Feria

It has been far too long since I've posted. It's because I really haven't had much to write about. Things have been very chill the last two weeks.

This week, however, is Feria. Feria is the annual celebration in April when everyone gets work off, dresses up in Flamenco dresses, and dances Sevillanas until the wee hours in the morning. The entire city transforms. In Los Remedio (a neighborhood near Triana) a fairground is set up including a pretty impressive set of carnival rides, streets upon streets of tents called casetas, and a portada or arch that is different every year. The portada is the main spectacle of Feria and is designed to look like a special part of Sevilla. This year it's modeled after Plaza de España (go watch Star Wars Episode II and you can see it) which is a semi-circular building with two large towers at either end and is richly decorated with ceramic tiles. It's one of the biggest tourist attractions of the city for a reason.

The Portada is covered with lights and you can see it from almost any point in the city. It marks the beginning of the giant city that pops up for Feria. 

 

Thanks to Francie for this pic. Feria began on Monday night with the lighting of the Portada. I joined my friends Noa and Mia and Mia's parents and we wandered around soaking in the splendor of Feria at night. We eventually made our way to the carnival part of Feria and seeing the rides that were there we all started skipping around like little kids. All three of us are serious roller coaster and thriller ride fans so we found the two craziest rides we could. They don't know how to make a ride in the States. These things were crazy. They both swung around a center throwing us upside down multiple times with spinning us within our own cab. The second one shot us up way into the air where we could see the entire city before flinging us down again. Needless to say I lost my voice. It was epic :D It was a wonderful night and made waking up at 8am the next morning after getting home at 4:30 worth it.

We had normal classes on Tuesday, unfortunately, and I proceeded to sleep all afternoon. Tuesday night was my favorite night because everyone was so excited and went all out. My friends all rented or bought Flamenco dresses and so we had lots of Sevillan spirit that night. Walking around the city during the day, every other woman was wearing a Flamenco dress and the men were all in spiffy suits. At Feria, however, everyone was dressed up. It was magical. From the smallest child to the oldest abuela (grandmother) the women were decked out in these dresses ranging in all kinds of colors and styles. The casetas (tents) that line the streets in Feria are mostly privately owned where their owners and friends would all eat and drink and dance Sevillanas to a live band. The streets were packed with young people drinking and dancing and everyone was giddy with the whole scene. 

(I raided my friend's facebooks for these photos because I didn't bring my camera)

On every block or so there are public casetas with Sevillanas music playing, a bar, a bunch of tables and chairs, and a dance floor. This is where we went on Monday night. We danced the night away. From midnight until four in the morning we danced and danced and danced. We've been taking this Sevillana dance class all semester but we're serious gringos and looked super awkward at first. Once we were in the midst of Feria and all my friends had their dresses on and we had a few Spanish copas in us, we lost all inhibition. 

(Mia, Alyssa, and Francie looking fly in their dresses)

We actually got really good. I can safely say I could dance with any Spaniard and not embarrass myself. I just can't get enough of it. I got home about 4am.

Again, 8am rise for classes on Wednesday. Even our professors didn't understand why we had class and they went easy on us. They all wanted to be out at Feria as well but this being a half-American program, Spanish rules and "no pasa nada" don't matter. We talked about Dalí in art history. WTF? He's weird. Like super weird. Again, I slept from 2pm to 8. I've become nocturnal. After dinner, we all went to Feria and danced some more at the public casetas. 

Here's another cute pic of Francie and I (she's my picture buddy)

At about 1am a friend of ours helped sneak us into a private caseta and which wasn't all that different except for the music. This place was more like an discoteca in a tent where everyone had long classy Flamenco dresses on instead of tiny bits of fabric attached to them called "clothes." 

(Here are some of the lovely ladies I get to spend my days with.) 

We danced some more and I went home about 3am. 

The next day, our group leaders Juank and Laurena had a surprise lunch for us at one of the best restaurants in town. We all pigged out and drank good wine and chatted like we did every lunch while on our viajes around Spain. After lunch we went up on to the top deck for coffee and discovered just how close we were to the Cathedral and the Giralda.

I was completely worn out from my weird sleep habits and needed a break from Feria. I went home, read, slept, wrote my papers, and slept some more Thursday and Friday night. After months of the night life in this country, I'm worn out. I also have 25 pages to write for my final papers. This is 25 pages in SPANISH that is. Ugh... 

Sunday night I went to Feria with Khetiwe to enjoy the last day there. We went on the Ferris wheel, which went super fast and spun us around like a thrill ride. It was really fun. Then we walked on over to the bridge by Feria where we saw the most incredible fireworks show. Every Feria ends with this big show of fireworks and the entire city stopped for twenty minutes to watch. It was gorgeous. I’ve got a ton of little videos of it but blogs don’t do well with videos. It was a wonderful way to end a very interesting and cultural week.

Semana Santa

So… I missed last week’s blog but here’s the big recap:

Last week was chill. It was the random four days of classes in between our week to the north and Semana Santa (spring breakish) so it was a little disjointed and unproductive. Not much to report.

Mom got in at about 7pm on Thursday and from there things have not been boring or regular. Even with her broken foot, Mom couldn’t cancel the trip. I met her at the hotel and we went out to traditional Sevillan tapas for normal dinnertime at 9:30. She was thrilled to see my new home city and loved the cute tapas place right by my school. I used her coming as an excuse to go to tapas places I pass everyday but don’t have the money to go to on my own budged. She loved the idea. I made her try the local beers that EVERYONE drinks and the local foods that I’ve eaten way too much of. After dinner I took her home and went out on the town with my friends. I left early though at about 3:30am because I wanted to be up for lunch. Oh Spain…

Friday Mom and I went to lunch at a restaurant by house in Triana and then visited my host mom and roommate and I got to show her where I live. Josefa was super nervous to meet mom and had scrubbed the house spotless and put on a little tea party for her. I did my best to translate and I think it went really well. We then did some minor touring around the city although it was hard to go many places because Sevilla is such a pedestrian town. That night we had drinks with about six of my friends from my program and one of my friend’s moms at a little bar by the river. We had a great time! My friends loved meeting my mom and it didn’t hurt that she bought a round of mojitos. Afterwards it was time for dinner so we went to this little corner restaurant I’ve passed a million times by my school. It’s kind of modern and the food was a new take on traditional stuff and the dishes were fabulous. I’m defiantly going back with my friends. The atmosphere is fun and lively and the food is different than I’ve had before.

Saturday we went to the cathedral and then took a horse-drawn carriage around the city so she could see it without having to walk. It was actually pretty fun. Then we went to a quick but tasty lunch and then I put mom to bed for a siesta and went home for a while. We met up for an awesome dinner at this gourmet pizza place that always torments me as I walk back from class. I’ve been craving pizza and wanted a break from Iberian ham and bread. I spent the night in the hotel that night because we had an early train ride in the morning.

Sunday we jumped on a train to Barcelona. Six hours later we were eating lunch overlooking the port of Barcelona right next to our hotel. It’s a really cool city. After that, I went in search of the Maritime Museum (what a surprise) and mom went to see some early Picassos. The Maritime Museum wasn’t as good as the one in Madrid but there was a full-sized replica of a 16^th century Spanish galleon. It was pretty darn cool:

Yes that is a man walking to the right of it. It was big. The one other Haley-squealing-moment was a model of one of my favorite vessels of history, the HMS Victory. 

This first-rate ship of the line that has been sailing since 1765 and that is still afloat in Portsmouth was Nelson’s (Yep that Nelson that I’ve made everyone get to know) flagship and death place during the incredible Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. After the museum I walked over to the famous café 4Gats (a name that references a phrase that is a common joke with one of our professors here in Spain) where Picasso used to regular. It started to rain (duh) and I was soaked but happy by the time I got back to the hotel. We went out to dinner in a neighborhood named Born at this little outdoor (it had stopped raining) place with the cutest German waiter. We must have stayed for three hours chatting with the guy and getting refills on our cava, famous and very tasty Barcelona sparkling white wine, and had a wonderful night.

Monday we went to visit the new cathedral by Gaudí that’s under construction. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. The inside looks like some enormous child went crazy with some blocks. The outside looks like a sickly Gothic cathedral growing pustules or some legions or something. But in a cool way. 

Later, ventured over to a Joan Miró exhibit for Mom and I went exploring the gardens of the Generalife nearby. These gardens are situated on a hill overlooking the city but are so large and winding and empty that it felt like a different world. I had a grand old time walking around and on my way back up I ran into David Fleming. David goes to Whitman with Richael and went to high school with me. He was in my a cappella group, my choir, and three or four musicals with me. Crazy small world! Mom and I met up and then took the gondola over the city and the port. It’s not often you get to see a city like Barcelona from the air. Afterwards we found an Indian restaurant and ate an early dinner. After month and months of bland Spanish food and bread, bread, and more bread, the curry spices were very welcome. Then we went to our ferry and got checked in to our cabin. We sailed from Barcelona with 800 people (mostly student groups of douchey Spanish guys). It was quite an experience. Our cabin was roomy, had a fun little bunk for me climb up to and a surprisingly big window. We explored the boat and then went up on deck for a while. I feel so at home on a boat! I guess that’s good since I study the navy…

Tuesday I was gently rocked awake after the best night of sleep I’ve had in ages. We spent our day sleeping, eating, drinking, and reading throughout the ship and I watched the sunset as we sailed into Civitavecchia, the modern Roman port.

After taking the train into town and checking into our hotel, we then went up to the top level for mai tais over looking the city. Mom can tell you, I was a little teared up to look out over the skyline and see St. Peter’s cathedral.

In the morning we got up and went to breakfast on the top level with the view again and then I struck out to explore the city by myself. I was headed to the Capitol when I glanced to my right and did a double take. Seriously, you can’t walk a block in Rome without running into some crazy old historical landmark. I had just happened to walk by Trajan’s triumphal column. 

I then decided to look around the neighborhood I was in before going to my museums. I found Augustus’ giant sundial that he brought back from Egypt and the remaining columns of Hadrian’s temple. Gordon Kelly, my amazing professor who taught my Ancient Rome history class last spring told our class that if we ever went to Rome we had to find this giant marble foot that is the remains of an old statue. It’s literally called Pie di Marmo and is just hanging out on a little street. I found it.

Then I went to the Pantheon. Yeah. That happened.            

Then on to the Capitoline Museums in the Capitol where I saw TONS of beautiful marble statues of all my favorite old dead white guys. Such as Constantine:

Lots of Trajan:

Even more of Hadrian:

And of course my favorites, Augustus and his second wife, Livia (AKA two of the shrewdest political minds of history):

And countless other mind-blowing statues and busts. I then walked down to Tarpeian Rock where the Romans used to throw traitors to their deaths. They were such sweeties. Afterwards I walked back to the hotel and mom and I went to coffee at a little place by our hotel. We went to dinner that night at this incredible seafood restaurant that had all of their fish and shellfish in the lobby as you walked in. Every time someone would order something, they would bring the fresh fish through the restaurant to the kitchen in the back. I convinced mom to share the six chef’s choice starters, which included full baby octopus (so good!) and some incredible calamari. Those were followed by an awesome seafood pasta and gnocchi.

On Thursday I again went exploring, this time in the forum and Palatine Hill. It seems appropriate that I live on Palatine Hill in Portland. This place… I have no words. 

From the ancient Temple of the Vestal Virgins to the Curia to the Severan Buildings and the ruins of the huts of Romulus, I’ve seen it all. I took a break for lunch and then went on to see the Coliseum where my convenient Roma Pass let me make the three hundred people in line instantly hate me as I cut right in front of the line. But I would have gladly waited for hours to see this place. Again: no words.

 

I then wandered back to the hotel and we later went to a local restaurant by the Spanish Steps for one of my favorite meals in a long time. So buffalo mozzarella cheese is fabulous always but NOTHING compares to the real thing. Also, they prepare artichokes by taking off the outside leaves and boiling the whole thing, with the entire stem, and then marinating it in olive oil and herbs. The product: gloriousness. I then ordered veal liver with caramelized onions and mushroom reduction and my already blown mind took another hit. To finish, we tried a very interesting local liquor. All together it was a pretty incredible day.

Friday Mom went to the Vatican with a tour group and I stayed in the hotel because I was feeling really sick. I’m sad I missed the Vatican but, hey, I’m going back to Rome. It’s just going to happen. I went exploring a little later, however, and ended up reading for a while at a little café by Tarpeian Rock. The place is surprisingly peaceful considering its history. We decided we had been adventurous enough that trip so we returned to the restaurant from the night before for more mozzarella and artichokes but this time with carpaccio as well.

Saturday we left Rome to fly back to Barcelona. I was sad to leave Rome but honestly, I was ready to be home. I need time to process all the things I’ve seen! We stayed last night at a hotel by the airport and didn’t budge. We were exhausted. I took a sleeping pill and went to bed at 9.

Today we both had to be at the airport by 5:30am which meant getting up at 4:15. But it was daylights saving time today… So we really got up at 3:15. That’s when the party starts in Sevilla. Anyway we parted at the airport, I flew home and mom flew to Frankfurt and then on to SFO. It was a wonderful trip and I got to fulfill so many of my long-time dreams that the way I’m going, I’m not going to have any kind of bucket list left in a few years. I immediately went back to sleep when I got home. When I did wake up around noon I told my host mom I was back and she was so glad to see me that she hugged me! This tiny, severe, Spanish lady actually hugged me! I guess I’m making progress. It was so nice to be back. Even though it rained all day (UGH YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME) it really did feel like coming home. I can’t even think about the fact that I only have a month left in Spain.

Those are my adventures during Semana Santa! Another update next Sunday.

Northern Spain

So this last week has been a whirlwind. Thus a crazy long blog--sorry. We again struck out as a group of thirteen with our fearless leader Juanka, his wife Lorena, their daughter Helena, our viaje leader Verónica, and our bus driver Ricardo for a week of travels.

Domingo (Sunday):

I dragged myself out of bed at 7:30 and trudged the 40-minute walk with my luggage to the bus. We then proceeded to drive eight hours to Salamanca where we checked into our hotel. We went on a quick walking tour of the city and then had free time for dinner. A few of us just found a close tapas place to eat and then I went back to the hotel and took a bath (this will be a theme for this week) because it was raining (another theme) so we were all soggy and cold (and another).

Lunes (Monday):

We got up at eight, ate breakfast, and then checked out of our hotel. Before we left the city, we visited the University of Salamanca, which is the oldest university in Spain and the third oldest in Europe, founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX.  

  It’s very touristy now but the building is still really cool. Unfortunately, due to a freak computer malfunction, I lost the vast majority of pictures from Monday but at least I have the one of the library. One day I want a library like this.

  We also checked out the Nueva Catedral in Salamanca.

From there we hopped on the bus and drove to León for lunch and a quick look at the cathedral and the town. This was one of the only times this whole week that we saw sun and it was a good place for it.

Lunch was a big ordeal with all of us at a great restaurant featuring an aperitif, first and second plate accompanied by wine, a desert, and finished with espresso. I sat by Juanka, Lorena, and Verónica and we chatted the two and a half hours in Spanish. We ate good food, drank good wine, and had good conversation. From there we drove to Oviedo, checked into our hotel by about 9, and then had free time. I was still pretty full from lunch so I just ran out and bought a tomato, an avocado and some cheese and ate in my room, took a bath, and turned in early. Gabbi, my roommate on the road, had her own room with her boyfriend who visiting and traveling with us so I got a room to myself this week. It was nice to have some space but I do like living with someone and Gabbi and I get along well.

Martes (Tuesday):

Rise and shine at 8, ate breakfast, and headed out on the bus for the outskirts of Oviedo to visit some Pre-Romanesque churches. One such church, Santa María del Naranco, was built in 848 and is very cool. The church, the hills, the green, and the rain made the whole scene seem right out of Scotland or something.

Then we headed over to a tiny little town set into the mountain to escape notice from pirates. This place was gorgeous though very wet.

  Nearby to this cute sea town we ate another similarly large lunch. Not as fun because we were all grumpy and soggy. We had a ton of seafood and fish on this trip because we were by the ocean but I’m sad to say that I am one of the only adventurous eaters on the trip and everyone was very finiky. It made meals a bit complicated and annoying. I loved it though. We headed back to Oviedo and saw the inside of the cathedral this time and walked around the old, historical part of the city. I was still stuffed so I ate a snack in my room, took a bath, and crashed.

Miércoles (Wednesday):

We woke up to snow on Wednesday. We were supposed to go check out a lake in the mountains that day and we were all looking forward to it but because of the weather we couldn’t risk driving through the pass with our bus. So I went back to sleep. After another large lunch with cool new types of fish and a very interesting cauliflower stew, we went to a city named Avilés. Francie and Khethiwe and I wandered around and discussed life and drank coffee and that’s about it. We were all too worn out to do much. Same thing as Tuesday night.

Jueves (Thursday):

Breakfast at 8 followed by a four-hour bus ride found us in Luarca for some free time and an early lunch (meaning 1:30). Luarca is another coastal town on a hill and it is as we say in Spain, muy impresionante.  Also, my camara died right at the beginning of the day so all I have are bad quality pictures from my ipod and my friends.

There’s a lot of naval history in this little town and plenty of things for me to geek out about. I was having a wonderful time.

And for the picture of the week: Paraguas (umbrellas)

It was raining incessantly but that didn’t stop us from exploring. Noa and I wandered the pueblo for an hour talking about the merits of the ocean before lunch. Lunch was especially good and we all were super goofy. We may get sick of each other from time to time but we sure have fun still. From Luarca we drove to Santiago and the classiest hotel we’ve been to yet. It was utterly freezing and raining still so we cut our tour short(ish) but still walked around the historic part of town including the cathedral. Now I have seen more than my fair share of cathedrals in my day. Like I’ve seen a LOT of cathedrals. But this may be my favorite. It’s mostly Baroque with a hint of Romanesque and after so much Gothic, it was very striking.  

After our bone-chilling tour we found a place that served pasta. Pasta! Then, you guessed it, bath and sleep.

Viernes (Friday):

My favorite day in Spain to date. Friday was a tour of the coast and our only day with sun. We first stopped for a photo-op at Carnota. This place:

This is my awesome new friend Francie. We take great photos together.

Then on to another pueblo by the sea called Muros. I wandered off by myself to walk along the water in the little bay. I found an abundance of tiny shells that look like intricate ceramics. I’m coming for you Nana :D

  From there we stopped at a waterfall:

In the middle of these stops we drove along the waterfront of one of the most quant and naturally beautiful places I’ve ever seen. As I’ve told Richael over fanatic texts from the bus, my new goal in life is to become a professor and spend my summers in a tiny cabin on the northern coast of Spain. My favorite stop on this drive through paradise was a place called Cape Finisterre. For the many centuries before Columbus “discovered” the Americas for the Western cultures, it was thought that this Cape Finisterre was farthest Western point before the flat world stopped. That’s why this is called the End of the World. The magnitude of what this historically, culturally, and navigationally means was multiplied by the absolute vastness of the ocean that just seemed to go on forever and we were all giddy.

  Like I said, we take great photos. The word for these I believe would be epic.

I got a square-rigged ship fridge magnate to remember the place :D We then proceeded to Rest were we had our best lunch yet. Since we were so close to the ocean, we just had to have seafood. Our first course was sautéed pulba or octopus and boiled mejillones or mussels and plenty of good white wine. We were all in such a good mood that everyone except the one vegetarian tried both dishes, which was a huge step for girls who normally have trouble eating salmon. This was followed by enormous pans of paella with giant gambas (prawns) and ended with a traditional cake from Salamanca made with almonds and café con leche. Just in case we hadn’t had our minds blown enough that day we ended with a stop at Muxía. This place has an old church right on this peninsula with amazing rock formation beaches. I pulled an Ashley and started scaling as many pinnacles as I could. There is no way to capture the beauty of this place. 

 

I did not want to leave. I go back there one day, I swear. Then, sadly, we drove back to Santiago. Everyone was worn out but Khethiwe and I decided to go find some tapas and see what was going on. We found a fun tapas place where a ton of people were watching a fútbol game and then moved on to see if we could find a bar. The problem was it was only midnight and even though it was Friday, nothing had started yet. We wandered and while walking by the cathedral, we saw this large group of about a few hundred 15- or 16-year olds in a circle chanting something. I’m pretty sure it was a school or camp kind of thing, but in the shadow of the very large and serene cathedral at night it seemed very cultish. It felt like we had stumbled upon some ancient ritual. It was pretty crazy actually. We then found a bar that was pretty empty but it was fun anyway. Walking back we were about to give up on the Santiago nightlife when I heard a street performer singing the Rolling Stone’s Sympathy for the Devil and I instinctively started singing along. He had an audience of two women and they and the performer seemed happily surprised and he motioned for me to keep singing so I harmonized along with his Spanish guitar version of Jagger. They all kept telling me how much they liked my voice and wanted me to sing more. The guitarist was thrilled that I knew the Beatles and sang with me on I Want to Hold Your Hand, Blackbird, and Norwegian Wood. It was so spontaneous and random but or course those are always the best experiences. I shook the guy’s hand, tipped him a few euro for the pleasure of singing with him and Khethi and I went home. You just can’t plan things like that!

Sábado (Saturday):

We checked out after breakfast at 8:30 and drove the five hours to Zamora, a city with lots of cool Romanesque architecture. We had a tour of the old stuff and I stupidly forgot my camera in the bus. I’m post some photos when Mia sends me the ones she took for me. This was followed by another enormous lunch and more hilarity within our group. Another three hours on the bus found us in Cáceres for the night. I had bought some rice crackers, cheese, and salami at a stop and just munched on that for dinner while skyping people. I got to talk to mom about our amazing trip to Barcelona and Rome coming up in less than a week and then caught up with Joseph. I still can’t wrap my head around Skype. It’s bizarre being in Spain and seeing Joseph in his room next door to my old room in Alder. I sure do miss that place despite my amazing adventures. I am so happy I’ll get to spend summer with that wonderful man and Janel.

Domingo (Sunday):

A walking tour of Cáceres showed us that there is a surplus of little streets and very cool buildings. It’s just ridiculous how different the architecture in the North is from the South. This is such a diverse country. 

 Oh, and I became a horse for a moment. I carried the fearless warrior (Charlotte) into battle with the dragon (Alyssa). We're goofy. 

Then we drove to Mérida. In our art history class we studied the ancient Roman ruins of the theater of Mérida. It’s one of the best-preserved Roman theaters and I’ve been itching to see it. My reaction to standing on the stage makes me a bit worried that my mind and, frankly, emotions won’t be able to handle Rome where everything is like this. I love my life.

  We went to lunch and then drove back to Sevilla. It was so weird that even after only two months of living in this city, it felt like coming home. Josefa was so smiley and happy to see me; it was adorable. It feels good to be back, unpacked, sitting in bed, chatting with Merisa.

To sum up a crazy trip: Spain’s cool. And I’m so incredibly lucky and privileged to have seen a large part of it already. Ok, back to classes for four days, then getting pampered by Mom. !Hasta luego!