Scotland!

Monday

                It was a real struggle waking up when it felt like I should just be going to sleep, but somehow I did. The taxi we had requested from the hotel the night before, but it was kind of a rip off since the driver charged us nineteen pounds for a trip that with a normal cab costs at the most thirteen. When he dropped us off, it was a block up and across the street from Victoria Station, causing us a little confusion as we went in search of where to locate buses. Once we did end up at the right place we saw the bus to Gatwick and asked the driver if we paid him or if we needed to go get tickets, to which he pointed to a door where we could purchase them. So we went in the door as directed only to get called to by some random guy chilling in the room next door telling us that that building was closed and we needed to go into the other room for tickets. That was a little embarrassing and odd, but we eventually got our tickets and were on our way to Gatwick.

                Once at the terminal, it was a cinch getting through check-in and security since there were hardly any lines. Then we ended up at our gate a good two hours before boarding so I settled myself comfortably on a couple of seats to try to take a nap. I don’t know if I actually slept at all but it was relaxing anyway. A funny incident happened when the gate next to ours was rather late boarding and so there was a crowd of people just sitting around waiting for their plane, when suddenly this guy came rushing in and asking in a loud and panicked voice if he was too late, only to be informed that it hadn’t even begun boarding yet. There was a murmur of chuckling that went across the room and although I felt bad for the guy, it was rather humorous. Eventually we boarded our flight and I was very excited when we were given a free hot breakfast on the plane. I’m definitely a fan of British Airlines.

                From the airport in Edinburgh we took a bus to the train station and then a train to Stirling. We arrived in Stirling around 11:30am and then relaxed in a coffee shop for a half hour or so while we waited for Rachel to meet us. Rachel, (for those who don’t know, a friend of my sister’s from her college days who was nice enough to let us stay with her and her flatmate Kate for a couple days), arrived and we were off to her lovely flat where we pretty much just relaxed for the rest of the day. We made one quick stop to the grocery store, and saw a little Scottish scenery on the way, including the famous Stirling bridge as well as the Wallace Monument from a distance. In the evening we watched the first episode from the TV series Sherlock, which was very intriguing and also was cool because I recognized some of the sights, since it takes place in London. It was a little disturbing though because there was a killer taxi driver in it and since we’d taken two cabs that day, it was a little unsettling.

Stirling Bridge

Tuesday

                It was sightseeing in Stirling day, so Rachel was our lovely tour guide and brought us to see all the most significant sights. We started off taking the bus to a high school and from there walking up a rather steep incline to get to the Wallace Monument. Once at the building where we bought the tickets, we then had an even steeper climb to actually get up to where the monument was located. Finally a bit winded we arrived at the monument, only to have to climb 296 steps I believe, to make it to the viewing point at the top of the tower. Fortunately, there were three rooms at various levels on the way up, so we were able to take short reprieves while we read about William Wallace, looked at busts of famous men of Scotland, and learned about the tower’s construction. The view of Stirling and the highlands was definitely worth the hike to the top, but the wind was on the freezing side and since we were rather exposed to the cold air, we snapped some pictures and descended in a hurry.

The National Wallace Monument

                Our second stop was to the university that Rachel is doing her postgraduate studies at, in order to warm up with a hot drink while we ate the sandwiches we’d brought along with us for lunch. Rachel introduced us to her honest to goodness English friend, Ed, who had a quite nice British accent. It would have been neat to meet someone with a Scottish accent, but British accents are fun too. On the way to catch the bus into town, we passed by the loch (lake) which was inhabited by a large quantity of swans as well as ducks and other interesting types of birds that I do not know the names of. Some of the swans were out of the water and so we were able to walk right among them which was really cool, however I think they were expecting food so we were a disappointment to them.

Hot Chocolate at the University

                                             

Swans!

                Finally we wound up on the bus and got off in town to walk up another hilly area to see Stirling Castle. We spent a good couple hours wandering around since there was a lot to see. We started off in a little garden area, and then walked through an exhibit of the past royalty who lived there, including Mary Queen of Scots. After that we walked through an interactive dungeon sort of area, that had rooms for playing musical instruments from the medieval time period, for dressing up as royalty and other fun stuff, that was meant more for children, but we enjoyed it. Then we went to the Stirling head gallery, which consisted of displays of carved wood heads from famous people that had at one time been hung up on the ceiling, but had been so heavy they had caused parts of the roof to collapse. Now only some of the originals remain, however on the ceiling are painted replicas of them all. Then we saw the apartments of the queen and king as well as some other places including the great hall and kitchen area.

Stirling Castle                                             

                As we were leaving it started to rain, but fortunately before we got too soaked we arrived at our destination: a legitimate Scottish pub where we got our supper. I ordered macaroni and cheese which I know doesn’t seem very Scottish, but apparently it is quite a popular dish in Scotland so it was acceptable. I got for a drink, Iron Brew, which is not alcoholic but actually a soda, that is specifically from Scotland and a big favorite.

Iron Brew 100% Scottish

                Once back at the flat we basically relaxed and I had some tea, because when you’re in the UK it is just the cool thing to do. We ended the night watching another Sherlock episode. I think I've become quite a fan of the series.

On Wednesday I began my adventures in Ireland, but that blog will be at a later date. I will say though that the accents are fantastic!

London!

Thursday

                Arrivederci Roma and hello London! The process of getting to the airport was a lot less complicated then with our flight from Madrid. We were able to take a bus for only four euros that got us there in about forty-five minutes and over three hours early for our 3:20 flight. We had to wait around for a while in order to check-in because apparently there is a no earlier than three hours rule. For an inexpensive lunch we stopped at the airport McDonalds and much to my surprise they still had a one euro menu that even included milkshakes. Then we went through security and then customs and I got my passport stamped for the second time finally.

                The flight went smoothly and I felt relatively little pressure in my ears which was a great improvement from the flight to Rome. To get to the hotel we had to take the metro and it is no simple system that is for certain. It took a good hour I’d say and we had to change lines twice, but fortunately we made it to the hotel and got settled in a bit before heading out to see The Hunger Games at a nearby theater. The commercials started at the time the movie was supposed to begin and they were unlike any I’ve ever seen before and were really ridiculous. I thought movies started late in the U.S. but after being in a London movie theater and waiting about a half hour after the scheduled time to begin, ten or fifteen minutes late doesn’t seem so bad. I enjoyed the movie, however I think I preferred the book and some things were taken out that I wish had been left, but overall it was good.

Friday

                It was another early day, because we had to be outside our hotel at eight to be picked up for our tour to Windsor Castle, Stone Hedge and Oxford. It took about an hour to get to Windsor and we had only about an hour and a half to see the castle and grounds, which was hardly sufficient time. An audio guide was included with the price of admission, but I didn’t have enough time to listen to all the descriptions and we had to go straight to the State Apartments and then St. George’s Chapel in order to see the most significant things before meeting at the bus. Windsor is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world and according to our tour guide Queen Elizabeth spends Friday through Sunday there although she has a total of six residences. In fact, our guide said it was quite possible that she was there while we were there since it was Friday. Rather neat. Paige and I started off seeing Queen Mary’s doll house, which is a miniature palace complete with miniature artworks by the top artists of the time, real gems in its treasury room, gold and silver tableware, and electricity among other things. It was never used to play with though, since it was given to the Queen when she was an adult because she liked to collect miniatures. It was really cool and I would have loved to take pictures but they weren’t allowed in the castle or chapel. We then saw the State Apartments which are still in use on certain occasions. We saw some ornate rooms full of art collections, including by famous artists like Rembrandt, as well as the bedroom used by Napoleon when he came to visit. There was a big banquet hall and fancy rooms that are used to greet very important guests, as well as a huge room that has on the ceiling and walls crests for every knight of the garter. An interesting note was that some of the crests were just white and I learned that these ones were from knights that had done some dishonorable deed and so their crests were painted over as a reminder of their shame. We also saw the room where the knights meet with the queen when they are knighted and have a celebratory meal together. While we were in the castle, we heard music and watched out the window for a bit as the changing of the guards took place. We had tried to watch earlier from outside, but there were too many people to be able to see, so we at least got to see a bit of it from inside anyway. Then we made a very quick visit to St. George’s Chapel where a bunch of past kings and queens are buried including the infamous Henry VIII and Napoleon I. Then it was a fast-paced walk to get back to the bus on time, which didn’t end up leaving right away after all so our rushing was unnecessary but we didn’t want to take any chances at being left behind.

                                      Just a part of the enormous Windsor Castle

                Our second stop to Stonehenge was an hour and a half drive away so I got to take a bit of a nap to pass the time. On the way we passed by Ascot Race Track which is a big deal place that all the royalty and upper classes go wearing somewhat absurd hats to watch horse racing. We had forty-five minutes to walk around Stonehenge, and it seemed like plenty of time, however with listening to the audio guide and taking photos, we again had to book it to the bus in order to be on time.

                Our last stop took over an hour and a half due to a detour in order to avoid an accident on the freeway. It was a neat detour because we ended up driving through a quaint little English town as well as seeing some nice scenery of the English countryside. Finally though we made it to Oxford and Claudia, our guide, led us around to see a few of the thirty-eight colleges of Oxford. We saw the oldest one, called Balliol and we also saw a couple others as well as seeing a huge library that apparently has tunnels and tunnels underground filled with books. Right next door to the library was the Radcliffe Building which is used as a place to read the books from the library since it isn’t permitted (not even if you’re the king) to check-out the books. Then we saw a courtyard area of the library that is exciting for any Harry Potter fans since it was used for filming some parts of the movies. Apparently a lot of the movies were filmed in Oxford. We walked by a couple of other buildings that are part of Oxford and then we were given free time before heading back to London. It was a rather long day, but I definitely enjoyed getting to see some cool English sights that I wouldn’t have seen if I hadn’t done the tour since they’re so far out of the city.

                                                       Part of the Oxford Library

                Once the bus dropped us off a street down from our hotel, we stopped at the grocery store nearby in order to pick up some cheap food items as well as some pizza for supper. Surprisingly food items weren’t super expensive and would have been relatively cheap if it weren’t for the dollars to pounds conversion rate.

Saturday

                We headed out to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace on Saturday morning and although we were there about forty-five minutes early, people lined the whole front gate of the palace already. So we ended up staking out a spot along the road in the hopes that the guard would pass by us on their way in. It turned out that the guard went by the other road in, so we saw them from a distance and some of them went back by our side but before the band that accompanied them left, we had given up our spots to see if we could get any closer to the palace. Overall we didn’t get to see all that much, but once the crowds died down, we were able to see a couple of the guards marching back and forth which was cool.

                                      The only part of the ceremony that went by us

                                         what I could see of the band leaving

                                                        Buckingham Palace

 After we took some photos in front of the palace, we headed off to see Big Ben and on our way we crossed through St. James Park which had a bunch of random birds about in it. I was especially a fan of these huge white birds with super long beaks, and a couple of them were even letting people pet them, so of course I had to join in. The top of the bird’s head was really soft and kind of fluffy and it made for a great photo opportunity as well. Finally we ended up in Parliament Square which as its name suggests has the building of Parliament and also Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Then ensued a crazy amount of photo-taking. We didn’t go in to the abbey since the entrance fee was a little too much to make it worth it so we opted to at least visit the gift shop where I bought a postcard commemorating the diamond jubilee of the queen which is quite a big deal in the UK.

                                           The huge pelican sort of birds

                  

We then walked up to Trafalgar Square where we saw these huge statues of lions that were pretty cool. Our next stop was to King’s Cross Station that was necessary to fulfill Paige’s lifelong dream of seeing platform 9 ¾. So then we made a quick stop for lunch at Mickey D’s before heading to London Bridge. When we got off the metro at the London Bridge stop, we encountered this small and rather pathetic looking bridge and we were both rather confused. It certainly didn’t seem anything like the bridge we’d expected to see. Fortunately we decided to walk a little farther past it and after going a couple blocks we discovered the amazing Tower Bridge. After some more photo-taking, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our night at the theater seeing Les Miserables. Although the tickets were a little on the pricey side, we fulfilled another of Paige’s dreams by seeing it, (it was a very fulfilling day for Paige), and it was quite a memorable experience.

                                  Tower Bridge

Sunday

                We went to an 11:30 Mass in a church on Queensway, a street just down from our hotel. After we did some shop browsing in search of a cheap shirt or something that says London, but gave up for a little while and took a stroll through Kensington Park and Hyde Park, which are both right next to each other. It would have been slightly more enjoyable if the weather had been a little warmer, without a biting wind, but it was still pleasant scenery anyway. There was a nice little lake that was full of swans, and other bird life, as well as some fountains including the Lady Diana Memorial Fountain.

                                          Italian Fountains in Kensington Park

After about an hour and a half, we ended up at Kensington Palace, the current home of Prince William and Kate, as well as Prince Harry. We decided to pay the admission fee since there were several different exhibits to see within the palace, making it seem worth the price. We started off going through the Queen’s Apartments, which were set up to depict the decline of the Stuart line. Next we visited the Lady Diana exhibit that displayed some of her gowns. Then we saw the King’s Apartments and there were men and women in various rooms dressed as courtiers and they would tell additional information about the specific rooms. I believe there was also a game of sorts that involved collecting cards with letters to spell a word that would reveal your status with the king, but I never discovered any cards, so I’m not totally sure what that was all about. Our last stop in the palace was to the Victoria Revealed exhibit, which started with Victoria becoming queen as a teen and each room showed the events of her life. Definitely interesting to see, and we spent a good two and a half hours in the palace overall.

                                               The throne room

                   Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their 9 children

Before leaving the palace grounds we made a quick trip to the gardens which were filled with some gorgeous and bright colored flowers. Then we headed back to the Queensway Street to do some more shop browsing and pick up a cheap supper from the grocery store. Once back at the apartment we rushed to use the internet and get all prepared to head out at three in the morning in order to take a taxi to Victoria Station, where we would catch a bus to Gatwick Airport for our flight at 7:30am. Despite our attempts to get to sleep at a really early hour, I didn’t fall asleep until close to midnight, which was kind of unfortunate considering I had to get up at two for a big day of traveling to Scotland.

                          Kensington Palace and the gardens

Scotland and Ireland info will follow at a later date!

Rome!

Easter Sunday 

It was a very long day of traveling. From Santa Justa Estación, we took the train to Madrid, from the Madrid station we took a train to terminal four in the airport, and from terminal four we took a bus to terminal one. However, that was almost very disastrous because we needed to get to terminal two for our flight and so when it stopped at terminal one we remained on the bus thinking that it would continue on to our terminal. When we heard people mentioning the train station in Madrid, we became concerned that the bus was potentially going to go all the way back to the first train station we arrived at in Madrid, which would put us in jeopardy of missing our flight. So when a fellow passenger informed us that we needed to get off at terminal one, we started trying to get the bus driver to open the door, and after a couple other people chimed in and came to our aid, the door opened at last much to my great relief. Then we weren’t exactly sure how to get to terminal two, so  we began walking along the outside of terminal one until we came to this restricted looking zone and realized that we were definitely going in the wrong direction. Then we backtracked and actually went into the airport, discovering that there were signs pointing towards our desired terminal. So after a rather long and exhausting walk, lugging my really heavy carry-on and checked bag, we arrived at the right place and we even made it about a half hour before boarding time.

Once we headed out our gate to board the plane, we discovered that all of the passengers had to board a shuttle bus to get to the plane because it was way out in the middle of nowhere in the airport. Finally we arrived at our plane, but the crew wasn’t ready for us to board so instead of letting us out of the bus we were shut inside in the crowded and hot space suffocating for a good ten minutes. Anyways, we finally boarded the plane and it was really big, having eight seats to a row, and at long last we arrived in Rome. Then we had to take a half-hour train to Termini Station in the center of the city, which happens to be ideally located right next to our hotel. After what seemed like hours and hour of traveling, we finally checked in to our hotel, called the Champagne Palace.

Then we set out to find something for supper. We ended up giving in to a persuasive guy outside this pizza place who convinced us to eat there, so we got a pizza to split that was very satisfying and the price wasn’t terrible. However, as we were waiting to pay after, some sort of brawl broke out in the front of the place, and I couldn’t see what was happening very well due to being back in a corner, but a guy who came in later had a swollen eye so it certainly got a little too violent for my tastes. Two women, who were also eating there, were so freaked out that they went and hid under the tables next to us, making me a little concerned. Since the brawl happened just outside the door, we were a little nervous as to if it was safe to leave, so we waited for a bit and when these three American guys left, we took the opportunity to follow them out and safely arrived back at our hotel. I definitely won’t be visiting that part of the area to eat anymore. That experience made me want to go back to my comfortable lifestyle in Sevilla, where I never felt afraid to just go out and eat somewhere at night. Not the greatest ending to my Easter Sunday, but things improved a lot in the light of day.

Monday

                I woke up at 6:25am in order to get an early start on sightseeing.  To see as much as possible in so short a time, early mornings were a necessity. The first stop of the day was to Vatican City since we wanted to beat the long lines by going in the morning. It was amazing! I went up the 320+ steps to the top of the dome of St. Peter’s and the view was definitely worth the climb and price.

                Then I wound up in the gift shop on the roof and made a couple purchases before it was all the way back down into the Basilica. I could have spent many more hours just taking everything in; however, I managed to get through seeing everything, including JPII’s tomb and the Pieta, as well as go to Mass and still was out before one.  Then we wandered around in the square taking pictures and also tried to figure out where we were to get the tickets for the Wednesday Papal Audience. We knew it was at the Bronze door, but when we found the door, it was mostly blocked by a gate making it seem like people were not supposed to pass through there. So we asked some guy in a suit that seemed like security of sorts, and he said that was the way to get the tickets. We then went back and passed by the gate, with a bunch of people giving us weird stares because it looked like we were going into out of bounds area, and approached the Swiss Guard. As we neared him, another Swiss Guard came over to us looking a little surprised, and we informed him that we were trying to secure tickets for the Audience, to which he gave us some, but I don’t feel like we necessarily went about it in the correct manner. I was just glad we got the tickets though.

                                                            Tomb of JPII

                                                            The Pieta!

                                                      The super cool Swiss Guards

                Our next stop was to see if the Vatican Museum had a long line, but it ended up being closed for Easter Monday. So that was the first thing on the agenda for Tuesday. Then we got some amazing gelato, (my first official gelato in Italy!), for our lunch before heading back on the metro. Then we went to the Basilica of St. John Lateran and the Holy Stairs. The Holy Stairs was quite the experience, let me tell you. Next we went to the Church of the Holy Cross and got to see an actual piece of Christ’s cross, a couple nails and the inscription that was on the cross. As an extra bonus, St. Thomas’ finger was there as well.

                                                            The Holy Stairs

                Then we took the metro to the Spanish steps and sat there for a little bit in the sunshine. For Roman Holiday fans, it is where Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn were in part of the movie. How cool! 

                                                             The Spanish Steps

                After that we walked all the way to the Trevi Fountain and I had to throw a penny in of course, then we passed by some shops and wound up trying on fun masks in one of them. Eventually we walked to the Pantheon and took pictures outside it before walking to the entrance and realizing that it had closed five minutes before we arrived. Kind of a bummer, but we planned to go back at an earlier time. Our last stop of the day was to the Piazza Navona where we watched this amazing artist make awesome creations with spray paint. In a matter of five minutes she whipped up artwork that was so detailed and beautiful that I wanted to buy one so bad, but I don’t know how I would have taken it back with me. After staying there longer than we should have, we rushed back to the nearest metro stop in about a half hour in order to get back to Termini Station before the metro closed at nine. I don’t know why it closed so early in Rome, but it was kind of inconvenient. It was extremely packed on the metro due to it being closing time, and when the Termini stop came there was such a mad rush to get off that one guy got completely pushed out and another girl was knocked to the floor and almost trampled. A little scary; I was just glad that I wasn’t standing right next to the doors when they opened.

                                                  Throwing a penny into the Trevi Fountain

                                                Cat mask!

                                                The Pantheon

Tuesday

                We got up with the birds again, and managed to avoid a really long wait in line for the Vatican Museum. We only had to wait about a half hour or so, and that was because we were there a good twenty minutes before it opened. It was very neat seeing the Sistine Chapel as well as some cool paintings by artists like Raphael.  We also saw a bunch of really old statues, some maps, pope carriages and cars and also Egyptian artifacts including a couple mummies, which were a little gross. We ended up missing a couple rooms on the way through to the Sistine Chapel, so we had to backtrack a little bit, but in the end we saw pretty much everything in about two and a half hours.

                                         A cool hall full of old maps in the Vatican Museum

                                                Spiral Staircase in the Museum

                Our next stop was to Santo Spirito Church that Jenny discovered when she was in Rome and we made it just in time because after about ten minutes a nun bolted the door and had to let us out afterwards. After that we went to the Roman Forum and the Colosseum which was a little pricey, but since we got to see both, it was worth it. The Forum was basically a bunch of ancient roman ruins that had some cool pillars and arches scattered about, but it was interesting. The Colosseum was really neat though causing me to take way too many pictures. After that we went to St. Peter in Chains Church that had the chains used to bind St. Peter and then we went to the St. Paul Outside the Wall Basilica that had the chains used to bind St. Paul as well as his tomb. It was definitely a cool church to visit, and as an added bonus, all along the top of the walls are the images of all the popes since St. Peter through to Pope Benedict XVI. From there we went to the Basilica of Mary Major which was the last of the four major basilicas in Rome that we had yet to visit. It also happened to be less than five minutes away from our hotel, so after a visit there, we were able to just walk back to the hotel and relax for a little bit before heading out again to access the internet at an internet shop in order to print out a confirmation ticket for a tour in London.  Overall it was a successful day in regards to sightseeing, but also very exhausting and I was dead on my feet by the time we were done for the day.

                                                           Roman Forum

                                          Some beautiful flowers in the forum

                                               The Colosseum

                                               An outside view of the Colosseum 

Wednesday

                I went to the Papal Audience and saw the Pope! We managed to get seats in the front row of the second section and he went right by us twice. It was so cool seeing him and being so close! None of my pictures came out that great because the ones that aren’t blurry are the ones that he is not looking in my direction, but it was still an incredible experience.

                                                    The Pope!

                In the afternoon we got pizza for lunch because that is the Italian thing to do, and then we went to the Pantheon which used to be a Roman temple of sorts but was converted into a church. It was neat to see and it is probably the only church I’ve ever seen that has a hole intentionally in the roof. From there we stopped for some gelato, because in Italy gelato is an absolute must, and then we went church exploring. We visited a church that I believe might have been called Minerva, but I’m not a hundred percent sure about that. It was huge and beautiful, like a lot of churches in Rome, and the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena was there. It also had a chapel dedicated to my patron St. Rose of Lima, which was sweet. Then we visited a little church that we passed along the way to St. Ignatius, that I’m not sure of its name, but it was pretty. St. Ignatius was also huge and beautiful and had the tombs of some saints who I didn’t recognize. Then we visited another church called Gesu and it was also cool and had a couple of hands as relics, one being from St. Francis Xavier and the other I couldn’t find a name with.  We then stumbled across another church called St. Luigi that was really huge and had some impressive paintings as well as a chapel dedicated to St. Cecilia who is my confirmation saint. Our last church of the day was as we were heading back to the metro and we encountered this huge church called St. Andrew. It had the tombs of some saints, but I don’t believe any were very well known.

                                                 Ceiling of Pantheon

Once we were back on the metro, we stopped at a shop near the Vatican to see if any good photos were taken of us near the Pope. Unfortunately, both the pictures with me in them had my face totally covered by the camera of the girl standing beside me. Even if I don’t have a picture of me with the Pope, it was awesome being there and I have pictures of him anyway.

For supper we went to a relatively fancy restaurant that the receptionist recommended, because we had to at least once get pasta in Italy. So I got spaghetti, bread and water for around ten euros. Not a great deal, but I couldn’t leave Italy without eating some truly Italian food other than gelato. 

Semana Santa and Adiós

Monday (April 2)

                It rained and then it poured. Only two processions even braved beginning during a slight reprieve from the rain, and that turned out to be a mistake that required seeking shelter in the nearest church. Although I had to work and so missed all the action when the two processions had to take refuge, Jaime and I watched what was going on through Sevilla’s news channel online. I also had the task of updating any of our clients that wanted information about the situation of processions. One American lady and her daughter decided to attempt to see one of the processions and were successful; however, when they returned they were drenched despite their umbrellas and they had me take their picture in order to remember the occasion. I felt really bad for all the brotherhoods and the huge disappointment it was for them. Especially because some of them missed last year as well due to the rain, so two years in a row is quite a bummer.

Tuesday

                Tuesday was the suspenseful waiting game. The threat of rain lingered throughout the afternoon, causing a lot of brotherhoods to cancel their processions, however it wasn’t until around 6:30pm that the rain actually began. There were also some thunder claps mixed in with the rain but it wasn’t quite as heavy as Monday. But rain is rain, and as a result not a single procession took place. I couldn't believe that we would get the rain practically every day during Semana Santa, after months without a drop. This would happen during the only week that rain was not desired. 

Wednesday

No rain at last!!! All nine processions took place without a problem. Unfortunately, due to being at work until nine, I missed seeing three of them. However as I was leaving work I was able to see the largest procession of the night, that consisted of 2,400 Nazarenos from the brotherhood of San Bernardo, that passed by a street right next to the hotel. It was super packed everywhere and in the process of trying to get near to the Cathedral, I found myself squashed between a mass of people and it is very lucky I’m not claustrophobic or it would have been my worst nightmare. I finally managed to free myself from the throng of humanity, and secured a spot that was a relatively good viewing place for the processions, except for a little tree that put up a leafy blockade. However, after La Lanzada procession finished, some people left and I was able to get a position just in front of the tree. It was a perfect spot because I could lean against the tree (standing for hours and hours gets a little tiresome) and I also had a great view of the processions with La Giralda in the background. The only bummer was that with the darkness of night, a lot of what would have been amazing photos, came out really blurry or dim. I got some relatively good ones though, and it made for a great memory anyway.

Of the last four to leave the Cathedral, three of the processions passed by me. They were Cristo de Burgos; that had two pasos, Siete Palabras; that had three, and Los Panaderos; that had two. During the times when the pasos went by, a man came out on a balcony and began to sing in honor of them, and whenever someone sporadically sings from a balcony, the procession halts until they finish. The type of song, which I’m sure has a name but I don’t know or remember, is very uniquely Spanish and kind of has a flamenco-type feel to it. Witnessing a Semana Santa procession is quite the experience, that is for certain.

It was after one in the morning before the last procession finished leaving the Cathedral and I didn’t make it back to the apartment until around 1:30am. Concepción was asleep with the TV on, but fortunately she had left me a sandwich and some fruit for supper, which I had no problem eating since I was more than a little hungry by that point. It was a long day, but definitely worth it to finally get to see some more processions. Wednesday was also the beginning of endings, because I finished my internship at the hotel. Strange how fast it went.

Thursday & Friday

                I waited in the Plaza del Duque for about three hours to no avail. It had seemed like a promising day because it started out with the sun shining and barely any clouds in the sky. However, the forecast for rain was too daunting to the brotherhoods and one after another they all ended up canceling their processions. I had figured at least one would attempt it, but no. Such a bummer.  It did end up raining a bit, but not very hard or for a long time. We ended up seeing one set of pasos though by going to the Chapel of Monte-Sión since they had opened it up for public to view them.

Monte-Sion Pasos

 We spent a couple suspenseful hours watching updates online at Paige’s house in order to see if any of the Madruga (Good Friday morning) processions would go out. During our wait, Paige’s host parents informed us that there were centurions doing a ceremony at the Basilica of Jesús del Gran Poder and that we should go see it. So we went out and watched, from afar due to the huge crowd, a group of men dressed as centurions performing as a band. I learned that they are a part of the brotherhood of the Macarena, and so when they finished at Gran Poder, they headed off to join up with their church. In order to see them closer up, Paige and I did some fast walking/running through some side streets in order to cross paths with them at a less crowded spot. After successfully getting a picture of them, we headed back to Paige’s house and continued the waiting game.

Good news arrived at last as we learned that the Macarena procession had begun at midnight. Then it was off to Plaza del Duque to get a good spot to see it. We were there a few hours before it was scheduled to arrive and those hours of waiting were super tough thanks to it being one of the coldest nights Sevilla’s had in weeks. It didn’t help that I was only wearing a sweater since when I left the apartment at three in the afternoon it wasn’t nearly as cold. While we were waiting though we were able to see at a distance the processions from El Silencio and El Gran Poder pass by. It would have been really convenient if all the processions passed by the same part of the plaza, however, while we had picked good spots to see the Macarena, El Silencio came by on the street at the other end and Gran Poder by yet another street next to the plaza. At around 3am the Macarena began processing by and due to having about 3200 Nazarenos, it didn’t finish going past us until 4:30am.

                                                        La Macarena

After the Macarena we headed off to the Basilica of Jesús del Gran Poder in order to get a good spot to see the procession return at 7am. We were some of the first people there and so we were able to sit on a bench in the plaza just outside the church. Again we had another freezing wait and the hours certainly dragged on. Finally the plaza became packed with people and the procession arrived. We watched until the paso of Jesus entered the church and then we were off to find the Esperanza de Triana procession. On our way, we saw the Mary paso for Los Gitanos go through the Duque as well as the Calvario paso enter Magdalena. By the time we arrived at the street that Esperanza de Triana was processing down, it was around 8:30am and despite the sun coming out, it was still really cold. The Esperanza de Triana paso was probably my favorite of all the Mary’s I’ve seen and with the sun shining down on it, it looked absolutely gorgeous. It was definitely worth staying up all night to see it.

                                                     Esperanza de Triana

Finally I arrived back at the apartment at around 9:40am and went straight to sleep. I didn’t get up until five, but I still felt exhausted. I’m definitely not the type of person that can handle staying up all night on a regular basis, because that was super draining. However, it made for a Good Friday experience like none other.

I ended up going back out around 9pm to see the procession of La O that was going by the street right next to mine. I could see it from my balcony, but I wanted to get some pictures of the Nazarenos in purple as well as the pasos, so I decided to brave the crowds. During all the processions there are some Nazarenos that hand out pictures of their statues or caramelos (caramels), but normally to children. However, during the Macarena procession, this one Nazareno must have taken pity on Paige and me shivering in the cold and so he gave us each a caramelo and then he also handed me a picture of the Macarena statue. I’m not going to lie I was a little jealous of all the children getting the little pictures because they would have made great souvenirs, so I was thrilled when I received one. Then the police officer standing in front of me started giving me all the pictures that he was handed by the Nazarenos and so I received three from him overall. Then when the procession of La O went by a lady next to me handed me a picture of Mary that she’d received from a Nazareno. I don’t know why people randomly decided to give their pictures, but I certainly wasn’t going to refuse any.

                                                      La O

After La O, I went back to the apartment, only to see on TV about fifteen minutes later that the procession from Montserrat was about to go by the street that I’d just been on. So out I went and secured a spot right along the sideline. I had seen the pasos in the Montserrat Chapel already but it is definitely more exciting to see them out in the processions. The Nazarenos for Montserrat were my favorite with their white and blue attire. There was also a girl in the procession that carried a veil with the imprint of Jesus’s face on it which was really neat and something different from all the other processions.

                                          Montserrat
   

Saturday

                It had seemed like forever until I’d leave when I first arrived. Now that the time had arrived and it was my last full day in Sevilla, I found myself not wanting to leave. It’s not that I can’t wait to see other places in Europe and go home as well, but the realization that this life in Sevilla is over for good, is rather a sad thought. I met up with Paige and we sat in the Plaza de Encarnación for a little while eating a farewell yogurt. We both had tons of packing to do, but at the same time, I hated to miss a second of the last memory of a sunshiny afternoon in Sevilla, Spain. I spent a good chunk of time packing and then ate a yummy lunch of green vegetable soup, ham omelet, and a plateful of strawberries with sugar. I normally eat supper with Concepción, but since I had to go to the Easter Vigil Mass since Sunday was spent traveling, I had lunch for a change. After lunch I asked Concepción if I could take a picture of us together and she was very happy to oblige. I couldn’t leave without at least a picture to remember her by and I also promised to send a copy to her once I’m back in the States.

                                                  A yummy Spanish lunch

                                                 Concepción and me

 In the late afternoon I went out and watched a couple of the Holy Saturday processions and then it was back to packing. Before I headed to Mass, I went out to Plaza Nueva for the last time to see the unique Santo Entierro procession which had a paso that depicted a skeleton sitting in front of the cross, as well as a paso that consisted of a glass tomb with a statue of Christ inside it. It also was really an interesting to see procession because aside from the brotherhood that sponsored it, all the other brotherhoods had a couple members participate, so there were all sorts of different attired Nazarenos.

                                                      Santo Entierro paso

 I wanted to see the whole procession, which included another paso, however I didn’t know how packed Mass would get so I reluctantly bid farewell to the plaza and the last procession that I’d be able to see, and hurried to Jesús del Gran Poder. It turned out that I could have stayed for the end since the doors didn’t open until 11pm and so I ended up being relatively early. The Easter Vigil Mass was just like in the States, with the Easter Candle lighting ceremony at the beginning as well as all of us getting candles. The Mass didn’t end until one and as I was walking back to the apartment I passed by a lot of Nazarenos who were heading to their homes after having just finished their procession, La Soledad, that was from the church right next door to Gran Poder. Despite the cold, I didn’t want the walk back to be over, as I tried to take in every little thing about my familiar surroundings. It has been a great experience living in Sevilla, and I’m going to miss the Spanish way of life, with its sunny plazas, lively streets, and easy-going manner.

Sunday

                I overslept, and if it weren’t for the music from the last procession of Semana Santa going by the street next to mine, I would have potentially missed the train. Thanks to the drums and trumpets, I was up at 7:30, giving me a half hour to scramble with last minute packing and breakfast, before heading out to meet Paige. I wish I’d gotten up earlier just so I could have spent a little more time with Concepción, however, she offered to help me bring my luggage out to where we’d get the taxi, giving us a little more time before saying our goodbyes. All too soon, I hugged my madre española goodbye and bid farewell to the wonderful city of Sevilla. Ya la echo de menos.

               I am now in London at the moment and everything is going great, however, I'm paying five pounds for an hour of internet use and really don't have time to put up any of the happenings from  Rome or here. I know that at least in Ireland I'll have internet access in the hotels I'm staying at so maybe I'll have time to put up more recent blogs there...