Semana Santa/Spring Break

As some of you know Semana Santa is one of the biggest holidays, if not the biggest, in Spain. The entire week before Easter Sunday is celebrated with religious processionals throughout different areas in Spain, the most popular being in Andalucia (where Granada is) and Castilla-Leon (where Valladolid is). Well I was going to miss most of the processionals since I planned on going to Lagos, Portugal from Monday until Friday night so I went with some friends to see two of the processionals on the first Sunday of Semana Santa. The two processionals I saw were for the children. In the processional, the children were dressed up as priests, altar boys/girls, peasants (from Christ's time), the traditional andalucian attire and nazarenos (which are the tunic and hood outfits).

The specific day I saw the processionals was on Palm Sunday so you will see some children carrying dried palm leaves that were blessed by a priest before leaving the church. Now each church has its separate processional and for each processional the nazarenos wear different colors for their outfits. The nazarenos usually carry crosses or processional candles. Also, in each processional there is an "image" (imagen which is basically a statue of Mary, Jesus or a Saint that is at the altar of the church) from the church that is carried throughout the entire processional. Now processionals can last to about 2 hours (not that you watch it the whole time), but it takes a long time to go through because people from the church volunteer to carry the "image" during the processional. The image is so heavy and large there are at least 20 people underneath it carrying it and each person carries at least 25 kilos on one shoulder (about 50 pounds). They walk very slowly so that they don't trip on the streets or get too tired carrying the image. They do stop to rest as well. Hmmm....I'm not sure what else is important to know. Well, enjoy the pictures and if you have questions post them here or email me! :)
Here you can see the two altar girls in front carrying a basket of flowers with the rest of the processional behind them.
Here are some of the children dressed as peasants carrying the blessed palm leaves.
Here are children dressed as "nazarenos". Yes, this looks like what you think it looks like, but definitely not what you are thinking of. (You like how I went around that?)
More altar kids and some Spaniards watching the processional.
Adult "nazarenos" carrying a large cross.
The image of the first processional of Jesus on a bull with, I think, Saint John the Baptist (forgive me if I'm wrong).
The girl in front is wearing a traditional Andalucian outfit.
At the end of each processional there is a band. The bands play music called "senatas" that are specifically played during Semana Santa and there are no words that accompany the music.
This is the second processional. The image is of the Virgin of Peace.

For Spring Break, I decided to go to Lagos in southern Portugal with the 3 other girls in my group. It is a small town with beautiful beaches. There were some tourists there besides us. The town was beautiful, and the Portuguese were extremely friendly and kind. Four out of the five days that we were there, we spent at the beach reading, napping and enjoying the beautiful sun. It was a very calm and relaxing trip, which is really what I wanted. We didn't travel or do the tourist thing; we just hung out the whole time. One of the days, Katie and I roamed the streets of Lagos and visited the different small shops in the town. It was fun because a lot of the shops sold hand made crafts and they had really unique items for sale. I bought a pair of some really pretty glass earrings and a decorative hairpiece...hard to explain. Our hostel was really nice and a 10-15 minute walk to the beach, which was perfect. I got some really amazing pictures because the water was just an amazing shade of blue and sea green. Besides, Lagos was an incredible place to take pictures....so enjoy.
Here I am...obviously...in front of one of the ten beaches in Lagos. The water is so beautiful!
The lighthouse at the end of Lagos.
In front of batata (potato) beach. This was on our first day.
Mikayla, Anna and Katie in front of our hostel. You can see a little of the town behind them.
Footprints in the sand.

Really cool looking stairs going down to a look-out point.
Peaceful.

L'Amo Italia

Italy...AGAIN!!!

Yes, I did indeed go to Italy for the 3rd time! Lucky, I know. I just love it so much and I was able to see a new side of Italy, the true Italy. My friend Jessica, who I met while studying in Santander, invited me to come stay with her and her family in Italy for 5 days. She lives in a small town called Castelvetro, which is tiny, but beautiful with its green landscapes. Her family has a 3 story house (...WOW...) and she lives with her twin brother on the top floor (like a private apartment because each level has a door that you enter through) and her parents live on the second floor (where one of the rooms has a movie screen...they have their own small theater!). She has an older sister who lives in Milan.

Anyway, I went last Saturday, March 28th, to visit her and stayed until this past Wednesday. She also has a female cat, Gatto (cat in Italian, named after cat in Breakfast at Tiffany's) who actually liked me because she continuously sat on my lap for me to pet her and she has a dog named Lilli who was adorable. Her mom was so sweet to me and made me REALLY good Italian pasta.

So the first night we went out to dinner with her friends, Silvia and Mauro, who both speak English and were really friendly with me. We had pizza...of course and walked around in the rain for a little bit.

The second day we went to the city of Cremona which was beautiful and has a lot of venetian architecture. It rained the whole day so we didn't do much, but we visited the cathedral which was really nice and had Gelato...a must! When we got back to her house we watched a movie and just talked and played Wii....finally! It was pretty fun.
The tower of Cremona. It is the largest tower in all of Europe...just an interesting fact.
Il Duomo di Cremona
Jessica and I in Cremona...even though it rained we still enjoyed the city, with some gelato!

The third day, Mauro offered for us to visit him in the city of Brescia (pronounced bresha) because it is where he goes to med school. Brescia was absolutely beautiful. It is a half medieval and half renaissance town. When you walk around you can really notice the difference. There are some Roman ruins, that have been found underneath the cities roads, which are really cool. Mauro gave us history on the city as well as information about the different churches within the city. We visited over 10 cathedrals, all so unique and beautiful in various ways. We had panini and some really good, but extremely strong Italian coffee. Italians really know how to make their coffee.
Jessica & I in front of one of the hundreds (well maybe not that many) medieval fountains in Brescia. There are so many fountains in the town because the townsfolk used to drink water from them.
Medieval next to a more modern building. This was a bell tower...we were able to hear the bells chime...yay!
Mauro and Jessica in front of the church on the highest hill in Brescia. This one we actually went into and the cloisters were very beautiful. This monastery is now a museum.
This was in the monastery of the pic with Mauro and Jessica. This (I forgot what it is called, but it is used to hold the goblet for communion) was used a long time ago when priests gave their sermons with their back facing the pews. The sermons were placed on the front of this so that if a priest forgot a part of it, he could look at it to remember what he was to say. This amused me very much. :D
One area of the roman ruins. This was a temple, but is now a home to many stray cats.
This is a side view (I do have a front view of this) of the main cathedral in Brescia. It is very beautiful and completely made from white marble. Unfortunately it was closed. Mauro said that this cathedral was built by Mussolini; he also pointed out other buildings that were built under Mussolini and all have one thing in common. They're all very tall and large buildings, to demonstrate his power...hmmm

The last full day I had with Jes, we went to Castella'rqcuato (yes I did learn how to pronounce all the cities I visited) with her mother. She actually drove us to the city because Jes' brother had their car. Castella'rqcuato was completely medieval and empty! There was no one there, but it was fun roaming around the empty streets. We walked through some gardens, walked up to the castle (it just so happened the Saturday before there was a medieval reenactment there), we had gelato (of course) and took lots of pictures. If you're wondering, Jes' mother does not speak English although she knows a few words and with her little bit of English, my little bit of Italian and Jes translating, we were able to communicate.
Jessica and her Mom, Cosetta, in Castella'rqcuato. Behind them you can see a small part of the castle.
The amazing medieval castle from a distance.
Gatto....how can you resist a face like this?
Jessica and I. Photo taken by her mom; it was hilarious hearing Jessica speaking Italian to try to explain to her mom how to use a camera!
Beautiful landscapes and patios.
Used as an old entrance into the city.

The last day was mostly traveling and it was so much fun staying with Jessica and her family. Her mom even gave me pesto and linguine to take home so I can make some authentic and delicious Italian pasta! I can't wait. They invited me to go back and visit them whenever I come back to Europe, maybe next year? Anyway, it was a lot of fun. And as you can see from my pictures, it was absolutely beautiful.

Love and Kisses, Celeste