Calling all world travelers! Would you like to guest post?

It’s been a while since I’ve added to my Wandering Bard series, and I miss talking about traveling. It’s one of my passions, and I’ve learned so much from all of the places I’ve visited.

But I’ve only been to handful of countries outside of the United States, and I’ve already shown you some of my best pictures and told you some of my best stories. There’s certainly more where they came from, don’t worry, but variety is the spice of life, right?

Right.

So, I’m offering you a chance to tell me about your experiences. The rules are pretty simple: It must be somewhere you have not been before. That can mean the United States if you’re from the U.K. or Russia if you’re from Brazil. It can also mean California if you’re from New York. The point of this series was to educate people of other cultures and share what I’ve learned in my travels, even if I didn’t go far from home. I learned about a whole group of women called the Hons when I visited Maryland, even though that’s a fairly short trip for me.

The posts I write are usually between 500 and 1,000 words. You must provide YOUR OWN pictures. Preferably, it’d be nice if you chose one aspect of that country or place to talk about (ie. my first post was about La Pieta when I visited Italy). Not only will the subject matter be more manageable, but it means you can keep coming back.

If you’re interested (and I hope you are!), please e-mail me at Roughtkm15 at hotmail dot com, with the subject line “Wandering Bard Guest Post.” We’ll get all the details ironed out then. You also don’t have to have a post done when you e-mail me, so don’t feel pressured! I’d like to get a feel for the demand and who exactly is interested so I can keep tabs.

If you want to see my previous posts, visit my Wandering Bard category.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys!

P.S. I’d certainly be up for a post swap if that’s the case. Just mention that in your e-mail!

Wandering Bard: Spain (La Alhambra)

Okay, we’ve traveled back to every country I’ve been to except for one – Spain! I have a lot of regrets about Spain. I minored in Spanish, but I was too nervous to use it while we were there. My greatest achievement was asking if something had ham on it (jamón), and not mixing it up with the word for soap (jabón). Although, I think the amount of food I ate there makes up for a lot of my mistakes. I had true Spanish paella, and that’s about as good as it gets, people.

So, today we are in Granada, Spain at La Alhambra (pronounced: Ahl-ahm-brah). This is a group of three palaces and some royal gardens that were built between 1338 and 1390 by the Moorish (Islamic) people.

The really neat thing about this place is that there are absolutely, positively NO water pumps. All the water seen in Alhambra is gravity fed and comes from the nearby mountains. Water was a sign of prosperity, power, and wealth, so there were a lot of fountains in these gardens. Imagine what this would’ve looked like to someone living in the 14^th century, when even those who were lucky enough to live above the poverty line would’ve looked on at these gardens in awe.

This is one of my favorite shots from La Alhambra!

The place was beautiful and ornately built, but as usual I like to let my pictures speak for themselves. Enjoy!

This shows an overview of the city of Granada from one of the higher points in the palace.

This is one of the cute little orchards tucked away near one of the buildings.

La Alhambra resident puppy!! (I promise he’s just sleeping!)

The summer palace.

The intricately carved wall and a window for the harem to “see and not be seen.”

One of the MANY beautiful courtyards.

A trellis that I’m sure would’ve looked fabulous in the summer (we were there in March).

Cool story: We learned in Cordoba (later on) that when the oranges have a big leaf they are good to eat, but when they have a big leaf and a little leaf they aren’t – they’re bitter! The locals always know a tourist when they see one because of this. (These look a little too shriveled to eat…)

Have you ever been to Spain? Have you been to La Alhambra? What’s one regret you have in regards to traveling to a foreign country?