Semana Santa in the Pent House

Friday, March 26^th
Before leaving for Madrid to meet up with Steph, her mom and Linda, my new señora, Juana, gave me a personal tour of all the sites in Alcalá. According to Juana, it's horrible that I had yet to see these wonderful churches and convents. I know all of them are beautiful in their own way, but it was a tad overload. Anyway, she bought me some delicious almonds from an order of nuns through a revolving window because the nuns can’t be seen. How sweet!

Okay- I have about 18 bags to take to Madrid and it was quite the challenge to walk to the train station, but I made it to the gorgeous apartment in Sol, also known as the Pent House. Its only fault was slanted ceilings that caused a lot of head injuries. Also, the back room dubbed " The Alice in Wonderland" room was where we were sent when we were punished. This room was way to small for a human person to function- it looked like all the furniture shrunk and we were way too big. That night we had dinner at Paella de la Reina. Yummy vegetable paella, but please hold the full crustaceans with eyes still attached. We took a pit stop at Starbucks and went to visit Steph’s señora.

Saturday, March 27^th – Sunday, March 28^th

This morning we flew to Bilbao, a city in el País Basco (an autonomous community in northern Spain). Since we are only there for a short time, we were only able to visit the Guggenheim Museum. The art was a little too modern for my taste, but some of the exhibits were interesting. After Bilbao, we hopped on a bus to San Sebastian, a northern port city and checked out the lovely Leku Eder hotel. That night we walked around the downtown area and saw la playa de la concha (the most populat beach), Il porto (the port), and this huge statue of Jesus on top of a mountain. The next morning we ate breakfast in a room overlooking the city. After breakfast, we walked down the mountain in search of the mini-train or Funicular, but since it wasn’t up and running until 11:00am, we headed to the Palace to take some gorgeous pictures. By this time, the train was open so we took a ride up the mountain. The views were beautiful and there was a wanna be Jersey Shore Boardwalk, however, really removed from the water. Deli and I also took a cruise in a log flume that is really meant to entertain kids.

Monday, March 29^th

Monday was a pretty low-key day in Madrid especially considering we didn’t get started until about 3:00pm. Oops! We walked around Retiro Park and saw the Estanque, El Angel Caído (The Fallen Angel) and el Bosque del Recuerdo, (The Forrest of Remembrance), which commemorates the terrorist attacks of May 11. After a little wine break, we went to the Reina Sofia - a very large modernist museum chock full of Picasso. I only really wanted to see one of Picasso’s most famous paintings, Guernica. This work represents the anguish of the Spanish civil war from 1936-1939 through unnatural and forced positions. That night, we caught a portion of a procession for Semana Santa (Holy Week). At first, we were a little unsure as to what was going on since the attire didn’t strike us as holy (more like the KKK or witchcraft). The people leading the parade were wearing tall, black cone hats and the women were covered from head to toe in black, but we were reassured by the priests and the image of the Virgin that was being carried on a float surrounded by flowers. It was very impressive and such a traditional and important part of Semana Santa. That night, however, I had a crazy dream in which these scary KKK looking guys cam to my house and were trying to kill me.

Tuesday, March 30^th: Granada in Fast Forward

We headed to the airport at 4:30am to catch a ridiculously early (and cheap) flight to Granada, a city in Analucía (an autonomous community in southern Spain). Since nothing was even open when we landed, we enjoyed the rather gourmet breakfast in the airport. Even after killing some time, it was still too early to go into the Cathedral, so we walked to the Alabcín, Granada’s old Jewish quarter known for whitewashed house and the Sacramonte, a network of caves carved out of the clay rock where the gypsies still live today. Holy crap- talk about a hike up a hill, but it was worth it. The views were beautiful as usual and the caves were so cool. Steph and I actually walked through one- I don’t think I could ever live there. We also saw la Iglesia de Santa Ana, which had two statues that are used in the processions for Semana Santa in Granada. Since there was actually sun, we grabbed lunch at an outside restaurant. After lunch, Steph and I headed to the park to see the summer home of Federico García Lorca, a famous Spanish literary figure to kill some time again waiting for the Cathedral to be open. However, instead of going into the Cathedral, Steph and I went into capilla real to see the tombs of Ferdinand, Isabella, Felipe & Juana la Loca (Spanish royal figures) and we may or may not have snapped some illegal pics. Next on the agenda was the Alhambra, a fortress, palace and city all rolled into one and whose name comes from the Arabic root meaning “red or crimson castle.” We only got to see the Palacios de los Nazaríes because we had to catch a bus back to Madrid. We slept in really late the next day (seems these days trips really wore us out) and then I headed back to Alcalá to prepare for my weekend trip to Barcelona.

Thanks for a great week Deli, Steph & Linda!