And I, I took the one less traveled by...: Semana Santa

Sorry I've been a little absent lately but I didn't want to do a post until after Semana Santa was over and I could talk about all of my travels! First off, a little background on Semana Santa: it's a week long celebration that leads up to Easter. It's called Holy Week and all during the week the many churches have processions through the streets. Each procession leads to the Cathedral in the center of town, then makes its way back to their home churches. Sevilla has literally been taken over by the crowds this week due to Semana Santa but it's truly an incredible sight to see.

To begin my week long break for Semana Santa, Ginny and I traveled to Barcelona to meet up with Ginny's parents, her sister, and her sister's friend. All of them were on Spring Break so they decided to come see her in Spain since we were both on break too! Ginny and I arrived on Saturday and made our way to Camp Nou to see another fútbol game! Barca was playing Athletic Club. We had some awesome seats once again and were able to watch Barca win 3-1! On Sunday, Ginny's family arrived and we took them on a short tour of the street we were staying on and then we all had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe! Nothing like some good ole fashion Amurican food in Spain to make you miss home haha! On Monday we all got up early to have a tour guide show us some iconic places in Barcelona that are a must see! These places included Park Güell, La Sagrada Familia, and 2 of the Gaudí houses. My favorite sight from the whole trip was seeing La Sagrada Familia. I had studied the cathedral in my Spanish Art and Architecture class only a week before and it was incredible how much detail adorned the church. The inside was just as impressive with its soaring ceilings and colorful stained glass windows. Although the church isn't scheduled to be completed until the year 2026, I would love to be able to come back and visit it someday when it's all finished. That night, we went to this very nice restaurant by the harbor. The restaurant didn't have a menu but rather just kept bringing out multiple appetizers. I was feeling very adventurous, or maybe it was the wine, but I tried pâté (duck liver), clams, snails, and prawns. None of it was as bad as I thought and now I can cross those things off my list of things that I can say I've tried. The next day, Tuesday, we had another tour of the old part of town, as well as a tour of the Picasso Museum. Ginny and I left Barcelona on Tuesday evening to head back to Sevilla. It was so nice to get to catch up with her family and I fell in love with Barcelona!

On Tuesday night I came back home, stayed the night, then left Wednesday morning for my second trip of the week, Málaga! Málaga is a beach town about a 2 and a half hour train ride from Sevilla. I was meeting up with my long lost traveling friend Mollie, who is currently studying in Scotland but came to Sevilla to visit! Mollie and I got to the train station early and we had some breakfast before the train left. We must have gotten caught up in conversation during breakfast because all of a sudden I looked down at my watch and realized we had 10 minutes to catch our train. This wouldn't be too hard to do since the station isn't that big, unfortunately we boarded the wrong train and had to literally sprint to make it to the right train! The second Mollie and I boarded the right train, the doors closed and it started moving...talk about close call! But we finally made it to Málaga, survived the city bus transportation, and made it to our eclectic, Moroccan themed hostel that had an amazing view of the beach! Once we were settled into our room, Mollie and I took a casual stroll on the beach, found a little restaurant, and had some awesome seafood paella! That night we decided to go to a Flamenco show, which was my first Flamenco show ever! We ate dinner while watching Flamenco in a quaint little restaurant called Vino Mio. As soon as we left the restaurant and walked out the doors we realized that Málaga was taken over by Semana Santa processions! We decided to enjoy the chaos and followed the processions for a little ways and then explored the city at night. It's a very pretty city and it definitely reminds me of a beach town, with all the palm trees and the ocean breeze. After exploring we went back to our hostel and just hung out with some new people that we met that were also staying in the hostel. Thursday morning we had a free walking tour scheduled. Some people that we had met at our hostel decided to join in the walking tour with us. It was a very interesting walking tour and we all learned a lot about the city and its history. We also had an awesome German tour guide, Tony, who made the tour funny and interesting at the same time. She was awesome! After the tour Tony suggested a local tapas place for lunch called El Tapy. So me, Mollie, and 3 of our new friends from the hostel went to check it out! It was a neat little place that was packed with locals. We had tapas that covered our whole table and enough Sangria and Tinto de Verano to last us the whole day! Needless to say, I went home with a happy tummy. Once we all got back to the hostel, I decided to be a true Spaniard and take a siesta. For dinner that night, we both stayed at the hostel (which offered dinner and had a bar) and ate some hamburgers, cous cous, roasted potatoes, and some barbecue (which in Spain is just hearty pieces of meat). Afterwards we made some more friends and just spent the night talking. I really got to know the girls we shared a room with and it was awesome to meet them and stay with them for the 3 days we were there. On Friday we had to check out in the morning but my train and Mollie's flight didn't leave until that night so we left our luggage at the hostel and went exploring again. We went to a lookout point where you could see the whole city of Málaga as well as some awesome views of the Mediterranean Sea, which I can now say I've dipped my toes in! I made it back to Sevilla that night and just crashed because I was so tired from all the traveling! I was so glad to be back and to not have to live out of a suitcase anymore.

Now that I've been back in Sevilla I decided to take advantage of the last couple days of Semana Santa and go see some of the processions. I was able to see 2 processions from churches that are super close to my house. It's amazing to see all the people that have come out to see the processions. It's really an incredible tradition and now I'm excited to say I've witnessed it. All in all, my Semana Santa break has been amazing! Me encanta España!