Last Thursday my Literature class took a field trip to the Alcazar here in Sevilla, and it was magnificent! It's actually right across from the University, nestled behind Santa Cruz, and I had no idea. I had noticed the tall walls and gates before while walking around, but somehow never realized that behind them was Sevilla's royal palace. There are beautiful gardens, peacocks strolling about, and the mudéjar style palace. The literature class I'm taking is all about the literature and history here in Sevilla. We read a story called "Romance de la muerte de don Fadrique" (Romance of the Death of don Fadrique) and learned that don Pedro I, the King of Castile and Leon in the 14th century, ordered the death of his step-brother don Fadrique and the deed was done in the courtyard of the Alcazar. I love this class because we learn about history and then actually get to see where it happened! There are several streets in Sevilla named after the convoluted history of don Pedro and his many lovers. Don Pedro was obsessed with a woman named Doña Maria Coronel for many years. She was married and wanted nothing to do with him. Don Pedro (often called "The Cruel") had Maria Coronel's husband killed and continued after her. She entered the Santa Clara convent, hoping to escape the king, but he followed her in disguise. Finally, she could take it no longer, and she deliberately threw boiling oil over her face to produce a horrible disfigurement. She was mummified and to this day, every December 2nd her body is taken and exhibited in public in Sevilla, and people flock to see it.
Right after our field trip to the Alcazar ended that afternoon Lisa, Molly, Daniel and I caught a bus to the Sevilla airport. After a pretty short flight we arrived in Barcelona with a full moon greeting us over the ocean. We hopped on a bus that took us right into the middle of Barcelona and found our hostel right off of the famous street, La Rambla. We got some cheap falafel for dinner (finally some food with flavor!) and hit the hay. Or tried to at least. Let's just say the hostel in Barcelona was no where near as nice as the one in Venice. Every time you moved a muscle it sounded like your bed was going to fall apart. But that's more of what I expected from a hostel, we just got lucky the first time in Venice.
Gaudí, the olympic stadium, and Picasso were on the agenda for the next day. We went to the famous Sagrada Familia cathedral, which was truly remarkable. It's still a work in progress and construction relies solely on donations. The outside of the cathedral is magnificent. It looks like the drip sand castles I used to make on the beach as a kid. And the inside is suposed to look like a forest, with columns modeled after trees and branches, and vaulted ceilings that look like the sky. The stained class is brighter than any I have ever seen, and cast beautiful colors of light all throughout the inside of the cathedral. We went up into one of the lofty towers and had a beautiful view of the city. Later that day, we made our way over to the other side of the city to see the 1992 Olympic Stadium up on a hill. The stadium was actually built in the 1936 to house the People's Olympiad, but the event had to be cancelled due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. We made our way back on the metro into the center of Barcelona to go to the Picasso Museum where we saw a lot of Picasso's early art. It also had one of the many recreations Picasso painted of Velazquez' "Las Meninas", which was my favorite thing to see.
That night I went to synagogue with Lisa. She had been looking forward to going to synagogue in Barcelona for weeks. There is a very, very tiny Jewish population in Sevilla and no synagogues to be found. We found the synagogue her brother had gone to when he had visited Barcelona and went inside. She knew it was an Orthodox synagogue, but it was nothing like she expected it to be (and I have never been to a synagogue before so I had no idea what to expect). The men and woman had to sit on different levels of the building, the women up top and the men below. The women didn't participate in the service at all and weren't allowed to sit with the men so that the men weren't "distracted". And Lisa pointed out to me that the woman sitting in front of us was wearing a wig , because once you're married you have to hide your hair from other men while at synagogue. Lisa wasn't used to any of this and didn't like it at all (and neither did I). She was used to synagogue being a family activity, something she loved because she got to do it with her mom, dad, and brother. She wanted to leave early, and so we did.
The next day we saw more Gaudí - we went to Parque Guell on the side of a big hill overlooking the city. We also went to the harbor and sat in the grass for a long time next to the water. There was a group of jolly old men playing guitar and singing next to us, so we felt like we were being serenaded. Then we had to go pick up our backpacks from the hostel, we didn't book a room that night because our flight was so early the next morning. We hung out in a plaza that night and got dinner, then headed to the airport at about 11pm to sleep (hah)/wait for our flight which was at 6:30am. After a long, long night in the cold airport we finally got on the plane in the morning and made our way back to Sevilla. Sevilla was nice and sleepy in the morning when we returned, and I walked through the park back to my apartment very glad to be out of the hustly bustly city (and also back to a city that speaks Spanish - not Catalan!) and home in laid-back Sevilla.
They've been starting to prepare the last couple of weeks here for Semana Santa, which is coming up soon. But this week the preparations have really been getting into full swing. They practice the processionals at night. It's actually pretty creepy - you see dark figures walking ever so slowing collectively carrying a heavy platform on top of their heads (which during Semana Santa will hold various wooden statues depicting various scenes from the Passion). This week is also midterm week at the University. I had three exams today, one tomorrow, and then we leave for Granada and Córdoba for the weekend with our program! I can't wait to see the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Alhambra, and la mesquita.
That night I went to synagogue with Lisa. She had been looking forward to going to synagogue in Barcelona for weeks. There is a very, very tiny Jewish population in Sevilla and no synagogues to be found. We found the synagogue her brother had gone to when he had visited Barcelona and went inside. She knew it was an Orthodox synagogue, but it was nothing like she expected it to be (and I have never been to a synagogue before so I had no idea what to expect). The men and woman had to sit on different levels of the building, the women up top and the men below. The women didn't participate in the service at all and weren't allowed to sit with the men so that the men weren't "distracted". And Lisa pointed out to me that the woman sitting in front of us was wearing a wig , because once you're married you have to hide your hair from other men while at synagogue. Lisa wasn't used to any of this and didn't like it at all (and neither did I). She was used to synagogue being a family activity, something she loved because she got to do it with her mom, dad, and brother. She wanted to leave early, and so we did.
The next day we saw more Gaudí - we went to Parque Guell on the side of a big hill overlooking the city. We also went to the harbor and sat in the grass for a long time next to the water. There was a group of jolly old men playing guitar and singing next to us, so we felt like we were being serenaded. Then we had to go pick up our backpacks from the hostel, we didn't book a room that night because our flight was so early the next morning. We hung out in a plaza that night and got dinner, then headed to the airport at about 11pm to sleep (hah)/wait for our flight which was at 6:30am. After a long, long night in the cold airport we finally got on the plane in the morning and made our way back to Sevilla. Sevilla was nice and sleepy in the morning when we returned, and I walked through the park back to my apartment very glad to be out of the hustly bustly city (and also back to a city that speaks Spanish - not Catalan!) and home in laid-back Sevilla.
They've been starting to prepare the last couple of weeks here for Semana Santa, which is coming up soon. But this week the preparations have really been getting into full swing. They practice the processionals at night. It's actually pretty creepy - you see dark figures walking ever so slowing collectively carrying a heavy platform on top of their heads (which during Semana Santa will hold various wooden statues depicting various scenes from the Passion). This week is also midterm week at the University. I had three exams today, one tomorrow, and then we leave for Granada and Córdoba for the weekend with our program! I can't wait to see the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Alhambra, and la mesquita.
