Is this real life?

Semana Santa is now over. With classes that started at 8 AM this morning and our departure date looming in the not so distant future, things are starting to sink in. Even though I'm still here in Spain for a week, I've already started to reflect on my experiences here. Heck, I'm already missing things that I can still enjoy for 7 more glorious days!

Like our walks to school,

experiencing Spanish culture (more on this later!),

my awesome roomie,

intercambios,

traveling,

and our interesting culinary experiences.

Nos vemos pronto :)

Future Honeymoon Location

On Saturday, Harley, Alissa and I went on another daytrip - this time to Nerja, a town about an hour east of Malaga on the coast. It's known for its Cuevas (caves). Emma went with her parents when they visited last month and said it was a Must-See. After 2.5 months of living together, I know I can trust this girl. :)

It still amazes me how easy it is to travel around Spain! We just hop on a bus or a train and go anywhere. The bus from Malaga took us right to the Cuevas. The caves consist of 3 naturally-formed spaces, only one of which is currently open to the public. The rest are still being excavated by archeologists because the caves used to be inhabited by some of the first humans on the Iberian peninsula.

Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures with flash so my blurry pictures don't exactly capture just how cool this place was. There were stalagmites and stalactites galore, crazy straw-like structures and even a natural amphitheater where they hold concerts!

Stalagmites. Or stalactites?

Really cool column. Photoshop fail.

Nerja is also known for it's beaches that attract thousands of tourists each year. Let me tell you, this place was like the mecca of British tourists - everywhere we turned we heard English and saw sunburned faces from extended siestas on the beach. But I can totally see why they would want to vacation here: it's beautiful!

Mountains next to beaches. Crazy! And check out that shade of blue!

Nerja also boasts the Balcon de Europa, or Balcony of Europe, where you can take in all of the beautiful scenery while enjoying some ice cream from one of the 23,241 vendors on the way.

El Balcon de Europa

There's a restaurant right below the balcony...

...where we stopped to enjoy the view and a Spanish cerveza.

Nerja is an absolutely gorgeous place between the caves, the mountains and the beaches. But what made it especially awesome was how quiet it was. This was the first time we actually got to enjoy a small town since coming to Europe. We could actually hear the birds chirping as we walked down quiet alleyways in silence, content with our own thoughts and ice cream. :)

This week has been a wonderful break but it's back to the grind now. I have 2 group presentations on Tuesday and 4 exams to study for on top of packing up my Spanish life to head back home in 10 short days. Do work, son!

And I've been hearing a lot about the unseasonably warm weather everywhere back home. Hopefully everyone is thoroughly thawed out from all of the unseasonably cold weather you just had. Mother Nature has been going crazy this year! Enjoy your Easter weekends :)

Gibraltar: A Confused Place

While most of my amigos were galavanting around the continent, me and a few other students decided to chill out in Malaga. And while it would have been really super awesome to travel to cool places like Greece, France, and Italy, I'm completely happy with my decision. Staying in Malaga has given me a great opportunity to enjoy some quality bonding with my senora, work on my tan, and see what Malaga has to offer during this time of year.

It also allowed us to travel around Andalucia. And since Gibraltar is only a 2.5-hour busride away, we figured why not spend a day hanging out with monkeys and speaking English?

We took the bus to La Linea, a small Spanish city on the border of Gibraltar. It's called La Linea, or the Line, because it used to be where cannons shot from Gibraltar would hit when they were training their military. Who knew?

The Rock!

We made our way to the border, waved our passports at the nonchalant customs official, and found ourselves back in British territory. Cheerio!

We wandered around looking for the cable cars up to the top of The Rock. We passed many a tour guide offering to take us to the top in a bus. We must have looked Spanish that day because they all spoke Spanish to us at first! And when they realized we were English, they said "Oh! Why didn't you say so!" before continuing on their spiel about their awesome tour. We tried to gracefully decline but ended up just walking away from these pushy guides. Leave us alone, bro!

We finally made it to the cable cars and bought our tickets. Gibraltar officially accepts Gibraltar Pounds but nearly every store and tourist attraction also accepts Euros. You just have to specify which one you're paying with so you don't end up getting back the wrong change!

While we waited for our cable car, we were surrounded by signs warning of us the dangerous monkeys. From my experience, I think the British should be known for their silly signs.

Monkeys will bite you and steal your food.

Monkeys will bite you and steal your food.

Monkeys don't like to be impersonated. They will bite you.

We climbed up The Rock to the top platform and were immediately greeted by a beautiful view and some furry friends! Within a minute of walking off the cable car, a monkey crawled up my leg and starting going after the sandwiches in my bag! The signs we saw were enough of a warning for me! I shook the big guy off and booked it inside to eat my lunch before the monkeys ate it for me!

Monkeys are curious things.

After lunch, Harley, Alissa and I walked around the rock some more as we made our way down to the next cable car platform. We got to enjoy the views, the historical things around The Rock, and the monkeys!

Don't let me interrupt your nap.

Airport runway in the middle of the road. What a weird place!

Helpful sign.

Almost everyone is back home in Malaga now in time to enjoy the last few days of Semana Santa. Emma has some great stories about her adventures in Greece this week, too! I was so excited for them to travel but I'm even more excited their all home so we can live it up our last 12 days here in Spain :)

Hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend! I'll see you all soon!

El Cautivo

Woo I love Spring Break!

El Cautivo

Spring Break in Spain is really called Semana Santa, or Holy Week. In Spain they celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ with day-long processions. The processions involve giant tronos, or floats, that are carried by men. The tronos depict different images and scenes of the life of Christ, such as his crucifixion or resurrections. Each trono of Christ is also accompanied by a trono of the Virgen Maria, or Virgin Mary.

The train of Maria Santisima. Notice the flowers on it? People throw flowers at their favorite processions.

And when I say giant, I mean giant; it takes between 20 and 250 men to carry these things! And the Spanish go all out decorating the tronos. Each trono is unique and different but elaborately decorated with pan of oro (gold leaf) and plato (silver). The images of Christ usually involve some bloody crucification details while the Virgins sport tears of crystals. The faces always express some sort of suffering, either with the physical suffering of Christ or the emotional suffering of the Virgin.

The tronos leave from their respective churches from all over Malaga. The procession then follows it's specific route around the town, which always include La Alameda, Calle Larios, and La Tribuna de los Ricos. After the route (which could anywhere between 4 and 8 hours to complete!), the tronos return to their churches. But not before a few encore performances! People gather around the church to watch the spectacle of encierro (putting away), but will continue to cheer and shout until they bring it back out. This happens at least once for every trono but the more popular ones may make 3 or 4 encore appearances, delaying the closing time by up to 2 hours!

El Cautivo with all of its 242 portadores!

The most well-known trono of the Malaga Semana Santa is El Cautivo that makes it's appearance on Lunes Santo. This year, the impressive El Cautivo was carried by 242 portadores. It was also accompanied by 500 nazarenos all decked out in white robes and tapados (their pointy hats). El Cautivo also generates a large following - 3,000 normal people walk behind the procession in their own vigil! The trono of Maria Santisima de la Trinidad Coronada follows behind El Cautivo. She is just as impressive - it took 270 portadores to carry her this year!

Nazarenos (NOT members of the KKK!)

Harley and I were lucky enough to nab a spot in La Tribuna de los Pobres to watch the whole procession!

Maria Santisima

Another unique aspect about the processions in Malaga is that the portadores carrying the tronos don't just walk - the sway back and forth with each step kind of like a boat. They do this because it's an homage to the thriving maritine business that has supported and sustained Malaga for hundreds of years. So cool!

So there's your history lesson for the day, kiddos! See you in 13 days :)

Semana Santa empiece ahora mismo!

See you at the beach :)