Living the Spanish Lifestyle

Spring has finally sprung in Spain, and a sorry for not writing for so long. It's hard to want to do much of anything, let alone stay inside long enough to write a blog post when I have beautiful weather (70s and 80s), and an even more beautiful country, at my fingertips.

Dad, Mom, and I after Palm Sunday Mass

I guess the first major thing that happened since the blog post was Semana Santa! Holy Week in Spain, and specifically in Seville is a huge deal. The whole town comes to a halt. I started off the weekend before Holy Week by taking a train up to meet my parents in Madrid! My mom and dad were able to come over and visit for 10 days, and I know I had a great time showing them around where I lived, and I hope that they had just as good a time. I got into Madrid on Friday via the AVE, which is the really fast train in Spain. It would take 6 hours by car to get to Madrid, but the AVE gets you there in two and a half. When I arrived, my parents were waiting for me in the train station! Boy, after all the hard work they put into helping me plan my trip, I was happy to see them. So, we gathered our things and went to the place we were staying. It was a nice size flat, and we were greeted by the owners son. He showed us around and got us all settled. While in Madrid, we walked around the city, took lots of pictures, visited the Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace, the Puerta Del Sol, and the Prado (I got to see my favorite work of art, Las Meninas, there). We also got to take a day trip out to Toledo, which was a neat city to see. 

Plaza Mayor

The Royal Palace

The Prado

A nice view of Toledo

After 5 days in Madrid, we caught the train back to Seville. I still notice whenever I'm away from Seville for any amount of time, when I get back, I always, always, always catch myself thinking "wow, it's nice to be home." 

you can see the feet of the men under the float

Mom, Dad, and I made our way to the Seville apartment, then went out to watch some of the parades floats (or pasos) for Semana Santa. People from all over the world come to Seville for Semana Santa, and it is one of the two biggest festivals of the year. Each church in Seville has a giant float, but the neatest thing about them is they are all carried by men under the float. There can be anywhere from 20-50 men under a float, depending on the size and weight, and each man carries it by lifting a wooden 2x4 on the back of their neck (and each man carries a load of around 80 pounds). It's a real honor to get to carry the float, but it is always very exhausting, men can collapse, and they can't see where they are going while they do all of this.

float of the virgin mary

As far as sighting in Seville, we got to see the Alcazar, which the royal palace in Seville, and the cathedral (the third largest in the world), which are the main things to see here. What my favorite part of the whole trip was the experience that mom and dad got to see. Tough we didn't do a ton of sightseeing, we took in a lot of the culture. A lot of Spanish culture is just being very relaxed, laid back, not worried about anything, and very very social. The Spaniards are never home except to sleep. It could be 10 pm on a Tuesday and they would still be out and about, even if it's just for a walk or to go get a tapa and drink. They live in the streets here and thrive on social interaction. Mom and Dad were able to experience it in our tapas and drinking that we did everyday. I was able to show them some of my favorites (berenjenas con miel, or eggplant with honey, and lots of good wine). Overall, I had a great time showing them around where I live and why I love Spain, and specifically Seville, so much.