La Segunda Parte de Semana Santa: Granada y Sevilla

I woke up early en la mañana de Lunes to grab a cab and catch my flight back to Madrid to finally see my parents! I got into Madrid around 10 and waited for possibly the longest dos horas de mi vida for Mom and Dad to land almost two hours later. I’m sure you can guess, but it was a very happy hello, with a few tears of joy shed and plenty of hugs to go around! Over the moon to be conjuntos, we jumped on the metro and headed to Cristina’s apartment to get my bag of winter things to send back home and so Mom and Dad could meet Cristina! We got to my apartment building where first Mom and Dad got to meet Gregorio and his son David before heading up to meet Cristina. It was such a treat to have my parents meet Cristina because, obviously, she’s been a big part of my life for the past three and a half months! Mom and Dad loved having the opportunity to thank her for taking care of me and I think Cristina enjoyed meeting my parents since she usually doesn’t get to when parents come to visit during Semana Santa. We all enjoyed some ice cold water (quite the rarity in Spain) on la terraza and had a nice conversation, with some translation involved, about each other’s plans for Semana Santa and just getting to know one another. And of course I can’t forget Greta! She’s no Betty or Belle but I’ve loved having un perro to make things feel like home. It was finally time to go check in to nuestro apartamento off Gran Via which ended up being the perfect place for us to enjoy our time in Madrid, as well as store equipaje durante nuestro tiempo en Granada y Sevilla! We took a minute to just enjoy all being together and my dad surprised me with DIET DEWS, which he had carefully packed in his suitcase as a surprise for me! Tenemos hambre, so the three of us grabbed a quick bite to eat in the plaza near our apartment before mom and dad embraced la cultura Española and took a siesta while I ran to pick up some groceries from Corte Ingles. We spent the rest of the evening taking a paseo down Gran Vía and in Sol before a delicious dinner at Cornucopia!

After hitting snooze once or twice, we were all finally up and moving as we made our way to pick up our coche and start our Spanish road trip to Granada, Sevilla, and then back to Madrid! Once we made it to Granada (without a hitch, thanks to Dad’s European driving skills), we had to navigate the car through the little cobblestones streets of la ciudad in order to get to our incredible hotel, Casa Morisca. Pictures can’t even begin to relay how neat the hotel was, not to mention the incredible view of the city and La Alhambra that we had! Excited to explore the city, we walked towards Plaza Nueva and grabbed almuerzo at La Bella y La Bestia, which translates to Beauty and the Beast!

Mom and Dad at Casa Morisca

Lunch at La Bella y La Bestia

We spent the afternoon just taking in the city and enjoying its wonderful atmosphere before happening upon some las procesiones de Semana Santa! For anyone who didn’t know what to expect, it could have been a little unnerving at first but it was such a sight that I really don’t know how to put into words but hopefully los fotos y el video can help! I even made some new Spanish friends during the procession, who had precious kids and asked me to au pair! As nice as they were, I told them lo siento but Spartanburg was calling me!

The women in the Semana Santa procession

Cathedral where the procession ended

That evening we were wowed by la vista de la Alhambra at night and finished our night off with una cena increíble a la Mirador de Morayma, which we discovered later is one of Gwyneth Paltrow’s favorites! It was a lovely atmosphere, on the garden terrace that looked out towards the Alhambra! Stuffed from la comida deliciosa, we walked back to our hotel only to come upon a night-time procession, which seemed to have a more sacred and somber tone than the afternoon procession but was just as beautiful.

Granada at night

The Alhambra

La Mirador de Morayma

Night procession

Excited for our Miércoles and tour of la Alhambra y Generalife, we got an early start and made our way to Plaza Nueva to meet our tour guide. We started our tour in el Generalife, which are the gardens at the palace that were, no surprise, absolutely beautiful and gave us a great view of not only la ciudad de Alhambra, but also of the city of Granada. From there Carmen took us through the three palaces, all unique and incredible. It was quite the tour! Afterwards we walked back down to Plaza Nueva and grabbed lunch in Albaicín next to el Rio Darro before hopping in the car and heading towards Sevilla!

La ciudad de la Alhambra

Once we reached Sevilla, we checked into our hotel and took a paseo through el parque de Maria Luisa until we reached Plaza de España, where we took in the beautiful architecture before heading to el barrio de Santa Ana for una cena de tapas. Mom and Dad got a taste of the Spanish culture by eating dinner at 10pm and trying the croquetas and jamón ibérico. It was another wonderful evening, full of people watching and another procession! On our way back to the hotel, we made our way through the crowded plazas as everyone got ready to watch another procession before calling it a night. We woke up Thursday morning to lluvia but rather than letting it affect nuestros planes, we grabbed an umbrella and made our way towards the cathedral to enjoy un desayuno español with tostados con jamón ibérico and then touring the beautiful Gothic cathedral that had a special altar out for Semana Santa, as well as a hike to the top of the bell tower where you could take in the whole city. Deciding it was time to make our way back to Madrid, we grabbed Dad un café Americano from, yes, Starbucks, and drove back to Madrid in la tormenta. Once we made it back to our apartment and dried off from downpour, we hopped a cab to finally head to Lateral! The weather ended up working in our favor, as many people decided to stay in, so we were able to get a table and enjoy a delicious dinner of everything from brochetas de pollo y croquetas to ensaladas y jamón ibérico con brie fundido.

Plaza de Espana en Sevilla

Madrid!

Cathedral in Sevilla

La Primera Parte de Semana Santa: “Este es la razón que tomas un paseo.”

Margaret and I started our Semana Santa off with an extremely relaxing weekend in Valencia, one of Spain’s communities that lies on the Mediterranean coast. We left Madrid muy temprano en la manana de Viernes and hopped on a quick flight to Valencia, arriving by lunch time! I even happened to run into two of my Wofford amigas en el aeropuerto! For our long weekend on the coast, Margaret and I stayed at the Hilux Feet Up hostel, which was interesante to say the least! Every room had a different theme, ranging from Asian to Flamenco, but we definitely hit the jackpot with our safari-themed room! We settled in and enjoyed a siesta before taking a long paseo around the old part of the town the rest of the afternoon. We took in lots of sites like La Lonja, Los Torres (towers), and happened upon a beautiful church named after “San Juan del Hospital.” As Margaret and I continued to say for the rest of the weekend, “this is why you paseo.”  Recommended by our new mejor amigo Marco, Margaret and I enjoyed mi primero paella at El Forca. Paella originated in Valencia so we knew we couldn’t go wrong with Paella Valencia, which has arroz, pollo, pato y verduras.

Safari-themed room!

Los Torres

Famous for La Ciudad de las Ciencias y los Artes, it was easy to plan out our Saturday! We enjoyed breakfast at the hostel and then made our way over to the aquarium where we saw all sorts of animales, like whales, walruses, dolphins, sea lions, penguins, and even a few sharks! We felt like little kids because of how cool we thought it all was (don’t think we didn’t consider the “spend the night with the sharks” option…) and loved every minute! Deciding we needed a little Mexican food fix, we enjoyed almuerzo mexicano at La Mariacha near the aquarium and kept our fingers crossed that the sun would come out. (I feel like I should confess that Saturday was a bit overcast, but being the determined pale abroad girls we are, Margaret and I still wore our bathing suits and sundresses determined to go to the beach and get a tan after the aquarium.) Realizing it wasn’t our day for sol, we started un otro paseo back towards the old district where our hostel was when the sun finally came out! We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and enjoying el buen tiempo en el Rio parque. We finished our evening with tapas y una copa de vino tinto at Divina and planned nuestro día a la playa for Sunday.

La Ciudad de las Ciencias y los Artes

Marge & I

Morsa (walrus)

We even ran into a protest! Luckily it was more a walk than anything.

Domingo: Finally our beach day! Enjoying an extra hour or two of sleep, we hopped out of bed and onto the bus headed to la playa, ready to bronceador! Realizing it may still be a little early (and that we should give the sun a few extra minutes to warm things up), we stopped for lunch at un café pequeno along the beachfront and then spent the rest of the day laying out. (Foreshadowing: Marco, who works at the hostel, warned us that Valencia is known for el viento a la playa that prevents you from realizing how much sun you’re actually getting.) It was a wonderful afternoon and mi primera visita al mar mediterráneo, which was surprisingly chilly but beautiful. After about 4 horas, mas o menos, on the beach, we proved to be examples A and B of what Marco said, being the slightly sunburned Americanas for the rest of the evening. If being blonde and taller than the majority of Spain wasn’t even to make a girl stand out, raccoon eyes from a bad sunglasses tan definitely does! Sunburned or not, Marge and I had a great girls’ weekend that was the perfect way to start our Semana Santa. Now, she’s off to las Islas Canarias and I’m going back to Madrid to finally see my parents!!!

La playa

Valencia

La Visita de Nana y un Fin de Semana con Buen Tiempo en Madrid

After a great weekend in Amsterdam, it was time trabajar with my grupo de clase literatura on our presentation on the book Una Palabra Tuya (I definitely don’t recommend it, it’s not exactly una novela feliz.) After a successful presentación on Miércoles, it was time to get ready for la visita de Nana, mi abuela! Nana arrived to Madrid early Thursday morning and made it to her hotel where I met her for un abrazo grande before heading to my classes for the day. She ended up walking back with me to my apartment, which was right down the street, and met my simpático portero, Gregorio, as well as Lizzy and Greta! After that, Nana headed back to the hotel to take a nice siesta while I headed to my classes. Once I finished mis asignaturas for the day (and the week), I picked up Nana and we had a delicious lunch at La Nicoletta, a great Italian restaurant in mi barrio, and even popped into Museo Sorolla afterwards! We spent the rest of our afternoon walking down Gran Via and through Parque Oeste and even managed to squeeze a late afternoon Coca-Light in at Rodilla. As suppertime rolled around, I’m sure you can guess where Nana, some of my friends (Margaret, Lizzy, Kayla, Anne, Emily, JJ, and Anne’s friend Duffy), and I went for dinner – LATERAL! We had a great cena de tapas wonderful company and plenty of laughs!

Nana and I started our Viernes en Madrid off with breakfast at her hotel and then headed to el museo del Prado to take in the famous works of El Greco, Goya, Velazquez, Titian, and Murillo. (http://www.museodelprado.es/) Nana was blown away by all the Prado had to offer and we had a wonderful morning exploring the museum and I loved being able to teach her about las pinturas that I had already learned about in mi clase de la historia del arte! Following the Prado, Nana and I took a stroll to Retiro, a famous park in Madrid, for some lunch in the some and un montón de “people-watching,” from people walking throughout the park or the brave ones who had rented a row boat. (That was quite the site – while some people managed, others seemed to have given up and decided to bronceador en el sol instead.) Next stop: el famoso Corte Ingles. I’m sure I’ve mentioned Corte before but my friends and I describe it as the child of Walmart and Macy’s or Nordstrom’s. There are literally siete pisos of any and everything you could need! Nana loved it and we even managed to squeeze a little shopping in! We finished our night with a stroll around nuestro barrio and a yummy dinner at Wagaboo, a sort-of Asian infusion restaurant on el calle Martinez-Campos.

Entrance to Retiro!

Taking advantage of el buen tiempo that we were starting to have in Madrid, Nana and I did a bit of our own walking tour to Palacio Real, the bakery of the nuns, and Plaza Mayor on Saturday morning/early afternoon. Nana managed to pick up a few Spanish souvenirs along the way before we met a few of my friends at Cien Montaditos (a 100 little sandwiches) in Sol for lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering down Fuencarral before a quick siesta and a dinner at Cornucopia. Nana flew out muy temprano en la mañana de Domingo for Germany but even her quick visit was wonderful! I loved having another visitor and can’t wait for my next visitors, Mom and Dad!! (PS, sorry for the lack of pictures on this section! Nana wanted to play photographer so I didn’t muchos fotos this weekend.)

Palacio Real

 

View from the Palace courtyard

Bakery of the Nuns

Plaza Mayor

After another week of classes and being a bit under the weather on Thursday and Friday, I was excited for un día divertido en el Sol en el parque de Retiro on Saturday! It turned in to quite the IES gathering with almost 20 of us all enjoying the sun and people-watching. That evening, I went with a few friends to Midnight Rose, a great restaurant en la Plaza de Santa Ana, to celebrate my friend Emily’s birthday. We had an incredible dinner that was followed by a great view of Madrid durante el noche on the terrace bar. (Random fact: Cindy Crawford’s marido owns this bar!)

Rootop bar for Emily's birthday!

(Adina, Kaitlin, Emily, Olivia, Sari, Marge, Hannah)

With Semana Santa (Spain’s national version of spring break) being only a few days away, it was time to trabajar some more on Sunday and start on mis composiciones y trabajo del campo. The rest of that week involved lots of work, with my trabajo del campo presentation about Flamenco on Wednesday, as well as el ultimo día de mi clase de la historia del arte at the museum, and the IES vs. Spanish partido del futbol! Needless to say, I was muy contenta when Thursday afternoon rolled around and I was able to get excited and pack for Semana Santa, which means a fun weekend with Margaret in Valencia before an amazing week in Granada/Sevilla/Madrid with mis padres starting Monday!!