Since it’s been nearly a month since I’ve last blogged, I’ve had quite a few adventures here in Europe. Starting back towards the end of March, I spent my spring break (the last week of March) traveling around France and Spain with my mom and sister. They came for 10 days, which was quite the adventure! Spending three months here prior, it was nice to spend time with family. They flew in Friday night and we spent the night exploring Granada with tapas, dessert with the padres and ending the night at a local pub- I couldn’t have asked for a more chill night.

Sunday we departed for the city of Paris! There we spent three days exploring the city, visiting museums, chilling in cafes and of course trying to conquer the metro system. Since we always have issues while traveling, we encountered a few problems flying out from Southern Spain, which were brought on by the airline strikes occurring here in Spain. Luckily, we made it out of Spain and arrived in Paris safe and sound. Within the three days we had in this City of Love, we toured Notre Dame, Versailles, the Louvre, several museums and of course the Eiffel Tower. Luckily, our second full day there we had beautiful, sunny weather, which apparently is rare in Paris. On the sunny day we literally walked the entire city of Paris (not really but it felt like it).  Due to prior conflicts, we ended up not having a room booked for our last night in the city. Thus, we kept our fingers crossed and spent a morning searching for vacant hotel rooms. Fortunately, we found one! It was definitely nerve-racking walking around the city not having a room to stay in for that night, thinking we would possibly have to sleep at the airport, but luck was in our favor and we found a room after only a few tries.

Midway through the week we were on our way to Southern Spain (Seville) after our travels in Paris. Seville is known to be the best place to celebrate La Semana Santa (literally meaning the Week of the Saint or Holy Week in Spain) in the entire world. La Semana Santa matched exactly my spring break luckily. Everyday there is a new procession (parade), which follows the birth, prosecution, death and resurrection of Jesus. Arriving to Seville Wednesday night, we had the opportunity to watch the night procession. Walking to the site of the parade, the amount of people in the city was unbelievable. It was beyond evident that thousands of people from around the world travel to this city for the celebrations. At times, it was impossible to even walk in the streets, as it was so crowded.

Finally making it to the procession, we waited almost two hours for the parade to pass. In those two hours we waited among Spaniards who waited away the time drinking cerveza after cerveza (beer after beer) and eating bags of sunflower seeds. Soon, we heard the drums of the band and the beat of the procession. In each parade, around 30 or so men carry a float with a scene representing a specific scene of Jesus’s life. The floats can weigh as much as a semi-truck which makes these processions that much more impressive as these men are marching to the beat of the band while carrying this float on their shoulders/necks.

            Leading the parade were the penitentes- individuals dressed in the specifically colored cloaks to match the procession they are participating in. The penitentes are often mistaken for KKK members since they are dressed in the exact same attire. However, the KKK stole this outfit from the penitentes as the pointy-hat outfits carry no negative significance for the people of Spain. After the parade passed, the crowd dispersed to flock to nearby tapa bars.

           

         For the few days we spent in Seville, we witnessed several of these processions in addition to other festivals celebrating Holy Week. At times, it was a little overwhelming since we would find ourselves in a crowd of a thousand people without even trying. It was definitely a new way for us to celebrate Easter!

         Returning back to Granada, we spent our last full day together exploring the Albayzín area of the city. This part is known to be the more gypsy, hippie region of Granada. It’s from here you can watch the sunset over the city of Granada and the Alhambra. All in all it was the perfect way to celebrate my spring break- traveling around France and Spain with my mom and sister. Like always we had plenty of Amazing Race moments making it one memorable vacation, definitely one for the books!