Spring Break #2: Feria de Abril and Ireland

So I still have not improved this blog writing thing. One of these days I may catch you all up on the trips in between but for now I have jumped ahead. Just so you know how bad I am and how much I do try, I started writing this blog when I returned from Ireland at the beginning of May. Now here we are and its almost June…. Anyways… Like I mentioned in my last post, we had a week off school for Feria de Abril and I spent Monday and Tuesday here in Sevilla at the fair. On Monday night I went with my friends to the Alumbrada or lighting of the giant door. This was really cool to see as each part of the entrance lit up separately and the entrance was huge. So was the crowd that had gathered around to watch it and getting through this crowd to enter the fair grounds was next to impossible. At times I felt like the only way we were even moving was because of the huge mass pushing from behind us and it was as if we weren’t consciously taking steps. Once inside the entrance though the crowds thinned and we got to see why feria is such a big deal. The fair took up blocks and blocks and lining every street were casetas which tents but made out of wood and filled with tables and chairs and even a bar and they are extremely well decorated. There are a couple big public casetas but most of the casetas are privately owned and you have to be invited and on the guest list to enter. They even have bodyguards at the door. The professor I work with and teach her kids invited me to the caseta they were sharing with their friends but as she was not there any of the times I was able to go I didn’t feel right going to her caseta even though the way they are set up it would have been no big deal. Instead I spent my time hanging in the public caseta and walking around the streets. In the Calle de Infierno there were tons of attractions and while they all looked fun, they were a bit on the pricey side so we settled on the Ferris wheel. It had a great view out over the fair and really put into perspective how big the whole thing was. In the public caseta we tried “rebujitos” a combination of manzanilla and 7 UP which is the typical drink of feria and actually is only drunk during this time of the year. It was all right but definitely not as great as it had been made out to be. We got to listen to Flamenco music and watch as the people got really into their Sevillanas dancing. I was too embarrassed to go attempt to piece together the little bits I knew so I just watched. On Tuesday we went back after lunch and walked around the colorful streets. We tried “bunuellos” which are basically mini doughnuts and they were made right in front of us so they were hot and fresh when we ate them, SO good. All the dynamics of Feria during the day were so different than the evening. There were people riding around in their horse carriages (a sign of wealth) or they would even just sit on their horses sipping rebujitos. Everyone was so decked out. Tuesday is the first day the girls wear their Flamenco dresses and it really adds a lot of color to the streets. These dresses consist of so much fabric and frills and have got to weigh a ton. The girls have to be dying of heat in them too especially since some of them are so tight that I don’t understand how it was possible to walk. The dresses were so pretty though and perfect for dancing Sevillanas and I wish that I had had the chance to wear one. Some of my friend’s host parents had dresses for them but I was not as lucky in that aspect. Although I would have liked to see more, after spending a couple hours there I felt that in order to fully enjoy and love the feria, you have to have access to a caseta, know how to dance Sevillanas, and have a dress. All those things are such a big part of Feria and it is so exclusive that you really have to be on the inside in order to get the real experience of it. I had a lot of fun though and then on Tuesday I left straight from Feria, ran home to grab my bag and then caught the bus to the airport to head to Dublin. I got into Dublin around 11 pm and Katie, my Irish buddy from when she studied abroad at UNC and Morgan, my best friend and roommate from last year, met me when the taxi dropped me off and it was so nice to be welcomed with familiar faces. Both of them along with Kim, one of my other Irish friends and some of the girls Morgan had met there, especially Sarah, who just so happens to go to UNC too, adopted me for the week and they all did a great job of taking me around the city and showing me an insider’s perspective. I loved Dublin. It was so quaint and just had a good personality to it but of course, to hold up its name, Ireland rained the first day I was there and pretty much every day thereafter with a couple relatively nice days and even sun on one of them. On Friday after exploring Dublin and making Katie be a tourist in her own city Morgan, Sarah and I went home to Katie’s parents house with her in Lucan and it was such a cool experience to see how the Irish family functions. Her siblings are absolutely adorable too and her parents have the type of relationship that I can only hope to have after being married for that long. Her mom was baking for Katie’s cousin’s first communion and the cakes she made were something that I have only seen in a bakery before. They were incredible. One of them was a bible spread open with the photograph of her cousin on one side and even had the gold edges on the pages. Her mom made apple tart and that with some custard is heavenly. On Saturday we went to Howth, which is a little town along the coast about a half hour train ride away and as a blessing, it was actually warm and sunny that day. We walked along the harbor and got to see the cliffs and the sea lions and we went to the Prawn festival they were having there that day. Sunday Morgan and I went on a bus tour to the Wicklow mountains and Glendalough which was a ton of fun. Everything was so green and gorgeous and we got to stand on the bridge where PS I Love You was filmed which was awesome since I love that movie! Guinness Lake was also really cool to see and I guess Guinness had a bunch of sand imported in to add the texture at the top in order to make the lake look just like their signature harp to film the lake for one of their commercials.  In Glendalough we went to the cemetery and “St. Kevin’s Kitchen” which actually is an old church that just got the nickname because it looks like it has a chimney and then hiked up to the upper lake and the waterfalls. After being in Sevilla, which is still a city, for so long, I welcomed the nature with open arms. That had been one of the things I had missed most about home. We went to lunch at the famous Fitzgerald’s Pub and then we got to go to a weaver’s shop and see each step of how the weaving process works and they had some of the softest blankets I’ve ever felt and I really wanted one but knew that not only could I not afford it but I also had no space in my suitcase so I used my better judgment and withheld. I loved seeing the countryside and wished I could have seen more. It was so cold and windy though that every time we stepped out of the bus we almost regretted it and even with 5 layers on I was still huddling into myself. I was so lucky though that I had Morgan to deck me out in warm clothes because even combining all the warm clothes I had in Sevilla would not have been enough. Although I loved Ireland and had such a great time, I left knowing that by choosing Spain over Ireland to study in I made the right choice. I truly found my niche in Sevilla and every aspect of it helped me grow and become such a stronger more confident person. But Ireland will most definitely be a destination to return to as I am still dying to see the Cliffs of Moher and the Giants Causeway.The pictures that follow are a pretty good description of Dublin and the countryside and then also of what Feria was like. I am not sure why the uploaded as they did with the Feria pics in the center but despite what people may think about our generation, I am not tech savy enough to alter it! So the Feria pics split Howth from the Wicklow trip! Cheers!

Lindsay

A much needed break

Hola a todos!
I apologize profusely to all you dedicated readers who are never satisfied with my lack of posts. Life has been absolutely crazy for me here lately and almost over the top. I feel like I have been constantly busy for the past month and I am so glad that our second "spring break" for the week of Feria de Abril started today because it is a greatly needed break. I spent the afternoon doing nothing productive at all and it felt so great! Feria de Abril is a spring carnaval/ fair that is one of the most famous fiestas and typical of Sevilla. I guess each town has there own Feria and at different times with different manners of celebrating it, like in Pampolona, there equivalent to Feria is the running of the bulls.  Feria here in Sevilla starts Monday night with the "alumbrada" which is where they turn all the lights of the carnaval on for the first time and like up the giant entrance gate which is always a different theme each year. The girls were Flamenco dresses which are gypsy style with lots of frills and colors and everyone drinks rebujitos and manzanilla, and dances sevillanas. Manzanilla is the typical sherry of Jerez and rebujitos is this manzanilla mixed with sprite. My history professor gave us all a lecture today before leaving class about this drink in particular because he warned that it is easy to drink like water in the heat but if you are not careful, you can quickly end up drinking way too much. If you can afford it, or have good connections, you have your own tent which is called a caseta and supposedly they pass most of the time there drinking, eating, and dancing. For those of us who aren't lucky enough to know someone with a caseta(aka me) there are a few big public casetas but rumor has it they are pretty hot and crowded so we will see how that goes. At Feria too it is like a giant carnival so there are rides and games and tons of food and colors so it will definitely be a sight to see. I am sad that I will only be here for a day of Feria but since I will be spending the rest of our week off in Ireland I can't complain too much. It's hard to think about the fact that when I return from Ireland it will already be the 1st of May. Where does all the time go? Three months here flew by so fast and every day is a new struggle, a new lesson, and a new experience to enjoy. Even with the overwhelming amount of stuff I have had to do this past week, I love every minute of being here and I am so glad I took the opportunity to come and want to thank all of you who have supported me both emotionally and financially to make this all possible. I definitely feel like I have grown into a much more grounded and mature person and know that my faith has grown by leaps and bounds and that God has a plan for me and is protecting me. My strength to overcome anything amazes me now and I've realized completely that happiness is found inside yourself and you have to come to find it on your own in order to truly experience it. My life philosophies are still being modified and sculpted but overall, I am extremely proud of the point I have reached in my life now.
Now on to a little update about where my life has taken me this past month.. Or should I say GIANT update? Let's back up to my birthday weekend as I believe that is where we left off.. One of my friends here actually had her birthday a couple days after mine so our big group of friends all went to Matalascañas, a beach in Huelva, to ride horses for the day. This was one of the most incredible experiences ever. The beach was so pretty and being able to ride along the top of the ridge and look down at the beach and ocean on one side and the endless fields on the other was awe inspiring. Once we finally got down to the beach our horses took off running and it was so freeing and fun but man did my legs hurt the next day. The next weekend was our excursion with ISA to Cordoba and Granada. The Mezquita Catedral de Cordaba was really neat to see because I had learned so much about it in my history of art class. When the Christians reconquered Cordoba from the Moors, the archbishops tried to destroy the mezquita to build their cathedral but the emperor at the time forbid them to destroy it and demanded that there was plenty of room in the city to build elsewhere and have both of them. However, i think the cathedral had already been started and is now built right in the middle of the mosque. The mezquita (mosque) part is so unique though and provides such a contrast to the cathedral in the center. It is formed by alternating bricks and clay to give it stability as well as flexibility in the result of an earthquake and this combination of red and white gives the arches a unique pattern. All the columns in the oldest part of the mosque as well are different styles and this is because they recycled the columns from the arquitectura before them to say money and material. This style of arte utilized the simple and cheap materials and kept their decoration mainly to the interior of the building because they believed that it should be enjoyed from the inside where they spent most of their time as well as that nothing lasts forever so it is better to build with material pobre and then cover with decoration so if one piece of rock or gem fell off, the whole beauty of the structure would not be compromised. The most important part of the mosque is the quibla y mihrab which is the wall that faces Mekah and the chapel in it. The cathedral is also gorgeous but it was hard for me to be ok with the fact that they could so easily destroy such a magnificent piece of art to show their religion was now the focus of the territory. Even today, the only religion allowed to be practiced in this combined building is Christianity. Below are a couple photos from the visit although they do it no justice like always. The first shows the double arches of brick and clay in the mudejar stye, next is the facade of the mihrab and finally the difference between the cathedral in the middle and the remaining part of the mosque around it.

  

 We had a little time to explore the city afterwards and got to walk around the Jewish quarters which was really pretty with little shops of artesanes and crastsmen working and the tiniest entrances to go in. Later that afternoon we continued our journey to Granada. Granada was an absolutely incredible city. Many spaniards say it is their favorite after Sevilla of course, and I can see why. It doesn't seem very big and it has such a peaceful, relaxing environment and less of a bustling city. And of course.. The Alhambra, the most visited monument in Spain. To preserve the beauty, they only sell 7000 tickets to enter each day and almost every day they sell out and have to turn people away. This palace and courtyard started under Moorish rule as well but when Granada fell to Isabel y Fernando in 1492 it became a Christian palace. However, the majority of it is still intact in the original mudejar style with the arte vegetal, geometric and writing in arabic.  The most incredible part was seeing the reflection in the long pond which has undoubtedly been the subject of probably many famous fotographs. It was also mesmorizing to me to see all the decoration vegetal and writing that had been so intricately carved and to look at just how much of it existed and covered every surface. The roofs carved out of wood were also amazing and the whole place just left me breath-taken.

Also, I am sorry that I use Spanlish in many of my descriptions as well but since I learned it in Spanish, I have no knowledge of the english word to transfer it too for you guys. I also sometimes switch back and forth without realizing it for example with the words arte and parte that only add an "e" at the end to be spanish or spelling a ph- word with an "f" like they would in spanish so please forgive me for my incapacity to speak perfect ingles any more. 

But here are some pictures from the Alhambra.

 This is the city of Granada looking out from the Alhambra.

 

This is the most common word in the decoration. 

You read it from right to left and it means Alah.

sunset over the Alhambra

While in Granada we got to go to a Flamenco show in a cave and I ended up in the second row and it was the coolest thing ever. I liked it so much better than the one I saw before and i think that was because of the fact that I could see the dancers feet and they put so much more emotion into the dances. So much of flamenco though is based off of tap dancing and clapping and just the combination of sounds that being able to see them move their feet is an art in itself. I never wanted the show to end and I wish that I had been able to share an experience like the one I went to in Granada with my family when they came to visit me last week but unfortunately I am not sure anything will compare. For sunset we hiked to an overlook point where we could watch the sun set behind the Alhambra and the mountains and it was quite the view. There were artisans all around and they were all so nice and would give us gifts and tell us their life stories and then as it got closer to dusk, people began playing the guitar and dancing and just hanging out and it was such a relaxing and enjoyable environment. We went out for tapas for dinner because the cool part of dining in Granada is that with every drink you order you get a free tapa and it ends up being a pretty cheap meal. Sometimes you get stuck with a bad place though where the tapa is only bread or olives. We met up with one of my friend's friends who is studying there and she took us to the best places so we were guaranteed good tapas and the ones we got were beyond incredible. We also got to visit the Capilla Real where Fernando and Isabel as well as Juana la Loca and Felipe el Magnifico are buried. The scrupulous over their tombs as well is a fabulous work of art that I learned about and found to be one of the most interesting pieces we studying with the way all the parts of the people were represented in the carvings and how the lioness at the foot of Isabel's statue body had a mane to show she had equal power but the one pertaining to Juana had no hair to show she was powerless. There is so much fascinating information behind art work that I am just now coming to appreciate.
Anyways.. Its late now so bedtime for me. I forgot how much time keeping up a blog takes! But I think its better to have details then just a brief description of I did this and this so it is worth it. This is only part I of catching it up now, stay tuned and sometime within the next month (hopefully I'll do it this week) I'll write the next chapter about my experiences up north in Cantabria and Pais Vasco followed by Morocco, Semana Santa with my family, and this past weekend in Lisbon. There is so much to do, so much to see, and so much to tell, and like I have said a thousand times before, truly never enough time.
Lindsay