Valencia and Semana Santa

Hey all! Long time, no post. I apologize for being so lame at posting, and I’d like to say that I didn’t post for such a long time because I was super busy, but I don’t even really think that’s true. I think basically I was just lazy and had some things to figure out before posting again.

So, a quick overview of things that have happened since the last time I posted, and then on to Valencia, which is worth a post all on its own!

- My mom and two aunts came to visit for 10 days, and we had a great time travelling a bit around Spain. They spent a few days in Madrid, then we went up to San Sebastian and southern France for a weekend, and then back to Burgos for a few days of being tourists before they had to head home again. Plus, they seriously lucked out in having some really nice, sunshiney and warm weather.
- I went on a quick weekend trip to Leon and Astorga, a small town near Leon. The cathedral in Leon is spectacular, big and gothic and really impressive, and that was also possibly one of the nicest weather weekends we’ve had since winter began – I even got to wear a dress!
- Two of my good friends from home came to visit shortly thereafter, and they were everywhere – Burgos, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Santander, a national park called the Picos de Europa, Madrid…basically a whirlwind trip through northern Spain. Might as well take advantage of it while you’re here, right?
- I celebrated my birthday in Madrid with lots of good friends, and it was just a great weekend. Really nice to feel like I actually have good friends here in Spain, despite the fact that we haven’t known each other forever like with some of my other friends. It’s hard to have a bad time when you’re drinking outside in a plaza with the rest of Madrid, getting sung to in Spanish and English.

Okay, phew. I think that finally brings me to Valencia. I was there for the long weekend over Easter, and the city it just wonderful. We had a bit of bad luck with the weather, as it rained for a fair portion of two of the three days that we were there, but even so, it wasn’t cold and we just braved it with some umbrellas and a sense of adventure.

One of the coolest attractions in Valencia is the Ciudad de Ciencias y Artes, which is a huge complex designed by the Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava. It’s basically made up of huge, spage-age buildings surrounding water features and set in the big Parque de Turia, a park that travels through a lot of the city where a river used to run (the river Turia, in fact). It’s just stunning. We had bought tickets to see the Museo de las Ciencias, a three story science museum with lots of hands-on activities to play with; l’Oceanografic, a huge aquarium complex made up of several buildings holding animals from many different parts of the world; and l’Hemisferic, which houses an IMAX theatre. We easily spent 6 hours wandering around the buildings, exploring the experiments and animals that it housed. It was really cool, and we definitely could have spent more time there easily.

Our apartment was located really close to the cathedral and the beautiful plazas that surrounded it, right in the heart of El Carmen, the old town barrio that is one of the most exciting night-life areas of the city. I’m not entirely sure why we didn’t end up going out at night more – perhaps the rain was a deterrant – but the times that we did go out for dinner or a drink, there were a ton of really happening, varied bars in the area. I love going to bigger cities to visit, because there is a noticeable increase in the variety of shops, restaurants and people that you find. I think that perhaps my experience here in Burgos is more typically Spanish in many ways, but it’s clear that I miss the more cosmopolitan atmosphere of more diverse parts of the world.

Another big part of the weekend in Valencia was spent looking for and watching the processions that are typical to the period of Semana Santa – or Holy Week. Spain, being a traditionally Catholic country, still has a number of Catholic traditions that infuse their calendar year. One of those are the processions during the week leading up to Easter. The most traditional and well-known of these processions happen in Sevilla, but many regions have their own way of celebrating. In Valencia, the celebrations weren’t as involved as in other places, but the beach community of Cabanyal goes all out, with the various churches in the area dressing up in the traditional costumes of their church and processing around the neighborhood at various points during the week. The culmination of it all was the Procesion de la Gloria, which happened midday on Sunday, and, in contrast to all the other processions which were mourning the persecution and crucifixion of Christ, was incredibly happy in celebration of Christ’s resurrection. This included people walking in elaborate dresses and costumes, throwing flowers to the people in the crowd who yelled “guapa” at them the loudest. Lots of fun, and it felt really traditional and Spanish.

Afterwards, we rushed to the beach to take advantage of the little sun and warmth that the day afforded, and then we headed back to the center to attend an Easter Sunday church service. It was nice to be in a beautiful church to watch the service, but the service itself seemed fairly similar to any service at home. But at least I can say I’ve been now. And then it was Monday, and we headed home.

If you want to see pictures of the weekend in Valencia, follow this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2484012&id=2501475&l=b7aabe5e81.

I hope you enjoy the photos and the brief description of Valencia and Semana Santa celebrations, and I really hope to be a better blogger in the next few months. I can probably manage that given that there are only a few months left in my travel time!

Lots of besos to everyone reading.

 

The Pueblos de Burgos and el Dia de San Lesmes

Hey all. This weekend was actually pretty fun! For once I stayed in Burgos and didn’t have anyone visiting, and sometimes weekends like that can get kind of dull, especially if it’s cold outside and people don’t end up going out at all. But I stayed because Bea, one of the teachers at my school, invited me to go with her, her boyfriend Raul, and the English assistant from two years ago, Sophie, to visit some pueblos near Burgos. Sophie currently lives in Vitoria, which is about an hour away from Burgos, so she was coming in for the weekend for a little weekend vacation.

We left yesterday morning around noon, when Sophie’s bus got in, and drove directly to Santo Domingo de Silos, a VERY small town about 60 kilometers from Burgos that is famous for its monastery. We arrived just in time to see a mass and hear the monks chant, which apparently they are very famous for. From there we took a quick walk in a nearby park, called La Yecla, which was essentially tall rock formations with a path cut out between them. The day itself was pretty blustery and ominous, with lots of wind and clouds, but we were lucky and only got rained-snowed on once, just as we were leaving La Yecla. (See the pictures below – they’ll be able to describe these places better than my words can!)

From La Yecla, we returned to Santo Domingo for lunch, which was a very yummy combination of pintxos – artichoke hearts with ham, picadillo (chorizo in the form of ground beef), morcilla (Burgos’ very famous blood-sausage), salad, and a very yummy egg scramble with garlic. More than anything, it was nice to be inside outside of the windy, inclement weather.

After lunch, we entered the monastery itself and took a brief tour of the cloisters and the apothecary shop that the monks had been famous for back in the 11th century. It’s apparently one of the best examples of Romanic architecture in Spain, as well as being one of the two monasteries (along with those in San Millan de la Cogolla in La Rioja) that are credited with having the earliest written record of the Spanish language. Little side note: los burgaleses are ridiculously proud of speaking the purest Spanish in the country. But then again, so were the people in La Rioja last year. But anyway, I digress. The cloisters of the monastery are beautiful, and there are still about 20-30 monks who live there full-time. I even saw some of them walking around in sandals – SANDALS!!! I am the absolutely queen of sandals, but even I am not that insane.

After touring the monastery, we drove a little ways to Covarrubias, an adorable little town with these white plaster houses girded by dark brown beams, making them seem very old-fashioned. Haha, “seem old-fashioned” – how American of me! I’m sure they’re actually just OLD. We wandered around Covarrubias for a little while, and then on our way back to Burgos we stopped in a town called Lerma, which was much bigger than Covarrubias and less impressive, but one of the coolest parts of the town was the convent. The nuns at this particular convent make and sell certain candies specific to Lerma, and in order to buy them, you have to go up to a window with a revolving door and basically talk through the door, ask what you want, and then they spin the door around to give you what you’ve requested. You put your money on the door, spin it again, and then they can give you your change. This is all because these particulars nuns have chosen to live completely within the walls of the convent and can’t be seen by anyone from the outside – pretty trippy.

In the evening, we met up with some of Bea and Raul’s friends and went for tapas, which is pretty standard in terms of Spanish evenings, but this particular weekend there is a tapas competition between the various bars because of the Festival of San Lesmes, a saint somehow related to Burgos, that was celebrated today. Each bar had their own special tapa that they had created for this occasion, many yummy things involving cheese and pastry dough and fun combinations of ingredients. SUPER yummy.

Oh goodness, this post is getting very long, but I have to tell you just one more thing. Today was the celebration of San Lesmes, and I have NO idea who that was or why we care. I think one of the church’s here is dedicated to him, so perhaps he is a patron saint of Burgos. There were many people dressed up as people from Castilla y Leon from centuries ago, including traditional dance groups and small children dressed in cute period outfits. But even cooler/weirder were the gigantillos, very large papier-mache people who were “worn” by people and then walked around the plaza, representing the typical Castillian person from years ago, complete with period-specific dress. I have to say, Spain certainly does a good job of the traditional festivals. Maybe we just suck at it because we don’t really have the same depth of tradition in the States that they have here? I have no idea.

NOW. I think I’ve finished. I’m going to attach some photos so you can see what some of these places were like. I hope you enjoy them!

La Yecla

Santo Domingo de Silos

Cloisters of the Monastery

House in Covarrubias

los Gigantillos

Traditional Castillian Dress