April 10, 2007
WOW.
I have no idea where to start. How about this: I just got back from a whirlwind spring break (here it’s called Semana Santa = Holy Week, because it always falls on Easter). I had so many incredible experiences in such a short period of time, and it still hasn’t sunk in that I was able to see so much cool stuff. Our trip was 12 days long and we covered a huge chunk of southern Spain, as well as a week in Morocco and a little tiny bit of Algeria on accident.
I started out by flying down to Sevilla (Seville, in English, weird) for a few days. Kate and I flew down on Thursday and four other girls in our group met us down there the following day. Sevilla is the main hub for Semana Santa celebrations so we wanted to be part of the hype. Spanish Catholics take Easter and all events surrounding it to a totally new level. I have never seen such extreme religious passion that encompasses an entire population. There were constant processions (literally 24 hours a day) for the full 10 days of Semana Santa, and most of the downtown streets were closed for the full time period. The city basically shuts down during the processions. No taxis, public transportation, etc. Luckily downtown Sevilla is pretty condensed compared to what I’m used to (you could never get around Barcelona by walking alone) so we didn’t have any problems. And all tourist stuff, bars, and restaurants were open so everything worked out well. Semana Santa processions are creepy and eerie and not at all a jovial celebration. They also seem pretty politically incorrect, because the traditional dress of the week closely resembles the KKK. These tunics are what they used to wear when prosecuting Jews throughout Spain, and they still wear them to celebrate Easter. Pretty creepy, if you ask me. The whole thing was really bizarre. If these guys look this creepy during the day, imagine what they look like in the streets at 3:00 in the morning holding a life-size statue of Jesus on the cross and chanting solemnly in Latin. (see pic)
WOW.
I have no idea where to start. How about this: I just got back from a whirlwind spring break (here it’s called Semana Santa = Holy Week, because it always falls on Easter). I had so many incredible experiences in such a short period of time, and it still hasn’t sunk in that I was able to see so much cool stuff. Our trip was 12 days long and we covered a huge chunk of southern Spain, as well as a week in Morocco and a little tiny bit of Algeria on accident.
I started out by flying down to Sevilla (Seville, in English, weird) for a few days. Kate and I flew down on Thursday and four other girls in our group met us down there the following day. Sevilla is the main hub for Semana Santa celebrations so we wanted to be part of the hype. Spanish Catholics take Easter and all events surrounding it to a totally new level. I have never seen such extreme religious passion that encompasses an entire population. There were constant processions (literally 24 hours a day) for the full 10 days of Semana Santa, and most of the downtown streets were closed for the full time period. The city basically shuts down during the processions. No taxis, public transportation, etc. Luckily downtown Sevilla is pretty condensed compared to what I’m used to (you could never get around Barcelona by walking alone) so we didn’t have any problems. And all tourist stuff, bars, and restaurants were open so everything worked out well. Semana Santa processions are creepy and eerie and not at all a jovial celebration. They also seem pretty politically incorrect, because the traditional dress of the week closely resembles the KKK. These tunics are what they used to wear when prosecuting Jews throughout Spain, and they still wear them to celebrate Easter. Pretty creepy, if you ask me. The whole thing was really bizarre. If these guys look this creepy during the day, imagine what they look like in the streets at 3:00 in the morning holding a life-size statue of Jesus on the cross and chanting solemnly in Latin. (see pic)
Creepy by day...
Much more intense at night...
The Cathedral in Sevilla is the third largest in the world (following St. Paul’s and the Vatican) and proudly showcases Christopher Columbus’ remains (all of Spain LOVES Columbus, kind of in a weird obsessive way that I can’t really understand). I don’t mean to sound culturally inept, but I am sick of cathedrals. They are all impressive, yes, but they all look the same and start to blend together. So we went to the Cathedral, walked to the bell tower to get a good view, and got bored pretty quickly and left. Next we went to the Alcazaba, the Arabic Sultan palace from the 12th century. It was way cooler than I was expecting it to be. Really interesting architecture and details, and an enormous garden that we wandered in for hours. It was pretty warm that day so we enjoyed getting some sun.
Cool Cathedral, this pic only shows a small portion of it, but it's HUGE.
Enjoying the impressive Alcazar:
Aside form the Cathedral and the Alcazar, we spent our time in Sevilla watching the processions and exploring the city. It’s a really vibrant city and people in Southern Spain are much more friendly and hospitable (southern hospitality is universal?) than in Barcelona. The entire city smells like flowers and the streets are lined with orange trees. (Guess what Mom, orange juice was my staple drink over spring break, I’m growing up!) My one complaint about Sevilla is that anything ordered in a restaurant is covered with a thick layer of mayonnaise. Random. Oh yea, our hostel was extremely impressive. It had a really nice common room with TV/internet, a really nice kitchen with free breakfast, and a rooftop deck with couches for taking naps in the sun.
Downtown Sevilla at sunset:
Let’s see… after a few days in Sevilla we left for Morocco, but I think Africa deserves its own blog post. I’ll skip to our post-Morocco stop in Granada.
Well after returning to Spain from Morocco we spent one last night in Sevilla (Good Friday, insane amounts of processions) before taking a train to Granada. I admit I knew nothing about Granada aside from the Alhambra, and I was really impressed. Granada is the Spanish version of what I would imagine Boulder to be like in the 70s with a Muslim influence. Translation: it is hippy and bohemian and overall really cool and unique. Kate and I got to Granada a day before anyone else (for some reason Kate and I always end up traveling together: see Pyrenees trip) and we had a night to explore a bit and catch up on sleep.
On Saturday (now we’re up to April 7th, I think) we woke up at 6:00 am to get in line for tickets to the Alhambra. For those of you unfamiliar with the Alhambra, it is an immense Arabic/Moorish palace and gardens, and an old military fortress. It’s probably the most famous thing in Spain next to the Prado. Actually maybe more famous, I’m not sure. Anyway, you’re supposed to reserve tickets to the Alhambra online up to a year in advance. Obviously unorganized college kids didn’t plan nearly that far in advance, so we were stuck standing in line for almost four hours in the freezing cold (no one told us Granada was in the mountains). Anyway, standing in line was worth it and it was really fascinating. The whole time up there, standing in line, waiting for our assigned time, took about 10 hours.
After the Alhambra we met up with friends Katie and Maggie who had arrived that day, and did dinner and bars until I passed out exhausted in the hostel.
Oh, the hostel. More like a brothel. Overcrowded, sketchy, people sleeping on mattresses in the ceiling beams, 1 shared coed bathroom for over 50 people, a room specially designated for pot smoking, and a drunk owner. We were in a six-bed female dorm that ended up being me, Kate, an old woman, two men, and a British girl. All sharing a room. It wasn’t even a hotel setup; it was basically rooms of an old house filled with bunk beds. I feel like I could have really enjoyed myself and appreciated the strange vibe of this place if it hadn’t been that I was paying way too much money to stay there. Well, clearly I survived to write about it unscathed, so I’ll stop complaining. In conclusion, I’m more uptight than I thought. Or maybe it’s that I wasn’t on drugs to enjoy the situation.
Luckily Granada is way too cool to spend time in the hostel, when you could be exploring. The next day was Easter, and it was pretty unconventional. We started with an Easter brunch complete with 2 bottles of champagne. We then wanted to explore the Arabic neighborhood where our hostel was. We found a road that ran alongside the river towards the mountains), and all the walls and bridges and benches were covered with people celebrating Easter in a very non-religious way. It had more of a 4th of July vibe than anything else. It was really warm outside and people were playing music and drinking a lot and having picnics. So we joined in. We wandered up and down the river front to different cafes and groups of people listening to street music and dancing and drinking. The whole thing was very bohemian and kind of surreal, and really fun. In Granada, when you order a drink you get a plate of free food, so we ended up stuffed.
Pic: the street along the river in Granada on Easter:
Goofy jumping picture in the gardens of the Alcazar. It was my first day of spring break and I was pretty excited...
Aside form the Cathedral and the Alcazar, we spent our time in Sevilla watching the processions and exploring the city. It’s a really vibrant city and people in Southern Spain are much more friendly and hospitable (southern hospitality is universal?) than in Barcelona. The entire city smells like flowers and the streets are lined with orange trees. (Guess what Mom, orange juice was my staple drink over spring break, I’m growing up!) My one complaint about Sevilla is that anything ordered in a restaurant is covered with a thick layer of mayonnaise. Random. Oh yea, our hostel was extremely impressive. It had a really nice common room with TV/internet, a really nice kitchen with free breakfast, and a rooftop deck with couches for taking naps in the sun.
Downtown Sevilla at sunset:
Let’s see… after a few days in Sevilla we left for Morocco, but I think Africa deserves its own blog post. I’ll skip to our post-Morocco stop in Granada.
Well after returning to Spain from Morocco we spent one last night in Sevilla (Good Friday, insane amounts of processions) before taking a train to Granada. I admit I knew nothing about Granada aside from the Alhambra, and I was really impressed. Granada is the Spanish version of what I would imagine Boulder to be like in the 70s with a Muslim influence. Translation: it is hippy and bohemian and overall really cool and unique. Kate and I got to Granada a day before anyone else (for some reason Kate and I always end up traveling together: see Pyrenees trip) and we had a night to explore a bit and catch up on sleep.
On Saturday (now we’re up to April 7th, I think) we woke up at 6:00 am to get in line for tickets to the Alhambra. For those of you unfamiliar with the Alhambra, it is an immense Arabic/Moorish palace and gardens, and an old military fortress. It’s probably the most famous thing in Spain next to the Prado. Actually maybe more famous, I’m not sure. Anyway, you’re supposed to reserve tickets to the Alhambra online up to a year in advance. Obviously unorganized college kids didn’t plan nearly that far in advance, so we were stuck standing in line for almost four hours in the freezing cold (no one told us Granada was in the mountains). Anyway, standing in line was worth it and it was really fascinating. The whole time up there, standing in line, waiting for our assigned time, took about 10 hours.
Part of the Alhambra overlooking the Arabic neighborhood of Granada:
Here's a picture of Kate and I in the Royal Palace at the Alhambra:
After the Alhambra we met up with friends Katie and Maggie who had arrived that day, and did dinner and bars until I passed out exhausted in the hostel.
Oh, the hostel. More like a brothel. Overcrowded, sketchy, people sleeping on mattresses in the ceiling beams, 1 shared coed bathroom for over 50 people, a room specially designated for pot smoking, and a drunk owner. We were in a six-bed female dorm that ended up being me, Kate, an old woman, two men, and a British girl. All sharing a room. It wasn’t even a hotel setup; it was basically rooms of an old house filled with bunk beds. I feel like I could have really enjoyed myself and appreciated the strange vibe of this place if it hadn’t been that I was paying way too much money to stay there. Well, clearly I survived to write about it unscathed, so I’ll stop complaining. In conclusion, I’m more uptight than I thought. Or maybe it’s that I wasn’t on drugs to enjoy the situation.
Luckily Granada is way too cool to spend time in the hostel, when you could be exploring. The next day was Easter, and it was pretty unconventional. We started with an Easter brunch complete with 2 bottles of champagne. We then wanted to explore the Arabic neighborhood where our hostel was. We found a road that ran alongside the river towards the mountains), and all the walls and bridges and benches were covered with people celebrating Easter in a very non-religious way. It had more of a 4th of July vibe than anything else. It was really warm outside and people were playing music and drinking a lot and having picnics. So we joined in. We wandered up and down the river front to different cafes and groups of people listening to street music and dancing and drinking. The whole thing was very bohemian and kind of surreal, and really fun. In Granada, when you order a drink you get a plate of free food, so we ended up stuffed.
Pic: the street along the river in Granada on Easter:
Later in the afternoon we wandered into the gypsy village, which is up in the hills where all the houses are caves built into the hillside. Gypsies are alive and well in southern Spain, trying to offer you spring of herbs and distracting you by reading your palm while they rob you. At least these are the types of gypsies that tourists run into. There’s also an interesting culture behind the gypsies, and we were able to see a really cool area of caves where they live and rarely go down into town. Gypsies aren’t allowed to live in the main part of Granada, and the Muslims have to live in their own neighborhood too. I’ve discovered that Europe has a lot of these ancient stereotypes and prejudices against various minorities, so old and traditional that they really don’t have any rhyme of reason. It’s probably likely that gypsies and Muslims could live in the city center if they really wanted to, but their ancestors have lived in these designated neighborhoods for generations and it’s just a cultural norm at this point. Culture and society is so interesting in Europe, especially in a place like Granada where there’s such a mix of cultures. Society doesn’t have such a historical background in the States, so it’s a really different dynamic. I’ve experienced this in other parts of Europe, too. Weird prejudices that have no logical. Anyway, I’ll get off my rant and conclude by saying that Granada is really interesting and unique and diverse.
Easter in gypsy town.
Let’s see… Easter ended with the traditional (sarcasm) Easter dinner of falafel and then some bars with some American students that someone knew somehow.
Monday was a 14 hour bus ride back to Barcelona, and I choose to forget that day ever existed because it was more or less the most boring day of my life. Highlight: saw Alicante and Valencia from the highway. Reminded me of my Spanish campers from last summer that I so dearly loved (more sarcasm).
So now I’m back in Barcelona for the last few weeks of school. I will write about Morocco tomorrow, but I don’t know how I’ll be able to sum up that trip.
See most of you SOON! Can’t wait.
Love,
Laura
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