Spring break in Spain is during what is called Semana
Santa or Holy Week. Throughout the whole week, beginning the weekend before
Easter, there are processions every day in many cities throughout Spain, which
makes for a great week to travel!
The girls from UNI on this trip were Bailey, Lara, Emma,
Emillie, Drea and me. We were spending the first weekend in Andalucía (southern
Spain) with ESN, the group through the university that is for everyone studying
abroad. Our week started at 2am on Saturday, March 31 with an eleven-ish hour
bus ride to Grenada. Once we got there, we had a city tour which, as usual,
brought us to the highest point of the city for us to take pictures. Drea,
Lara, and I went with a group to get tapas that afternoon during free time, and
then we continued our tour around the city, singing Spanish songs as a group at
the top of our lungs, dancing, and having fun. We all took a little siesta when
we got back to our hostel that night, then got ready and went out for the
night. The next morning, Emma and Emillie were chosen among some other people to
get up early and go with the coordinators to buy tickets to the Alhambra for
the huge group of us. I pretended to be asleep while that was happening so I could
sleep in longer. :) But eventually, we
got up and took the bus to the Alhambra. Because it is HUGE and we didn’t exactly
know what we were seeing, we decided that since part of it reminded us of the
maze in the Triwizard Tournament from Harry Potter, we were going to act out
the maze scene on Bailey’s camera. I was Victor Krum. It was interesting to say
the least, but it made the Alhambra very memorable! Next, we were off to
Malaga! We first took the bus to the castle (highest point of the city, and a
famous castle) where we toured in the rain. After the tour we took the bus back
into the city where we saw our first Semana Santa procession! It was nothing like
anything I’ve ever seen in the US, but very interesting and cool. That night,
we went to a restaurant on the water for tapas, which was beautiful!
Standing in the Alhambra!
View from the castle in Malaga!
Semana Santa Procession in Malaga.
Plaza de Espana in Sevilla: there are murals of all the cities of Spain surrounding this plaza, and this is the Oviedo mural!
All of us girls with Ruben (yellow shirt) and Jose (green shirt)!
The next morning, we left for SEVILLA (Seville)! This has
been my favorite city in Spain since I was there two years ago with Mom. It was
the only city I had every desire to return to, and my friends got very sick of
hearing me talk all about my LOVE for Sevilla. Once we got there, however, my
friends quickly understood. The city is just so darn pretty, there’s no way
someone couldn’t fall in love with it! We had some free time right when we got
there, but since it was raining, we went to a restaurant and ordered burgers
and fries and got ice cream for dessert. :) It cleared up after a little while,
thank goodness, for our tour around the city with the group. The sad part about
this day was that it was our last day with ESN. Our flight out to the Canaries
left from Sevilla Tuesday morning, and ESN was leaving for Cordoba at Monday
night. So at around 7pm, we walked back with the group to get our suitcases out
of the bus, and say goodbye. :( We had all gotten so close with the tour guides,
Ruben and Jose, and the whole group, that it made for a sad goodbye. But after
the bus left, we were on our own in Sevilla! Stop one was to find our hostel.
Well, since we’re in Spain, of course it started raining during this walk. As
we sped up, we found out we couldn’t get to our street because of the
processions, so we back tracked to where the bus left us and got two taxis. The
taxi driver then informed us that because of the processions, he could only
drive us to the street of our hostel, and we’d still have a walk. We decided
that it would be worth it since we were hoping the rain would clear up while we
rode. We were wrong. When we got out of the taxi, it was DOWNPOURING. We got
our suitcases and took off running down the street in search for our hostel. Many
people lined the streets with umbrellas, or standing under shelters, but we
thought it would be best if we just ran. I did not have an umbrella. I think it’s
safe to say that we made many people’s day that day, running through the
streets wheeling multiple suitcases, SOAKING wet. When we got to the hostel
finally, I was dripping on the floor, my clothes completely drenched…I may as
well have just jumped into the lake. We just laughed about it; it was quite the
experience. And I still love Sevilla. After checking in, we went up to change
our clothes and settle in for the night. We went to the supermarket for a quick
dinner and went to sleep early.
The next morning we got up and made our way to the
airport to go to the CANARIES! There was a strike going on that day among
airline workers or something, so we had a few delays, but we made it there
eventually! We took the bus to the part of the island that we were staying on
then walked along the water to our hostel. It was different than I was expecting…since
it’s right off Africa, it was pretty desert-y and not tropical, but still a
beach and gorgeous of course! We checked into our hostel, which turned out to
be a GREAT hostel. We had a whole floor to ourselves, complete with our own
full kitchen, two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and a living area. All for only
12 euro each per night! The owner, Manuel, was very friendly and helpful. We
also met Pepe, a 23-year-old from Poland who is backpacking around by himself, who
set out our breakfast for us every morning and worked around the hostel,
changing the beds and mostly doing the dirty work. We hung out with him a lot
throughout the week; he spoke great English and was so much fun!
The first day, we made our way to the supermarket to buy
lunch and dinner food for the week, then packed some sandwiches and headed to
the beach! That night we made spaghetti for dinner as a group and had a great
night. Wednesday and Thursday were very similar; we slept in a little bit, ate
some breakfast, packed lunches and went to the beach all day long! Somehow the
two redheads managed to not sun burn all week! The rest of the girls can’t say
the same… Wednesday night we went out for dinner and somehow were convinced by
the owner of a restaurant to go in and eat at a Lebanese restaurant. The food
was very strange; I was not a fan, but I did try everything! We stayed in the
hostel that night after dinner and played games together until we were all
ready for bed early.
Friday was a big day for me! Through our hostel, we were
offered a great deal to go PARAGLIDING for a super discounted price. To
clarify, I am not talking about parasailing; I’m talking about flying through
the air over land and water very high up under a parachute! While they were
hooking me into the parachute, my whole body was shaking with fear; the
professional was laughing at me while trying to calm me down. To get into the
air, both of us had to run along the runway that ran to the edge of the cliff,
which was scary enough, but worse that we didn’t even get into the air until
almost the edge! So scary. But once we were in the air, it was the coolest
sensation. I was still tense and nervous but seeing the island and ocean from
so high up and so free, was unreal. No words can describe it! I was flying for
about half an hour-40 minutes, then when it was time to go down, I felt like we
were nose diving; it was so fast! I screamed a lot. We had a very smooth
landing, and after it was all over, I was so happy to have done it! I paraglided
in the Canary Islands! Not many people can say that :)
Saturday was our last day in the Islands, and Pepe came
with us to the beach. We had seen a picture on the internet of six people
spelling out the word LOVE with their bodies on the beach in front of the
water, and since there were six of us, we decided to try it! Since Pepe was
there with us, we had a great photographer. After many “auditions” for each
letter, and MANY attempts at perfecting the letter O, we made a great picture!
I will post it on here :) I was the L! That night for our last dinner in the
Canaries, we made homemade guacamole and fajitas since we loved them so much in
the mountains. Yummy!
Sunday morning (Easter), we got up very early and headed
to the airport to fly back to Sevilla. We had a few hours to spend there before
our bus back to Oviedo, and since it was BEAUTIFUL weather this time, thank
goodness, we walked all around the city, took a tour in a horse-drawn carriage,
souvenir shopped, and enjoyed Sevilla! We also had a great Easter meal…at
McDonalds. We took a very long bus ride home over night and arrived back in
Oviedo Monday morning, where we slept all day in order to prep for our return
to classes on Tuesday! It was an INCREDIBLE Spring Break. Relaxation and beach
time were exactly what we had needed after so many trips of nonstop touring. I
will post some pictures of the highlights of this post for you all to see :)
Bailey and me on our first morning in the Canaries!
Emma and me at the Lebanese restaurant.
Pepe and me in front of the cathedral of Las Palmas!
What I was about to do!
I'm flying!
Chillin' on the beach :)
Easter lunch!
On our horse ride through Sevilla!
Our horse's name was Chico :)
Our LOVE picture! :)
PARAGLIDING!
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