Catching up...again...

I'm all packed up. I'm just sitting here biding my time until I get on an airplane tomorrow morning headed for Madrid to meet three wonderful people! My mom, my brother Ken, and my sister Ruthie are all headed to Spain as I type!

In order to prepare the blog for the combined Murray adventures I need to catch up on what's happened since Semana Santa!

Well, the Tuesday after Easter I got on a plane with my friend Gabby and we flew to the rainy little island of England!!!! 

We spent a week in London with our friend Trisha in her dorm room at University College London. 

I had always wanted to go to England. My dad was born in Wales, and my favorite stories in history take place in England! I was beyond excited to be surrounded by the history. 

I immediately fell in love with the city, and was very happy to be immersed in my native language once again.

That week, we visited Westminster Abbey, The Parliament building and Big Ben, The Millenium Bridge, The West Bank, The London Eye, The Globe Theatre, St Pauls Cathedral, and the Camden Street Market. 

London is a HUGE city and there was no way I could have seen everything in just the one visit, so I have no doubt I will be visiting again in the not too distant future. 

The best part of the trip was Friday! We went to the Doctor Who Exhibition and then we wandered around town to see 221B Baker Street (the home of Sherlock Holmes) as well as the home of Charles Dickens! Then we ended the night splitting up to see different shows. Gabby went to the National Theatre to see Benedict Cumberbatch in Frankenstein while I headed down to the globe to see All's Well that Ends Well -- one of the BEST experiences of my life!!! Here are some picture highlights!

At the airport.

The girls getting ready to hit the town!

Parliament and Big Ben

The Globe

St Paul's Cathedral

Westminster Abbey, where Will and Kate got married a few days later!

West Bank and the London Eye

Afternoon tea with scones!

We found a Banksey!

Camden Street Market used to be the Royal stables.

Hyde Park full of people watching the wedding on the jumbotron screen.

Sunrise over the Thames.

Inside the Tardis at the Doctor Who Exhibition

In the yard at the Globe before All's Well!

Semana Santa

Hola todos!

I'm sorry it has been so long since I've posted, but after this post you will see how busy I have been!

Sunday, April 17th was Palm Sunday. For Catholics this is the beginning of Holy Week, the week that includes the Last Supper and the Crucifixion and ends with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Spain the entire week is a national holiday. Vacations begin on Thursday, the day of the Last Supper. The festivities, however, begin on Palm Sunday. Everyday, twice a day there are huge processions from the Basilica, through the Barrio, down the Rambla to the Explanada. These processions encompass hundreds of people representing their different parishes. They also go extremely slowly. One of the processions started at 8pm and didn't finish until 11pm, and it's not a huge distance; I can walk the procession route in about 10 minutes or less.
One of the biggest part of the processions are the Nazarenos. These members of the parish volunteer to participate. They dress themselves in long robes with tall hoods, very much resembling the KKK. (A very big part of me was afraid of them, despite the fact that I know that they are not affiliated with the KKK)  The Nazarenos are not allowed to speak to anyone, but they hand out caramelos, or hard candies, to the people in the crowd.
Another part of the procession is the Pasos, these are huge "floats" that have representations of the Virgin Mary or of Christ. These pasos weigh hundreds to thousands of pounds and are carried by a crew of people. Sometimes they are underneath it and shrouded by a curtain so you can only see their feet, but others stand around it carrying it on one shoulder. It's incredible!
Here are a few photos from one of the processions I saw on Good Friday.

The Nazarenos

A baby Nazareno

The Mourners

A paso of the Virgin

A paso of the buried Christ

Trisha comes to Spain!

On April 8th my best friend Trisha Way brought two friends from London with her to Alicante to visit me and our friend Gabby, who is also studying here in Alicante.
It was a wonderful to have her here! It also helped me rediscover all the cool things about Alicante that I hadn't done since the beginning of my stay here.

Trisha with the view.

We spent two days at the beach, went shopping, hung out at the castle, and went partying in the Barrio. It was tons of fun to bring Trisha, Jack, and Vanessa to my house for the midday meal. Maribel cooked very traditional food and we sat on the terrace and I did my best to translate well enough so that communication flowed. Maribel was so sweet! She doesn't speak any English, but that doesn't seem to stop her from enjoying herself around people! And I was happy to be able to share my experience with someone I'm so close with! This was Trisha's first trip to Spain, but I think she caught the bug and will be coming back again and again!

Gabby and Trisha goofing off at the Castle.

Jack, Trisha, Vanessa

The three Whittie girls!

Granada

This weekend our program took us to Granada, and...
well, I'd have to invent the correct adjectives to describe the beauty of this city.
I'll tell you what we did, give some history and leave so photos so you can pick your own adjectives.

We left Friday morning for the 4ish hour trip to Granada. We arrived around 1:30pm and were given time to explore the city and find some lunch.
Granada is in the heart of Andalucia, in the foothills of the Sierras and has a huge tradition of tapas. In most tapas bars, if you order a drink you get a free tapa with it. There were too many to choose from so Grace and I ended up eating Kebap (gyros) and then the best gelato I've ever tasted.

After lunch we split into groups and went to visit the Capilla Real, the Cathedral, and the Corral del Carbón.
Granada was the last stronghold of the Moorish empire on the Iberian peninsula. In 1469 Isabel of Castile married Ferdinand of Aragorn, uniting the two provinces. They were known as the Catholic Monarchs (Reyes Católicos) and they set off reconquering the peninsula from the Moors. The last city to fall to the Catholic Monarchs was Granada. The sultan Boabdil held Granada and the Alhambra, but in 1492 he surrendered the keys to the city and the palace to Ferdinand and Isabel; they had successfully united the peninsula under their Catholic reign. After moving in the Alhambra they order the building of a cathedral, but building was halted in 1504 so that a Royal Chapel could be built in preparation for their burial within the chapel. Neither monarch saw it finished; they were interred in the Alhambra until building was finished in 1517 and they were moved to their current tomb within the chapel.
Their daughter Juana the Crazy is also buried there with her husband Phillip the Handsome and one of their sons, who did not live past infancy.
The chapel is extremely ornately decorated with symbols of the Reyes Católicos. They had their initials carved into EVERYTHING (F for Ferdinand and Y for Isabel)!
Above their tomb is a marble representation of them. The pillow where Isabel's head is resting sinks down lower because it is said that she was much much smarter than Ferdinand and so her brian weighed more! (Pictures weren't allowed inside)

The Capilla Real

Their emblem flanked by a yoke and a bundle of arrows
signifying the sharing of power and the uniting of the kingdom.

Connected to the chapel is a small museum holding the coronation dress of both Ferdinand and Isabel, as well as their crowns and scepters and some of Isabel's personal items. I stood in front of Isabel's crown with goosebumps on my arms and tears in my eyes. I tried to explain to my friend Derek how incredible it was to be standing in front of the crown that SHE WORE, a hunk of gold that was present at the CREATION OF SPAIN and he just said "it's creepy." I was in awe and everyone thought I was super weird...but I sorta am so...

Next we went to the Cathedral. Pictures weren't allowed in their either, but it's HUGE and the entire thing is painted white! But the chapel is cooler...

Next we went to the old Moorish quarter of town to see the Corral del Carbón and the Alcaicería.

Corral de Carbón

The group

The Alcaicería is the old Moorish quarter...

made up of extremely narrow alleys and shops.

That night we all got dressed up (well everyone else since I missed the formal clothing memo) and went to these caves in the Albaicín (the old barrio set into the hill across from the Alhambra) to see a Flamenco show. We saw two groups of gitano dancers. They were absolutely incredible, so much so that I cried watching them being taken of by the "duende" or the spirit of the dance. It was an incredibly moving experience.

The view of the Alhambra from the Flamenco Caves.

Our first dancer.

On Saturday it was up early to take our buses over to the Alhambra. Entrance tickets into the Alhambra are timed because 8,000 people visit the palace daily! WHOA!

The Alhambra was built in the 13th century and has been a fortress for Muslim kings as well as Christian monarchs. It is the only existing Muslim palace in the world! 

The palace is huge and absolutely beautiful with extremely ornate carvings covering every wall! The rooms are designed to be cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and to inspire awe in all who visit. I bought Washington Iriving's book Tales of the Alhambra and as I read them I'll leave you tidbits, but until then here are some pictures that barely begin to capture the beauty that is the Alhambra.

Marmiga!

The last weekend in March found me traveling to Sevilla by myself.
I spent Friday wandering around Sevilla and taking in the gorgeous sunshine. That afternoon I got on a bus headed for Aracena, a town in the foothills of the Sierras and home to my friend Mar.
Mar was the native Spanish speaker at Whitman for two years. She lived with me in La Casa Hispana my sophomore year and is my Spanish sister. She is currently working as an assistant and translator at an Australian owned copper mine in Aracena. I spent the entire weekend with her, meeting her friends, cooking her dinner, going dancing, and watching movies. It was the perfect weekend to be away from Alicante and enjoy feeling completely at home.
I'm hoping to go back to Aracena when my program ends in June.

Me in Sevilla!

Me and Mar!

Mar and the wonderful group!

Tapas Course

The week after Las Fallas I took a tapas course! 

The course was two evening sessions where we learned how to make a variety of tapas including Tortilla de Patatas and croquetas! It was a wonderful way to try some tapas I hadn't yet (like blood sausage) and to learn how to make the ones I've been eating for months (croquetas and mejillones)!

If you want some recipes let me know, otherwise I'll cook them for you when I make my epic return to the States!

Mushroom caps with peppers and jamón

Calamari

Tortilla de Patatas

Mejillones con vinigreta

I got to help make the croquetas!

Frying up the croquetas.

Blood sausage, Peppers with quail eggs, and Peppers stuff with Bacalao!

Valencia and Las Fallas!

March 19th is the feast of St. Joseph and in Valencia that means Las Fallas!
Every year over 4 million people flock to Spain's third largest city for the most spectacular and most dangerous festival I have ever seen!
Las Fallas is a celebration that begins at the very end of April and lasts throughout the month until the 19th. In honor of St. Joseph, the carpenter, sculptors throughout the city build these huge statues out of wood, cardboard, and paper maché. Each sculpture is made up of lots of little ones, called ninots. A grouping of ninots is called a Falla, hence the name of the celebration.
They spend the entire month building and painting these gorgeous Fallas. Each day of the celebration there is a Mascletá, held at 2pm in the Government Plaza. The Mascletá is essentially a concert of fire crackers! They are timed to go off and create a rhythm that you feel in every bone of your body, and it all ends with the "terremoto" or earthquake that shakes the entire city. Every mascletá lasts 10 minutes and each one is conducted by a different "pyrotechnic" and the best performance wins the honor of performing the mascletá on the 19th. And on the night of the 19th each barrio gathers around their falla which has been strung with "petardos" or firecrackers and doused in alcohol to watch it burn to the ground.

We went to Valencia on Friday the 18th to see all the Fallas before the burning. They are the size of buildings and each one has a theme (many of them political). They are absolutely gorgeous!!!

A Falla of Thor 

Patrick and Me!!

One of my best friends from high school, Patrick Nyberg, is studying in Valencia so I spent the day with him and my friend Grace from Whitman (he's the first of my high school friends to meet any of my college friends)! It was an incredible day filled with gorgeous fallas, beautiful weather, and delicious buñuelos (the valencian version of funnel cakes) and chocolate!

Buñuelos de calbaza y chocolate

On Saturday I went back to Valencia with a group of students from the University. We filled 8 buses! 

We left Alicante at 8 am (it's a 2 hour trip) and left Valencia at 3:30 am  Sunday morning. We got to see more of the Fallas as well be a part of the MASSIVE crowed present for the final Mascletá. We ran into some friends from Whitman who are studying in Madrid, took a nap in the park, drank mojitos, ate tapas, and watched the fallas go up in flames. The EMT in me was going a little nuts around all those people with firecrackers as well as the lack of fire safety equipment...

But the kid in me was fascinated and intrigued and simply enjoying the excessiveness of such a festival!

I could have slept for the next week afterward, but it was completely worth it!

We met up with Dorian and Max! 

Falleras! The mascots of the festival!

Before

After