Bill Clinton Lied!

Before I start this, let me just say how much I love Granada. I love that everything is in walking distance. I love the free tapas. I love how relatively cheap it is compared to the rest of Europe.

There is one thing that I don’t love. I think its just alright.

According to Bill Clinton, El Mirador at St. Nicolas is “the best sunset in the world.”

No Bill Clinton. I beg to differ.

When I went up for the first time (okay technically it was the second time, but the first time was at night so it doesn’t count) I was really excited to see the beautiful sunset that everybody wets their pants about.

Turns out you don’t see the actual sun. This is as close to seeing the sun as I could get.

 

What you actually see is just the sun casting down its red rays across Granada. Not gonna lie, but I think it looks like a bunch of trash in a rose colored bag. 

 

The sun also cast a pretty glow against the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada’s. It’s pretty, but Clinton must have been getting some action up there for it to be so memorable. 

Let me share with you what I think it the most beautiful sunset in the world…

It’s a magical place called New Mexico. Where the food is spicy and the air is clean. If you're like the half the population of the US and missed that day in third grade, where you learn all about the 50 states and capitals, you might think that we're still part of old Mexico.

In Albuquerque, there is a group of mountains called the Sandias. The word Sandia is the Spanish word for watermelon. When Spanish settlers saw the sun set on the mountains they thought it looked like a watermelon. Hence the name.

Here is a view of the sunset from the West Mesa.

 Photo Credit

Here is what the sun does to the mountains...

Photo Credit

and this...

 Photo Credit

Mucho mejor if you ask me.

You see, when I was younger, I absolutely loathed New Mexico. I'm from a small town called Las Vegas (don't be fooled, it's not like Nevada) and I thought my life would be more exciting if I lived in any other place than NM. Even when I moved to Albuquerque I wanted to leave. It really wasn't until I visited places like Wyoming and Michigan when I thought to myself, "okay NM isn't that bad."

Now that I’ve lived in Spain for four months, you have no idea how much I miss New Mexico. I miss open spaces, mountain landscapes, deserts, Bridge Street, Carnegie Library, drives up to Montezuma, food from my favorite restaurants like Estella’s, Cocina de Rafael, Hillcrest and Spic & Span. It’s made me partially regret planning post-semester travel.

Let’s be real here, who ever thought I’d say that?

However, I know if I don’t travel and have this experience now, I never will. Now that the rapture is over, there’s plenty of time to eat my weight in green chili when I get home.

So to sum things up NM sunsets are greater than Granada sunsets.

NM > GR (is this correct? My math skills aren’t too great.)