It all started last Friday when I jetted off to London to meet up with my brother. He flew in from the U.S. and we spent a couple of days exploring the city. I had never been to London before, so I was a bit overwhelmed by how HUGE the city is. We did more walking in our 2 days there than I have done in a week in Sevilla. On Saturday morning we took a walking tour and saw "Royal London." We got to experience the changing of the guard and saw some of the major palaces, parks, and monuments of the city, including Westminster Abbey where the big Royal Wedding will be happening in a week! After the our we grabbed some Indiana food for lunch (yum!) and headed to East London to see a Premier League soccer game, West Ham vs. Aston Villa. The game was a lot of fun and we had great seats right behind the goal. We were right next to the visiting section that was heckling the whole game. I learned some interesting British vocabulary like "bollocks," "wanker," and "rubbish" at the game. It was really fun and I'm glad we were able to get tickets! Later that night we met up with some of my friends from Wake who are studying abroad in London and went to a pub to watch some more soccer.
The next day we set out to see the sites that we had missed on the tour the previous day. We headed down to Westminster to catch a boat ride down the Thames, but were caught off guard by the masses of people everywhere. It turns out it was the day of the London Marathon, so not only were there tons of people, but many roads were shut down, so we had to improvise a bit to get around. We checked out Parliament and took a nice cruise down the river to the Tower of London. After exploring the Tower we had some fish and chips and walked to St. Paul's cathedral. Later that day we took the Tube up to North London to visit the house that Wake Forest owns in London, the Worrell House. The Wake people gave us a nice tour and recommended an Italian restaurant nearby. The next day we were up bright and early to fly back to Spain!
After 3 great nights in London, we headed to Madrid to spend 2 nights there. I had been to Madrid before and it is one of my favorite cities, so I was excited for Steve to see it. We stayed at an awesome Hostal right in the heart of the city and were able to meet up with Julia, who was spending a few nights in Madrid before returning to Sevilla. Since it was Holy Week it was the busiest tourist week of the year and the city was just flooded with people. We did a lot more walking and saw all of the major sites of the city. Madrid has some really incredible architecture and it was cool just to wander around the city and see all of the enormous buildings. One of my favorite things that we did was on Tuesday where we spent an entire afternoon in the Parque del Buen Retiro, a huge park in Madrid. The park is massive and beautiful and Steve, Julia, and I spent the day hanging out by a pond. The next day we all grabbed breakfast together before Steve and I hopped on a bus to Spain.
This takes us to Wednesday. Throughout the whole trip we'd had great weather (in London, of all places!), but on Wednesday the rain started to fall. A little rain can definitely ruin a day if you let, but it was even more worrisome because of the Semana Santa activities taking place in Sevilla. As I've mentioned, Semana Santa is a huge religious festival in Sevilla and people come from all over to see it. It involves a series of processions (60 total) that go out in the streets on the different days of Holy Week. The processions can last from 6 hours up to 12 or more. The process through the streets as a type of penance displaying massive floats of Jesus Christ and the Virgin. One of the more disconcerting things for Americans in Spain are the robes that the "nazarenos" wear in the processions. They carry candles and perform their penitence as a part of the procession, but the robes are bit shocking because they look like the robes worn by the Ku Klux Klan in the United States. It is one of those moments where it's important to be culturally aware and respectful, because the "nazarenos" and their robes are a very important part of Semana Santa traditions with no racial undertones at all, so they should be viewed as such. The problem that Sevilla faced this Semana Santa was the rain, because the processions won't go out of the churches if it is raining due to the centuries-old fabrics used on the floats. So Steve and I arrived to Sevilla on Wednesday evening and did not see a single procession for the rest of the week because of the constant rainfall.
Despite the rain we still took to the streets and did some tourist activities. We had some great meals and I enjoyed showing him my city, but the rain made it difficult to get around. He met my friends (both American and Spanish) and we had a great time together. Finally, on Sunday morning at 4:30am the rain let up and we were able to see a procession. Typically the most beautiful and impressive parts of the processions are when they actually come out of the church, called the "salida." We were amazed at how many people were in the streets at 4:30 in the morning to see the procession. Hundreds of people gathered around the entrance to the church waiting for the procession to come out. When it finally did, it was just as impressive as I was lead to belief. A group of men called "costaleros" that carry the actual floats on their packs, which can weigh up to 5 metric tons! There is a moment where the float is pushed just to the edge of huge wooden door and you see all of the costaleros stand up at once, lifting the float into the air. Then the Spanish national anthem is played as the float starts to move forward. The procession we saw was structured something like this: first came the nazarenos carrying candles and crosses, then a float showing the Christ (in this case resurrected, because it was Easter Sunday, but in other processions it shows the Passion or Crucifixion), then more nazarenos, then a float of the Virgen surrounded by candles, followed by more nazarenos and finally the band that plays the music for the entire procession. It really was exceptional and worth the wait.
On Sunday the weather was finally a bit better so we did a lot of walking around the city. We took care of some souvenir shopping and decided to eat lunch at the Festival de Naciones, a Nations Festival that has been set up by the river for several weeks. They have food from several different countries and a variety of entertainment going on all day. We had some good food and got to see a live Flamenco show right there! Steve headed to Barcelona early this morning and now I'm sitting at home alone trying to get back into a bit of a routine. Although, Spring Break part 2 comes next week! The Feria de Abril begins on next Tuesday which is another week of vacation for university students! Lucky me! Hopefully this week will be enough time to rest up and practice my dancing before another busy week!
There are so many pictures I'd like to post, but I'll pick a select few. Enjoy!
Steve and I in London!
At the West Ham United game
Plaza de España in Madrid
Parque del Buen Retiro in Madrid
Plaza Mayor in Madrid
Nazarenos in the procession of El Resucitado (the Resurrection)
Plaza de España in Sevilla!
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