Lucy's European Adventure: VALENCIA, GRANADA & CORDOBA

After San Sebastian, it was on to Valencia. On our first night it was 40 degrees, so we booked our first hotel room, which had a/c and wifi. We spent the day looking around Valencia at its sites including the Cathedral, which is described of being made up of Baroque, Gothic, Renaissance and Romanesque architecture!
The next day it was off to La Tomatina. We were camping in green two man tents about 10 minute drive out of Valencia. We spent the next 3 days and nights dinking, swimming (not together, don't worry) and hanging out with 400 other Australians. La Tomatina was on the 26th August in a small village called Benol, which would be unknown except for this festival, which is held once a year! At 11am the race for the ham began-people would try to climb a pole covered in pig fat to get the ham off the top-it has not been done for 5 years, but very entertaining to watch! The fight began at 12 noon-about 15,000 people throwing over ripe tomatoes at each other-gross but so much fun! We were right in the middle and the trucks would come past, squishing through the crowds somehow, and dump their load. We were also under a platform, which held people with massive, high pressure hoses so not only was I covered in ripe tomatoe, but I was soaking for the whole hour, despite the hot weather! So fun and something everyone should do at least once in their lifetime! We were back at the campsite by 3 and after a quick nap, the drinking festivities of the night began!
The next day, Finchy, a friend from uni, picked up Ez, Pat and I and we were off to Granada. This trip in Wilba, the van he had bought in the UK for his road trip around Europe, took all day. The next day we visited the Alhambra, an Islamic fortress and palace built between 11-15th centuries. It was amazing! Most of the palace was still intact but the Alcazaba, the surrounding fortress, was not as well preserved. The gardens were also lovely. It was so interesting but it was about 40 degrees again and we were inland and on top of a hill so it was incredibly hot, after 4 hours, we had had enough and we drove to Cordobo, our next destination. That night we went to a small Spainish restaurant for paella, our last spanish meal as we were entering Portugal the next day.
The next morning we checked out the Mezquita, a mosque. We had studied this building at uni but in real life it was breathtaking. It was a huge mosque, which the Christians, when they had taken over the area, had decided to build their Cathedral in the middle of!