….

miércoles, 16 de enero de 2019

Culture in Constant Change: Youth Exchange

Márton Gorka 2:51 0 Comments

From the 2nd to the 7th of January (plus the travel days) we held the youth exchange called Culture in Constant Change, or Cultange for short, in Ciudad de los Niños. This exchange brought together youth from 6 countries to learn more about each other's cultures, to learn about Spain and immerse themselves in an international environment. There were many disadvantaged participants for whom this was the first time to travel abroad!

Over the course of these seven days, the participants took part in a wide range of team building activities, a series of workshops, ranging from inclusion to art and they spent a lot of time cooking and presenting their cultures to each other. Each night a country would show off their traditional dishes, and they would also hold presentations about their countries. Some groups even taught everyone traditional dances...

A huge highlight was the workshop organized by the Hungarian team, Tekerd. They are a group working with LEGO, creating massive portraits and other pieces of art. For the youth exchange, they prepared a small portrait of a famous person from each of the countries and the participants could build them. There was definitely quite a competitive spirit going on and the portraits all ended up looking fantastic!

There were two small trips within the youth exchange. One was to Granada itself, since Ciudad de los Niños is a bit far out, in Chana and one to Alhama de Granada. During the Granada visit, the participants had the opportunity to explore the Alhambra and to get to know the city much better. Some groups decided to explore the Albaicín, some the city center and everyone had a good (albeit very cold) time running around the city.

We also went on a day trip to Alhama de Granada, a unique village perched on the edge of a canyon. It is known for its thermal water, although we sadly didn't get to try that. Instead, we walked around, exploring the oldest buildings of the village. We also saw an insanely detailed nativity scene, which was very impressive. Finally, after some free time, we saw the traditional "Cabalgata de Reyes Magos", a religious festivity which involves a parade where the three kings arrive and give candy to all the kids.

While it was certainly not the most intense youth exchanges I've participated in, I was very happy to see how friendships developed between the participants and I feel like everyone learned something new and broadened their horizons a bit!

domingo, 13 de enero de 2019

Amazing Boss - Carmen

kursat 12:20 0 Comments

Amazing Boss

I want say how amazing it is to do your EVS with Las Niñas del Tul. If you have some problems in the governmental departments, someone would be there and Carmen was there as a hero for me. You know that I am from Turkey, so I am not citizen of Europe. I need to get a visa and permission to stay in Spain. I already had many problems during my visa application process. It is really hard to do in the governmental department. It is more difficult in Spanish side.

I have to be in Granada till the end of my project and I had bought my flight ticket to go back to my country for a few days later. When we were in the governmental department of Granada, I got a surprising bit of bad news. My permission and my flight are not matched. They weren’t very considerate when giving these dates. It is impossible to finish my voluntary work and pick up all my stuff (clothes etc.) and go back to my country on the same day. I can’t and I won’t. By the way I already went over the total amount of flight payment which the EVS project can reimburse me. I don’t have enough money and I couldn’t arrange a new flight ticket.

Suddenly, my lovely hero came to help me (Carmen was with me). She solved it in an hour So no problem anymore about the dates. I will keep enjoying with my EVS life here =)

The Old Sugar Factory in Chana - Marci

Márton Gorka 1:23 0 Comments

While we were running the youth exchange called Culture in Constant Change (Cultange for short) at Ciudad de los Niños, this old abandoned building complex across the street caught my eye. It is the remains of what one day was the Azucarera San Isidro, the San Isidro Sugar Factory. I have always been drawn to exploring abandoned buildings, not just for an adrenaline rush, but also to think about what a building may have been used for or how it looked like all those years ago.

This particular building complex is very well preserved and almost all the buildings are accessible with a little climbing and scrambling. Of course, you are not really allowed to be there, but it's unlikely that anyone will care. The buildings themselves are very interesting and some of them have rather striking architecture!

The graffiti scene in and around Granada is really strong, and you can clearly see this in the abandoned warehouses here as well, with a couple of really nice pieces decorating the walls!