 |
| Day at Versailles Gardens |
 |
| Golden Gates of Versailles |
 |
| Arc de Triomph in Paris |
 |
| Penitentes leading the night Procession |
 |
| La Semana Santa in Seville, Spain |
Thursday, April 18, 2013
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!
Friday, March 22, 2013
It’s been a while since I’ve had
time to blog. I’ve been super busy with traveling and then studying for our
examen parciales (midterms), which were this week. In total, I had 5 exams and
a presentation. Needless to say, I am a little mentally-exhausted. Though the
homework load here abroad is nothing compared to the stress of school back in
the states, homework is homework and I’ve become too adjusted to the Spanish
lifestyle. However, now it’s Spring Break, which I will spend traveling to
Paris and Seville with my family so it was the perfect motivation to study hard
this past week.
At the beginning of the month, my
friend Holly and I traveled to Berlin, Germany for the extended weekend. We
spent four nights in the city and it was amazing! We arrived Thursday afternoon
and spent the day exploring the city. Originally we were planning on taking the
train to Weismar, a city in central Germany, in order to pick a bus up to visit
the concentration camp, Buchenwald. However, when we went to the train station
it turned out we bought the ticket for March instead of February. Needless to
say we were rushing around for a bit trying to replace our ticket and rearrange
our plans. Luckily, everything worked out and we changed the date of the train
tickets to be the next day. Rearranging our plans, we decided to explore the
Brandenburg Gate, Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Raghstag, Topography of Terror,
the Berlin Wall, the Gypsy memorial, Berlin Tom and the Opera. We ended the
eventful day with dinner, where we ordered and discovered the amazing
Flammkuchen. It’s basically a German-style pizza but on special artesian-cooked
dough. It was so delicious, I highly recommend for anyone who’s traveling to
Germany!
After all the troubles we had with train
tickets, we finally made it to the concentration camp. As expected, the day was
somber as we toured the grounds. The most depressing part of the tour was when
we walked through the crematory. Though there was an eerie feeling throughout
the entire camp, it was especially prevalent there. The entire camp was covered
in about two feet of snow making it impossible to see the actual foundations of
the buildings. The majority of the camp was destroyed during air raids with
only a few of the main buildings still fully intact. The places where the camp
residents stayed are completely gone except for the few foundation bricks;
however, with those two feet of snow, those few foundation bricks were
invisible. This made it a little difficult to fully grasp the magnitude of the
camp since we could only see white on the grounds but the presence of the camp
still lingered.
For our last day in Germany, we
decided to have a chiller afternoon and visit the world’s largest zoo. It was
the perfect afternoon since we had spent the other days touring historical,
educational tours. The best part was when we were watching the lions in their
den. Holly was standing in the wrong spot at the wrong time and ended up
getting peed on by the male lion- it was definitely a highlight of the trip! The
other highlight was when I got neck-chopped by a German! It sounds scary but it
was actually pretty hilarious. It all happened when Holly and I were standing
on a street corner, trying to find a restaurant when I stuck my hand out to
point across the street. I hadn’t looked behind me before sticking my arm out
so I accidently almost hit a German man walking up next to me. Seeing he was
about to get hit, his instinct (I’m assuming) was to reflect my arm but in the
process he managed to make a striking motion with his hand, which ended up
hitting my neck somehow. I was so stunned that I was speechless. Holly said I
had a red mark on my neck for the rest of the night, of course that would
happen to me of all people. In the end, though slightly frightening at the
moment, it comes out to be a pretty hilarious, memorable story.
Overall, Germany was a blast! It
was filled with days of exploring the historical museums, sights and buildings
and nights of pub hopping. We had an interesting subway trip with a group of
Italians, met a Brazilian while waiting in line to enter the world’s best night
club and we spent our last night getting to know a German soldier. It was the
perfect trip and I can’t wait for the next!
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Spent the day in Gibraltar this
past weekend. My friend’s parents were visiting and had an extra seat in their
car so I tagged along for an unexpected daytrip to Southern Spain. Gibraltar, a
2.5-hour drive from Granada, is technically not Spain territory. It’s a British
colony, a nation of its own with 30,000 residents called Gibraltarians. This
colony is known for the Rock of Gibraltar and the Strait of Gibraltar. The rock
was used for defensive purposes during past wars and for strategic tunnels
during World War II.
Crossing the border, the guards
barely looked at our passports and were yelling at us in English, which was a
change coming from Spain. Parts of Gibraltar were beautiful such as the Queens
Quay and Marina, the Rock, Main Street and surrounding coastline but I feel
spending one day in Gibraltar is sufficient enough for tourists. The island is
also inhabited by monkeys, which are scattered across the city, chilling on
garbage cans, roofs, the Rock and just wandering around. If you traveled to the
top of the Rock you were able to actually hold one but I stayed in the city
center.
On our way back to Granada we
stopped at a coastal city to spend some time by the Mediterranean Sea. We parked
right next to the beach and chilled on/strolled the coastline. This was right
during sunset hour so the ocean and beach was even more beautiful! We skipped
rocks (attempted to), wrote in the sand, ran into some fisherman and explored
the coastal line. This was my favorite part of the day, simply being next to
the ocean with the waves and breeze. It was so refreshing to be in the open
scenery since every day of mine is spent in the middle of a busy city.
This week Holly and I leave for
Berlin, Germany on Thursday! I’m so excited to travel to Germany! The weather is
supposed to be pretty cold (30º F or so) which I’m not looking forward to. So
far, we have planned to visit a concentration camp (Buchenwald), the Berlin
Wall (what’s left of it), Gardens and lots of museums. Just need to get through
these three days of class (we don’t have classes this Thursday or Friday) and
we’ll be off to spend the end of the week/weekend in Berlin!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)