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.

 

Santiago de Compostela

Alright. It’s legitimately been a long time since we went to Santiago and I am lame for not having written about it sooner, so I think I might just write a few quick comments and then just post you some fun pictures to show you how adorable the city is, especially all dressed up for Christmas! The old part of the city has a pretty medieval feel to it, with lots of cobbled streets to get lost in, but the obvious draw is the cathedral, the ending point for all the pilgrims doing the Camino de Santiago.

Okay, so apparently the history of St James that I wrote about here before was a little misinformed, so the nice person who commented on this post very generously corrected it for me: “Your photos are great! Your history… well .. not so great! James (Iago) was Yaakov ben Zebedee, brother of John Zebedee, apostles of Christ. After the crucifixion he evangelized in Spain. In 44AD he returned to Jerusalem where he was beheaded by Herod Agrippa. His disciples took his body back to Spain where they buried him on a hillside in Libredon (now Galicia). The necropolis was forgotten for 800 years. It was rediscovered in 813 and pilgrims have been walking to the tomb of Sant Iago in Compostela ever since. (Compostela – compos = burial place stella – stars).”  Thanks for the correction! I could have sworn there was something about a mysterious boat in it, but my memory’s notoriously lame, soo…who knows? Anyway, people walk, bike, ride horses, or somehow travel from the camino’s accepted beginning in France to Santiago to Compostela, hundreds of miles away. And the cathedral and the massive plaza that fronts it is pretty darn impressive to the unenlightened eye, so you can only imagine how it must feel to arrive there after weeks or months of strenous travel.

Okay, so back to Santiago. Galicia is also one of the rainiest communities in Spain, but we lucked out and had one really spectacular day to take pictures and explore the city. Plus, Galicia is well-known for its seafood, having a very long coast line and access to a lot of fruits of the sea on a daily basis. Unfortunately that is not my thing, but we certainly made friends with the large and very disgusting looking fish proudly displayed in every bar’s window, “enticing” us to come in and try the fare. Needless to say, the weekend was an adventure and worth the 8-hour-each-way bus rides! Enjoy the photos!

City Hall at Night

St James

The Cathedral

Cloisters in the Cathedral

Towards the University

Cathedral from the Distance

 

Salamanca

Okay, so I guess if I get myself to post once a week, that’s fairly legitimate, no? This past weekend I took the 2 and 1/2 hour train adventure to Salamanca, I think one of the prettiest cities I’ve been to in Spain. Salamanca has the oldest university in Spain (I believe), which is also one of the oldest universities in all of Europe, but more than that, it’s well known for its loads of studying-abroad-foreigners and its university party atmosphere, so it’s always a good time.

I met Jennis and Lucy on the train on Thursday night. They had gotten on in Logrono, and the train coincidentally went through Burgos on its way to Salamanca. We arrived late on Thursday evening, getting to our hostel (which was incredible! If you need hostel recommendations in Salamanca EVER, let me know!) around midnight and then going out for a quick drink. Remember what I just said about Salamanca being a crazy university town? Yeah, well, we probably found THE oldest bar in the city. Let’s just say we brought down the average age considerably by being there. But it was cute, with Velasquez’s Las Meninas painted all over the wall and good music, so we were happy.

Friday we got up and played the tourist for most of the daytime hours. Some of Lucy’s friends living in Cadiz this year, as well as Chris, Annalise and the crew from Madrid, were all in Salamanca for the weekend, so we had a good group of people to go out with the whole weekend. We went shopping on Friday morning, and then found a really good menu del dia for lunch before wandering into the cathedral and through the university buildings in the afternoon. The cathedral is really pretty, fairly similar to cathedrals throughout Spain, but the university buildings are just gorgeous! They are made of this light sandstone-looking stone which just makes them glow in the afternoon sunlight. Which they did alllll weekend because it was just sunny and gorgeous (and not too cold!!) the entire time. We really lucked out on the weather, for sure!

Catedral de Salamanca

Plaza Mayor

Friday evening found us enjoying the nightlife that Salamanca had to offer, going from bar to bar and just generally soaking up the atmosphere. There really were a lot of people out, partially due I’m sure to the relative warm weather and also because university students are always up for a party, no matter what.

Saturday started our fairly foggy, but by mid-afternoon, the day was gorgeous and even quite warm in the sun. Lucy, her two friends from Cadiz and I went out to lunch together in an old convent/school/I’m not entirely sure what it was but it was pretty, and we had a great, and very typical, Spanish lunch. Not only was it a menu, which meant that it was a lot of food, but we lingered over lunch for a good couple of hours, enjoying our bottle of wine and chatting about everything that came to mind. Little side note: I love this so much about being here, that we’re constantly meeting new people and having fun experiences with them in a very random way. I feel like back at home I just don’t have the opportunity to meet so many new people, or perhaps I don’t make the effort to meet so many new people because I already have an established group of friends, but here, even the most random and convoluted connection between people makes them your new best friend to go travelling to visit. And that’s definitely how I felt about Jane and Rosie – super fun and easy to be with, which made for a great weekend, and an especially fun lunch.

It turns out that you can climb to the roof of the cathedral, something that really got Lucy excited, so we all climbed up to the roof. What a gorgeous idea! Not only was the light perfect, being late afternoon with long shadows being cast everywhere, but it was sunny and gave some spectacular views of the city. We were able to walk along the edge of the roof as well as along a balcony inside the cathedral with great views of the entire inner cathedral.

Gorgeous Light on the Cathedral Roof

Me and Jennis on the Roof

Saturday night, Jennis, Lucy and I went out to Calle Van Dyck, recommended to me by one of my teachers in Burgos for its great tapas. We had some really juicy pinchos morunos, a kebab of pork with yummy seasoning, and other various pork and potato products as we went tapeando. Then it was back to the center to the Plaza Mayor to meet up with our friends for another night of dancing and exploring Salamanca. We got back fairly late, and I was up early to catch a 10:30am train back to Burgos to end the weekend. It’s lovely in Burgos today, though, sunny and windy but not cold, something I am coming to increasingly appreciate these days! So, a lovely weekend all around, and now I have Madrid and a Real Madrid soccer game to look forward this coming weekend with friends from Logrono and The Boy!

Woohoo! Life is pretty good.

 

If yesterday was Saturday, it must have been Bilbao!

Somewhere in the middle of a cozy siesta moment last week, I decided that since I didn’t have plans for a longer weekend trip this weekend, a day trip to someplace nearby would be a great idea. And, I thought, I’ll choose a place that is relatively close to both Logrono and Burgos so that I could invite Jennis and Lucy and make a lovely weekend of it. So, i suggested Bilbao and we were on our way. Now, Bilbao is also conveniently close to San Sebastian, so I suggested to The Boy that he come, too. (P.S. I promise I didn’t choose Bilbao for this reason, it just happened to be a nice added side benefit! Haha)

Jennis, Lucy and I all arrived around 10:30 in the morning and started walking through the center of town, following Gran Via to the Casco Viejo (= old town) of Bilbao for a coffee. And despite the fact that we were all pretty darn cold when we arrived, the day was sunny and shortly became glorious. We were all dressed for the winter that it’s become here, and we were all shedding layers by about noon. But we ended up in a cafe near to a pretty church in a plaza (haha, I feel like that phrase could pretty much describe Anywhere, Spain) where a wedding was about to happen, so we gawked like tourists and admired the novia (= bride).

Side note: weddings here seem SO much fancier than they are at home! Like, obviously the bride and groom are dressed up and gorgeous, but everyone else is practically in ball gowns and perfectly coiffed. Intense.

From there we wandered some more, finding a new plaza and climbing this huge long set of stairs that ended in a cute park where some guys were playing pick-up soccer. Oh, not to mention that it had a fabulous view of the city! At this point, The Boy called, having driven and parked someplace in the city, so we found another plaza to have coffee in and wait.

I’d like to say that while I wasn’t nearly as nervous about seeing him this time as I was the first time, I WAS kind of nervous about him meeting my friends and how the two worlds would come together. But if there are any people here that I’d want him to meet, it’d be Lucy and Jennis. And of course, I had absolutely no reason to worry, as usual. There was mutual liking of the other by everyone involved, and we passed the rest of the

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

day nicely wandering around the Casco Viejo, tapeando in the Plaza Nueva for lunch and then heading over to the Guggenheim Museum to admire its strange beauty. We ended up in a park by the Guggenheim for a mid-afternoon drink before going to the bus station to go our separate ways.

Oh, and did I mention that the day was kinda perfect?

 

My Weekend of Travelling

So, I know I officially suck at keeping more or less up to date on this blog thing. I kind of feel like there’s more pressure to write more often with a blog, just because it’s less intrusive on people’s lives or something. So I can and should write more often because it’s not sending itself into people’s inboxes all the time and annoying them with its consistency. Does that even make sense? But whatever. I have an excuse for not writing – my internet has been down for about a week in the apartment, so it’s made my electronic communication much more sparing than usual. And actually that in and of itself is another fun story about how Spain works, but I don’t even want to get into it. It’s boring and it frustrates me. Haha.

Instead, I’ll talk about my fun weekend of trips this past weekend! It was a long weekend for everyone in Castilla y Leon (we had Monday off), the province that I work in, which meant that I had an extra long weekend, always having Fridays off. So I took advantage of it to do some serious travelling.

Friday and Saturday I went with a few friends that I’d met in Logroño last year to Zaragoza. These friends, by the way, are Ben, Abby and Marcos, and undoubtedly you’ve heard of them before. If you haven’t, then I know for sure you haven’t read anything I’ve written in the last 12 months! Haha. The bus from Burgos goes through Logroño, so I left here early on Friday morning (8:30am), picked the others up in Logroño on the way, and arrived in Zaragoza around midday. October 12th was the Día de Hispanidad and also the celebration of the Virgen de Pilar. La Pilar is the patron saint of Zaragoza, so its celebrations are reknowned for being bigger than in other parts of the country. Hence why we went there.

Me and Abby by the Cathedral de Pilar

We basically spent the afternoon on Friday and most of the day on Saturday wandering around Zaragoza, admiring its main plaza and gorgeous cathedral (I’ll try to post pictures when I can!), as well as enjoying the nightlife that the festival brought with it. However, the main day of the festival was actually the 12th, which was Sunday, and so we missed a lot of the big celebrations. The most important thing that they do there on the 12th is create a pyramid of flowers in the Plaza de Pilar. They spent all day on Saturday setting up the framework for it, and then Sunday many people brought flowers for the Virgen de Pilar, creating a really impressive looking structure. So, unfortunately, we missed seeing that, but that’s okay. The people were all still in a very festive mood and we enjoyed going out and being part of the nightlife.

Cathedral from across the river

Sunday found me back in Burgos for the day, relaxing after two days away. And the Monday morning I got up really early to spend the day in San Sebastian. San Sebastian is a coastal city in the Pais Vasco, about 3 hours away by bus, and it is absolutely stunning. I think some day I’ll have to go there and spend a significant amount of time. As in, live there or something. Spend my summer there. Whatever. I went there to visit a friend that I’d met a few weeks before in Logroño, and he and I spent the whole day just wandering around the city and eating. Nice, huh? It was a beautiful day, which for the Pais Vasco in this time of year is pretty unusual as it tends to rain there a lot. But we had some really yummy pintxos (the Basque word for tapas), for which the region is famous, and sat on the beach, enjoying the sun and watching the surfers. Interesting fact: they hold world-famous surfing competitions in San Sebastian. I had no idea. But it was a really lovely day, very relaxing and good practice for my Spanish!

Needless to say, I arrived home on Monday night absolutely muerta de cansancio (dead tired), but happy. Not such a bad way to spend the weekend!

 

Ya he llegado a Burgos

So! I have arrived! [Translation of the title: I've arrived in Burgos] But not without some minor (and incredibly stupid to admit) setbacks along the way, might I add! But nevermind…I’m here, I can still speak Spanish, and the weather isn’t insanely cold yet, all positive things.

My flight from SFO left around 10:30 on Thursday morning (September 11th, which made me SLIGHTLY less excited about flying, which you all know isn’t my favorite activity anyway!), and once I arrived at the airport and attempted to check in, I was directed to a kiosk which had a passport scanner to verify my identity. Wait, I’m supposed to have a passport???? Okay, I have travelled internationally many times in my life, and NEVER have I forgotten my passport. Not once. But for whatever reason, while I brought absolutely everything else that I might need for the next year, I totally spaced that all important piece of documentation. So I promptly freak out, call my (lovely!!) parents to inform them of my gaffe, and my (incredibly amazing!!) mother drove allll the way back to SFO from home, for the second time that morning, to get me my passport so that I didn’t miss my plane. IDIOT. I pretty much still can’t believe that I did that, and I have a feeling my loving friends and family won’t let me forget it for a loooong time.

But I arrived, as I said, 24+ hours later in Burgos, absolutely exhausted from three planes, a metro ride, and a bus trip. Luckily for me, my roommate from last year’s boyfriend’s son (got the connection?) lives in Burgos and came without question to pick me up from the bus station and take me to my hotel, saving me the stress of finding a taxi, which was SO NICE and unnecessary of him. He also then took me out to tapas with his family, making me feel very welcome after such a long trip. Keep in mind, I’ve met this man and his family probably twice in my life, very briefly each time, and they had absolutely no obligation to help me. But they did, and I am eternally grateful. It saved me from going to my hotel room at 9pm, not being sleepy and thinking about how much I missed home. So thank God for small miracles and generous people.

Saturday – day two – I met up with my roommate from last year and her boyfriend, and they took me on a mini-driving tour of the city, showing me where my school is (a good busride or 30 minute walk out of the center) and where the university is located, and then they took me out to a yummy Italian lunch. Basically, again, just making me feel welcomed and like I actually belong in this country. I know people here. People aren’t going to let me disappear off the face of the planet. I’m going to survive. Siiiiiiiigh.

Next order of business: find an apartment! I went off to turismo to get a map and then began calling people. Again, Andrés (the nice son of the boyfriend) had picked up many random numbers of people offering apartments for university students, and he passed those onto me Friday night. So I basically cold-called these people (again, NOT my favorite activity!), trying to find a place that wasn’t too far from the center, didn’t cost a zillion dollars, and that had internet. The internet thing is proving to be the sticking point, for sure. Apparently it’s just not as ubiquitous in houses here as it is at home, and I’m sorry, I just don’t think I can live without it (I think this is the point where my dad starts muttering, “What a Millenial!”)!

The first place I saw yesterday was lovely, with a really nice, fun girl as a roommate, but it was just too far from the center on a relatively untrafficked road, which made me nervous. NOT that I’ll EVER be out until 3am, but just in case I AM, I don’t really want to be walking home that way all by myself. So unfortunately, that one’s out. I saw another one in the evening which was fine, but again, a little far away and without internet. I learned that there are apparently “personal internet” kits you can buy here and put into your USB hub in order to have internet all the time, though, so I think I’ll look into those as an option. If that works and I can pay an extra 20-30€/month for internet and not be totally inconvenienced in my apartment’s location, then that would be perfect!

But then came today. I looked at THE most gorgeous, most perfect apartment I’ve ever seen on a beautiful street in Burgos. Close to the center, new, with a washer AND a dryer, with internet and TVs and a landline that I can make calls on, etc, etc, but it’s expensive. 370€ per month, when all the rest of the apartments are between 200-300€. So now comes the fun rationalization process in order to decide whether I can actually spend that amount. We shall see…

And lastly, yesterday I met up with this girl, Becky, who is going to be working at the same school as me this coming year. Which was SO NICE. We’d talked once over the phone and many times via facebook, but it was so great to finally MEET her and have at least one friend here in Burgos! We went out for tapas and a good wander through the streets and talked for awhile. And she has already met some French-speaking girls who are also teaching here, so hopefully this is the beginning of a little group! Yay! That on its own just makes me about a zillion times calmer.

Tomorrow I start school and meet up with the Couchsurfing people in the evening, so hopefully from there I can make myself some new friends, too! I need to keep reminding myself that I’ll be fine, that I know people here, that my apartment situation will work out soon and in a great way. And this weekend I’m going to Logroño to see my friends from last year, and that’ll be wonderful and comfortable and a good recharge for my batteries. Hopefully the next time I write to you it’s from my own internet!

Muchos besos a todos!