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

Ronda y Malaga-home of Antonio Banderas

Hey everyone,

I hope you all are doing well and that everything is going well in your lives. Miss you all very much and hope I can see you all when I get back to the states...June 1st!

So new blog: Ronda and Malaga, March 21&22

With my program we went to the province of Malaga and visited the small town of Ronda, which was beautiful, and the capital city, Malaga. Ronda is a small town that is still somewhat medieval and just has beautiful landscapes and lots of plants and trees everywhere. I don't honestly remember much from the visit because the guide wasn't very interesting, but we visited an old Arab bath that used to be used by the nobles. We watched a hilariously poorly made CGI film on what the baths used to look like and how the different rooms were used.

Then we walked around the town a little bit and saw the little homes and the "Lord of the Rings" look-a-like bridge. It was really nice. We had lunch outside and just looked at the gardens that were near us. It was wonderful because the whole town smelt like flowers because all the plants were in bloom!
Cool fountain with big orange fish!
The city of Ronda.
Katie, Maggie and I
The Lord of the Rings bridge...pretty impressive!
How amazing would it be to live there?!


Around 4:30pm we drove from Ronda to Malaga. When we arrived in Malaga, we wanted to go to the beach but by the time we got there it was dark. Unfortunately, we didn't have time the next day because the only other free time we had was when I was going to visit the Picasso museum. So Saturday evening, the girls and I just hung out at the hotel and watched random German tv shows and then we headed out for dinner. We went to a really good restaurant where we had some tapas and tinto verano (wine with lemon juice).

On Sunday, we took a walking tour around the city of Malaga. It was actually really fun. Malaga wasn't as pretty as I thought it would be. The area by the port is beautiful, but most of the city is very touristy so it wasn't too exciting. I got to see the port, a really cool old roman fortress, the outside of the beautiful cathedral, plaza mayor which was actually pretty small for being the main plaza, and the Picasso museum. I really liked the Picasso museum because it had some of his earlier work as well as his later work and some sketches he had done. I really like his earlier work; I'm not one for the abstract stuff, although I feel like I kind of understand why/how he painted the way he did. We had free time for lunch and the girls and I walked around for a little while and then headed back to Granada. It was a short trip, but a good one and very relaxing.
The girls and I in front of the Cathedral in Malaga. I loved the marble doorways!
The Roman Fortress...so pretty!
The main street in Malaga
Cool fish fountain in the Roman Fortress.
Gardens!

The port in Malaga.
Cool statue

Tomorrow (March 27) I'm going to Italy to visit my Italian friend Jessica, who I met in Santander, and I'll be staying with her until Tuesday. I'm so excited and we are going to visit some cities that are near her town. I hope to hear from you all soon!

Besos, Celeste

Flamenco, Toros y La Mezquita

Alright, this is LOOOOOOONG overdue, but here it is. The weekend of the 20th-22nd of February is when I went with ISA (my study abroad group) to two beautiful cities of Andalucia, Sevilla and Cordoba. Friday and Saturday night we stayed in Sevilla and then spent Sunday in Cordoba and drove back to Granada during the late afternoon on Sunday. Sevilla was absolutely beautiful and so much fun. For a large city, it has a very small city feel to it which was nice; I didn't feel bombarded like I sometimes do in Madrid (which is somewhat like New York). I saw so much, but I would like to return if possible.

Sevilla 20th and 21st
Our first evening in Sevilla, we were given a mini tour of part of town where the Rio Guadalquivir runs through. It is a very long and wide river that passes through southern Spain. It was absolutely beautiful at night and warm, a light sweater was all we needed to walk around. Around 10pm we were done and it was time for dinner. With the wonderful girls from my "intensive trimester" program, we went to a really good Italian restaurant that was along the river. It was actually a really cool place and they had really random pictures of American celebrities posted everywhere. We shared a pitcher of Sangria and talked about our plans for the next day.

On Saturday, everyone went on a tour of Sevilla to see the highlights of the city. We walked around the streets that were least populated, which was nice to not see hundreds of people around, and visited La Alcazar. This used to be an Arabic palace, but when Los Reyes Catolicos (Isabel and Fernando) expelled all the Muslims from Andalucia they converted the palace into a Catholic palace. They didn't destroy the structure; they kept the architecture the same. The palace has some small gardens, but lots of patios which are full of beautiful plants and fountains. We also went underground where the royal family used to bathe in a very long "bathtub".

We then visited the Cathedral of Sevilla, which is the 3rd largest Cathedral in all of Spain after Toledo and Salamanca...I've been fortunate to now have visited all 3! The Cathedral is very large and open. This is where Christopher Columbus' corpse now is buried. It's actually in a very large stone tomb and there are 4 statues of guards carrying the tomb and each guard has a coat of arms on their chest. There are 4 coats of arms that represent the 4 most powerful areas of Spain: Castilla-Leon, Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha and Navarra. One of the guards has a spear that is stabbing a pomegranate, which represents Granada. It is actually really cool. We were then given free time for the rest of the day. Before we left the cathedral we walked to the top of the bell tower to see all of Sevilla...all I can say is.... que impresionante!!!

We walked around for a little while and found a quaint little restaurant, with a terrace outside, where we decided to eat so that we could enjoy the sun. I ordered paella (which is from Valencia) and it was pretty good; of course I didn't get any mariscos with it. We all really wanted to see the Plaza de Toros (the bullfighting "stadium") in Sevilla because it's one of the more famous ones. We took a tour of the inside of the plaza and then saw the museum where there were outfits and pictures of famous toreros and even some heads of more famous bulls...yes, these bulls were famous. It was really interesting to see and it is actually very beautiful. The bottom of the plaza is painted yellow to represent the sand in the plaza and the top is painted white, I think for purity, and then all the trimmings and borders are a deep red for the bull's blood. A lot of buildings in Sevilla were painted like this and I found them beautiful. Later, we walked around for awhile and went back to the hotel to rest a little bit.

That evening we saw a Flamenco show because we decided that if we are going to see one in Spain, it should be in Sevilla. Anna had a book on Sevilla and it recommended this small flamenco place. We walked there, bought the tickets, and then went to get tapas an hour before the show. The show was incredible! We were seated in a patio that was in the center of the building we were in but without a roof. It was decorated beautifully with bowls of water with floating flowers and vines going up and down the sides of the walls. In the center of the patio was the small platform and three chairs behind it. There was a guitarist, a singer and two flamenco dancers, one male and one female. It was an hour long show and one of the most moving things I've seen in my life. Something about the flamenco guitar and the singing mixed with the dancing really moves me emotionally. I really enjoyed it and both dancers were spectacular! Enjoy the pictures, we were allowed 5 minutes at the end to take these pictures....magnificent.
At the Plaza de Toros. The colors are just beautiful! In the picture: Anna, Me, Katie and Maggie.
The tomb of Christopher Columbus with the 4 statues symbolizing the four strong powers of Spain. The pomegranate is underneath the spear of the statue on the front right.
The "imagen" in the center of the altar in the Cathedral of Sevilla.
The Jewish quarter of Sevilla, which is behind the Alcazar.
The largest fountain/pond in Alcazar.
Katie, me and Maggie.
This is the royal bath, pretty nice, huh?
One of the patios inside the Alcazar.
If you notice, these trees were planted lower than the path you can walk on. The reason these orange trees were planted so low was so that when the trees grew to their full size, it would be easy for the people to pick the oranges from the trees....very smart people!
One of my favorite architectural designs inside the Alcazar....so beautiful.
The entrance to the Alcazar.
Gothic architecture! Sevilla's Cathedral.
The main patio outside of the Alcazar, but still within its walls.
The archway to get into the Alcazar.
One of the streets in Sevilla...look at all these colors! One of my directors said that Sevilla is so colorful because the Spaniards designed Sevilla similarly to the towns in South America...love it!
The first night in Sevilla, this is the river Guadalquivir. Sorry if it is a little blurry.
The bathroom inside of the Italian restaurant. You will never be alone in the bathroom, because you have Johnny Depp watching over you....hehe...in the guys bathroom there are pictures of female celebrities (I am told).


Statue of a Torero.
Anna, Me and Katie in front of a look-out tower on the river.
These seats belong to the Royal Family when they come to watch the bullfights.
In front of the Plaza de Toros...Katie, Anna, Mikayla, me and Maggie...what angry bulls...
The incredible flamenco dancers, singer and quitarist!
The guitarist and the male dancer. The male flamenco dancer was absolutely amazing...one of the best male dancers I've seen. I wish I could explain completely what I saw, but it is just too hard. Just incredible.

Cordoba-Sunday 22nd
We left Sevilla around 10am and then drove to Cordoba, which wasn't too far away. When we got there we were given an hour and a half to walk around and have lunch. We walked around the streets near the Mezquita and checked out the small shops. Then we had lunch at a cafe right next to the Mezquita, which was nice because we were able to admire it from afar. Then, as a group, we took a tour of the Mezquita, which is a mosque that was later turned into a Catholic church after 1492. Just to remind you, this is where Mario, my brother, studied abroad last fall. The Mezquita was so beautiful inside. It had tons of archways inside, over 800. I would imagine it used to be easy to get lost inside. In the very center of the mosque there is an altar, which was added during the Spanish inquisition after all the Muslims were removed from Spain. Thankfully, the rest of the mosque kept its design and form because it is very beautiful. I like the gardens even more. After the Mezquita, we were given a tour around the quieter part of the city which was really nice. We then headed back to Granada. Enjoy the pictures!
One of the entrances to La Mezquita...Arabic architecture is really cool.
The gardens/entrance to the Mezquita.
Inside the Mezquita...I swear I would have gotten lost in here if I were alone! (Mary-do you agree?)
View from the gardens to the dome of the Christian altar inside the Mezquita.

Besos, Celeste