Enjoying the Mediterranean

"So I started to walk into the water. I won't lie to you boys, I was terrified! But I pressed on and as I made my way passed the breakers a strange calm came over me. I don't know if it was divine intervention or the kinship of all living things but I tell you Jerry at that moment I was a marine biologist! ... The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli!" -George Costanza


What a day. Saturday is a day that will not be easy to forget, as I was purely living in the moment. Myself and a few other people in my study abroad group decided to go to the beach and be beach bums as some of my colleagues at Depuy may say. There were a few problems along the way, for starters I waited for a bus that never came (to go to the bus station on the north side of Granada) so I walked all the way up there, and almost missed our bus. Thankfully I made it though, and we got on the bus, and left for Salobreña. This beach side city was only 50 minutes by bus from Granada, and at a cost of 7 dollars each way it made for a fun, cheap day.
The drive to Salobreña can only be characterized as mountainous, as the entire way, except for a few minutes at the beginning and end are going through mountains over a pass, around a gorge, and finally to the sea. What a day. Salobreña has part of its city located up on a high plateau, something we did not visit this day, because by the time we were going to, the thought of walking up that much was not very appealing, but I have plenty of times in the future where I can do it, so that was fine by me. Anyways, we got to the beach. Our day was already a success, and then we noticed it was slightly windy at this point, something that in the past I had never experienced on the Mediterranean. We coated up with sunscreen and I began pondering when I would be entering the water. After a while I was able to pursuade on of the girls to go with me into the water, so I wouldn't be swimming alone of course, and as we entered the water at a run we noticed the waves were much larger than we had anticipated and to save myself from being pounded on to the shore right when we got there I made a quick baywatch dive into the wave as it was cresting. This sealed the deal for me, and now the day had gone beyond good. The water was cold, but you acclimatized to it, and for the next 20 minutes we, with a few others joining us in these huge waves, I can only describe it as bodysurfing/getting thrashed onto the shore. For most of the rest of the day after this, it was spent laying out in the sun, and putting massive amounts of spf 30 sunscreen on, for which I am lucky as I did not burn in too many places. I did have a second voyage into the water later in the day, this time solo, and this time I misjudged the waves, and the wind, as now everything seemed to be much bigger. I am not sure if it was just a large set of waves or what, but I can easily say they were the biggest waves that I had ever seen and one of the craziest swims that I have ever had.
After this we decided to go up on a rock that was nearby to get a better view of the area. From this rock on calm days, people would normally jump off into the water, but today, that would not have been smart. There were great views from the top of this rock, and after we exited our day was done. We walked back to the bus stop, got on the 815pm bus and later arrived back in Granada, everyone being exhausted (especially me). The beach was fun. I hope that you enjoyed the rambling. Today is another big day for me, I was able to sleep in some, and now I am about to do the other great thing that I can do since I live in Granada, the mountains.