Semana Santa

Hola & Happy Easter!!!

After traveling to Palma de Mallorca & Lisbon for the first half of Semana Santa, I stayed at home for the rest of the break to catch the processions held in Sevilla. Unfortunately the weather was not too kind; only a handful of pasos (floats) were able to parade the streets. I later learned that rain hasn't affected Semana Santa this badly for about 150 years!! So of course I visit on the unusual year...haha.

Here's my paso viewing group! On Saturday we went out to search for a paso...& were successful! We watched Jesus & Mary parade through the streets of Sevilla for an hour & were so proud of our success. We then decided to stay out & watch the other processions, which would have been 1 every hour from 4-9...but it started raining again :( & when I say rain, I really mean monsoon. We headed home, still happy that we were even able to see just one.

My first paso: Jesus carrying the cross. This was a Saturday paso; the happier pasos showed on Easter day. The pasos are held up by 30-50 men (costaleros), who stand underneath the super heavy float and shuffle their feet around to make the paso sway. The floats are so heavy that the costaleros switch out every so often...sometimes the float parades around for 14 hours, so they have to take shifts! The costaleros wear head protection & wrap their stomachs tightly for support (so their insides don't rupture...does NOT sound like a good time).

This is the Saturday paso of the Virgin Mary. In this paso she is sad & mourning for her son. The candles on this float made it absolutely stunning.

Sunday (AKA Easter day): My friends & I woke up at 6AM to catch the last pasos of Semana Santa...I forgot how early 6AM was until then!!! But let me just say that I am SO happy I experienced the Easter pasos, they were sooo beautiful. Pictured above are Nazarenos, men & women completely covered in order to reflect their pure unity with God. This was the first year where women were allowed to participate as a Nazareno. If this outfit reminds you of the KKK, that's because the KKK was inspired by these capirotes (pointed hats) & hidden identity. WEIRD.

The beautiful Virgin Mary with all the candles lit. I can't even imagine how heavy that float was.

Jesus Christ, risen. Gorgeous.

After catching the last pasos of Semana Santa, we decided to get some desperately needed café con leche & pastries. We then headed to mass at the Cathedral, which started at 10AM...& finished 2.5 hours later! The first 40 minutes of mass was just music; someone played the organs beautifully and then the Archbishop said mass in Spanish. All the music was in Latin. I'd never felt more Catholic. :)

On Tuesday I went to my first bull fight! In Spanish it's called Corrida de Toros. 7 of us bought the 26 euro ticket (sitting in "sol alto," the cheap seats!) and soaked in all the culture. The older people watching the fight had their Sunday best on, & the crowd was NOT afraid to share their thoughts during the whole fight. They would boo or cheer or yell and it was so interesting to see. A group of older men (in their 70s) sat behind us & explained bits & pieces of the fight, which was very helpful.

Turns out, I actually LOVED the corrida! Here's how it works: There are 3 rounds.

• Round one—5 men waved their cape at the bull in order to tire it out. There are men on horses (picadores) that parade the ring, poking the bull if it gets too close to the men with capes.
• Round 2—3 men, banderilleros, place 2 banderillas (sharp barbed sticks) each into the bull. Again, this is in order to aggravate & tire the bull out.
• Round 3—the torero (called matador only after he has killed the bull) enters the ring alone with a small red cape & a sword. It his his job to kill the bull.

Describing what happens in an actual bullfight is just not sufficient or fair enough to depict my experience. Although there was a lot of blood, the whole fight was beautiful, I couldn't take my eyes off of the toreros. They move so beautifully & seem so daring & confident when facing the bull. The bullfight is suppose to depict how man can conquer animal; I'm so glad I didn't chicken out & bail on the fight! I do have to admit that I had to close my eyes or turn away when the bull was killed, but everything before that was great.

This week: IT'S FERIA!!! Which means fiesta, fiesta, fiesta. We don't have classes this week, so Katie & I are catching up on some homework & making a day-trip to Ronda & Cádiz this week. & I may or may not be going to Portugal next weekend...3rd time's a charm?! haha

HASTA LUEGO. xoxo B

Lisbon, Sintra, & Belém: some more of Portugal

I'm back from Portugal, did you miss me?!

My trip to Portugal was the most spontaneous, short vacation yet with the longest travel time yet—7 hours on a bus sure does make your bum fall asleep & give you the craziest cricks in your neck. & although the travel was a bit nuts, Portugal in general was so relaxing & beautiful.

My bus for Lisbon, Portugal was scheduled to leave Tuesday at 11:59PM, putting me in Lisbon at 5:30AM. The bus was 30 minutes late though so I got to Portugal at 6AM, grabbed a taxi, & headed to my hostel, Oasis Backpacker's Hostel. My old taxi driver decided it would be a good idea to drop me off somewhere other than my hostel though, so 30 minutes later + a phone call to my friend Lizzie I finally arrived & crashed on the comfy hostel couch until 10AM.

Wednesday: We headed off to Sintra, a suburb about 30 minutes away from the Lisbon center. As soon as we walked off our train we saw a Pizza Hut...& I don't even think I could describe our excitement. We stuffed ourselves with a delicious pepperoni pizza & a cookie dough cake thingy & then set off to explore Sintra with our happy bellies.

Meet my travel partners: Bryce, Lizzie, & Emily! Lizzie is friends with my friend Anna (my college roommate for freshman & sophomore year), Bryce is Lizzie's friend & we happened to all meet while visiting Morocco! What a small world. Emily is Lizzie's roommate & she is from the UK. I decided to hop on their trip to Lisbon last minute, best decision ever :)

We hiked up the Caselo dos Mouros in Sintra...& just about died. The hike was ridiculously long, & no exaggerating I'm pretty sure I could feel the air thinning out with each breath I took! We were so proud to have made it all the way up top & spent a good 40 minutes just looking at the amazing view of Sintra & part of Lisbon.

Back in Lisbon: The 25 de Abril Bridge made us feel like we were visiting San Francisco! It looks just like the Golden Gate Bridge, & the hilly roads in Lisbon did not help at all. Right next to the bridge is the Cristo-Rei, a replica of the monument found in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. So many mixture of cultures.

This is a picture of Tram 28, one of Lisbon's most iconic items. The trams take you up & down the hilly city, but I think they are more cute than functional. I didn't take the tram but thoroughly enjoyed photographing it!

We visited Belém during day 2. Belém, Portuguese for Bethlehem, was a 10 minute train ride away from our hostel & another cutesy suburb of Lisbon. Here's a picture of us in front of the Belém fountain, located right in front of the Jerónimos Monastery.

We then ventured into a Modern Arts museum...it was interesting! Here's a thumb, so artsy.

After the museum we all needed a bit pick-me-up (we were all running on minimal sleep after that long bus ride). We got some famous pastries of Belém & then hit up Starbucks...can you say Americans at heart? haha.

Next site to see: the Belém Tower. The weather was kinda grody, but the tower was great. We decided not to pay the 5 euro entrance fee, & just enjoyed the outside view instead.

& then we found McDonalds...I've never eaten so much American food in such a short amount of time. After reminiscing about how much we loved the 2 for $1 apple pies at MD, we decided to go for it & indulged in the yumminess. No regrets.

Last stop in Lisbon: The Rua Augusta Arch, which is located in a plaza very similar to Plaza Mayor in Madrid! It's cool to see that even though each city I've visited is different they all share some similar characteristics.

We wrapped up the trip at the bus station in Lisbon, where Bryce & I read our matching book, Eat, Pray, Love. I just started it & have already fallen in love with the novel. We hopped on our bus to Sevilla & arrived at 4:30AM, where I speed-walked back to my casa & slept until about 1:30PM :)

Lisbon is such a historical city & I wish I had researched more about it before visiting. It's one of the oldest cities in the world & was so relaxing & beautiful...I hope to return soon! I'm so thankful to have been able to travel with Lizzie, Bryce & Emily & hope to see them one more time before heading to the states (they are all studying abroad in Granada). Now what??

• Semana Santa has finally arrived in Sevilla! Unfortunately it has rained the WHOLE week...causing the pasos to be canceled. I'm praying that it will stop raining so that I can witness part of Semana Santa.
• I still have 2 papers to write that I have been procrastinating about for a while...time to git 'er done :/
• I only have 28 days left in Sevilla...where does the time go?! Leaving Sevilla will be the most bittersweet moment, ever. Anyone wanna pick this girl up from the airport May 21?!
• My camera is fixed!!!!!! El Corte Inglés called me Wednesday to let me know that I can pick it up on Monday, repairs free of charge. SO.HAPPY.
• I got an internship in Southlake! Unpaid, but an internship nonetheless. I'm not so excited to get back to real life full of work & responsibility, meh.

I think I've updated yall on everything! I'm off to catch up on HW & sleep & Sevilla in general. I'm missing my family & friends from home this week but I know we will soon be reunited. Until then I will be soaking in as much of the study abroad experience as possible <3

Sending my LOVE! -B

Palma De Mallorca

Hello Hello!

I just got back from my first trip of my super long spring break—Palma de Mallorca! My University, la Universidad Pablo de Olavide, gave the students this week off because of Semana Santa, the holy week right before Easter. My friend Sara & I left for Palma on Thursday after class & returned Monday night. Palma is a Balearic island near Barcelona, so it was a bit chillier than Sevilla, but fun nonetheless!

Day 1:Ready to go to Palma de Mallorca! Sara & I hopped onto our Ryanair flight around 8PM, arriving to the island at 10PM. We set off to find the hostel.

We were suppose to stay at this hostel called Sol de Mallorca...but somehow ended up at Hotel Enchant??! When we arrived at Sol, they said they were overbooked so they took us to a nice hotel for the same price. This is the view from the hotel! What we didn't know: we chose to stay in German-ville! Who knew that Palma de Mallorca was the place for Germans to vacation? Not I! I'm pretty sure there were just about as many German signs as there were Spanish signs...if not, more. Culture shock. Good thing we had already booked a hostel for the last 2 nights within the city.

Day 2: We found the beach & became beach bums for the majority of the weekend. Palma stayed in the 70s during the day...minus the clouds it was absolutely perfect!

Sara & I found a fun place to dance for one of the nights, it was great to see the Palma nightlife!

Day 3: After hitting up the beach Sara & I cleaned up a bit & found the cutest diner in the middle of nowhere. First glance at the Heinz ketchup bottle & we were sold to eat here. I had the greatest burger ever & ate pickles for the first time in 3 months, woah. I had to top it off with a chocolate milkshake of course!

Did I mention we went to the beach? Ha. That was the majority of our Palma spring break trip.

We wrapped up the trip at the Palma airport with Burger King & the Duty Free store. I forgot how awesome the BK Whopper was until a few days ago...now I'm hooked! Uh-oh. Anyway, the food was great & the company was even better!

Our mini honeymoon to Palma de Mallorca was relaxing & fun, but I am very glad we were only there for 4 days...I guess I like exploring new cities more than bumming around on an island! Adjusting to no travel when I get back to the States in not going to be fun.

My next trip: Lisbon, Portugal. I am taking a midnight bus that will put me in Lisbon around 7:30AM (yup, I will be on a bus for 7 hours). This was more of a spur-of-the-moment trip & I am so excited to get going again! Well, enough procrastination, time to get my Spanish Art History paper written before Portugal.

XOXO B

Lagos, Portugal

Ei, eu sobrevivi ao fim do mundo! Translation from Portuguese to English: Hey guys, I survived the end of the world!

I spent the past weekend in Lagos, Portugal, AKA the most beautiful place on earth. You think I'm exaggerating...but nope, this is a completely factual statement. If you are looking for a place to escape real life, go to Portugal. You won't regret it!! So...about the trip! I went with the travel company I intern for, DiscoverSevilla, so the whole trip was relatively easy since I didn't have to plan out any events for the day. Here's the weekend:

Day 1: We left Sevilla for Portugal at 10AM, arriving in Lagos around 1..then go straight to the beach! After beach time, we head over to the "end of the world" to watch the sun fall of the face of the earth. Back in the olden ages, when the world was thought to be flat, Lagos was assumed to be the edge of the earth..cray cray.

After watching the sun set, we ate some Portuguese dinner...which was NOT so great! I ordered tuna with onion sauce—wasn't really a fan! Day 2 of food was not so great either; I ordered a burger & they brought out 2 patties with an egg on top, no bun. So basically go to Portugal for the beach, not the food! haha.

Day 2: Sangria Cruise around the Lagos cliffs! For 25€ & 2 hours, we explored the caves around the ocean...so beautiful! Sitting on the boat was so relaxing & the scenery was even better. I highly recommend this cruise if you go to Lagos!

Day 3: We checked out a new beach! A few of my friends decided to surf so I took their action shots & just laid on the beach...nothing better than that!

Lagos was by far the most relaxing & chill trip I have done during my study abroad time here. Other news?

• Only 3 more weeks of school! Why such little time? Semana Santa, the week before Easter, is huge in Sevilla, so we are given the whole week off. 2 weeks after Semana Santa we are given another week off of classes for Fería. I think that TCU should adopt this whole school calendar...
• I only have 39 more days here, sad day! The closer the date to fly home gets, the more I realize I have so much to see of this world. I don't want study abroad to end, ever.
• My friend Kristi sent me a package...over a month ago! It got stuck in Madrid & I have had to send in paperwork multiple times in order to receive it. Cross your fingers that it comes this week!!!

Now off to study for my History of Spanish Art test, boo school. Don't worry parents, I'll ace it :) xoxo b

Paris

Bonjour mes amis!

This past weekend I went to Paris, France (is this real life?) with my friends Katie & Kristen. One word to describe Paris: elegant. I don't know why, but for some reason this city just gives off a fancy vibe...maybe due to the ridiculously high prices everywhere? haha. Despite the fact that I am way too poor to experience Paris in its extreme glory, the trip was amazing! Here's my weekend in pictures:

The metro was my life-savor this trip. Although most sites are within walking distance (30-45 minutes), the metro made seeing every monument so much more efficient. The frankenstein font was a little weird, though.

There was some sort of puppy grooming place right next to our hotel, where the most adorable dogs frolicked in the front! I think we stood outside of the window for 10 minutes just watching the dogs run around and play. After a heavy debate about whether or not we should adopt a puppy at that moment, we decided it would be a bad idea, for mamá Inés' sake...

After creepin on the puppies for a little while, Katie & I went on a pastry hunt! I went for the éclair, it was yum-O.

Our first big stop after checking into the hotel: the LOVE wall! This blue wall has love written all over it in just about every language. I found the English version :) I Love You!

Right next to the Love wall was the big white chapel on the hill. I don't know what it's called, some French name obvi, but it was pretty!

After visiting the white church on the hill, we took some pictures of the view. My favorite: the Eiffel tower :) cliché, I know.

Dinner: French onion soup, of course! Then some pizza...nom nom nom

We wrapped the day up by visiting the Eiffel Tower at night, all lit up. We of course threw up the frogs too...GO FROGS.

Day 2: what better way to start your morning than with a pastry & coffee? Please take note of how tiny that coffee is though...I'm missing my Texas-sized cups like crazy! As for the pastry, I'm not really sure what it was since I don't speak French & all—it had apricots in it though!

Next: up the Eiffel Tower we go! For 11.80€ we could take the elevator all the way to the top top of the tower...when in Paris, right??!

This is the view from halfway up the Eiffel. Paris is gorgeous!

Me, Kristen & Katie halfway up the tower

All the way up the Eiffel tower!!! It was super windy but the view was amazing. I had no clue Paris was so ginormous.

What to do after going up the Eiffel? Picnic outside of the tower of course! We went to a grocery store & bought some sandwiches, salad, & fruit, sat outside & enjoyed the beautiful view. I think this was my favorite part of the whole trip.

We decided to buy baguettes & have a bread fight in front of the Eiffel Tower just like Mary-Kate & Ashley in Passport to Paris(at 2 minutes & 12 seconds)...yes we are 20. SO.MUCH.FUN.

After our bread fight we took the metro to the Notre Dame, a big Catholic Gothic cathedral. The inside of the church had amazing glass mosaics. Unfortunately my brand-spankin-new camera decided to take a tumble & stop working right after this picture :( Shout out to my friend Kathleen who let Katie & I borrow her mini camera for our Paris trip (which took the pictures below)

Day 3: I visited the Arc de Triomphe! This arc is dedicated to those who fought & died for France in the French Revolutionary war. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier lies below the arc (from WWI).

After the arc, I was able to meet up with my friend Ariel in the Louvre Museum. So funny story: the Louvre was free for everyone that day, so there was a HUGE line to get into the museum. I didn't think I was going to be able to see the Mona Lisa at all...until Ariel's Egyptian friend spoke to the security guard at the Louvre! The security guard, who was also Egyptian, discretely let us cut the 2-hour-long line...I still don't really understand how it all happened, but the result: me+ariel+mona, what could be better?!

In order to show our appreciation to Ariel's Egyptian friend, we visited the whole Egyptian art section of the Louvre. Thanks Egyptian man for your help!!!

So Paris=Success! I will have to return again, sometime in my life. Next up: LAGOS, PORTUGAL!!!

xoxo, B