Semana Santa: Roma, Venecia, Irlanda

Hola a todos! Last week was Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Granada which is possibly their most important week all year, celebrating Good Friday and Easter with processions, parades, and insane floats each day from Sunday to Sunday. I have some regrets about missing it because it is said to be spectacular, but as it was my spring break, I had a pretty fun time outside of Spain.

Thursday morning, I left for Rome, which is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited.


The first night, my friends Carmen and Anastasia and I went to the Vatican to see what turned out to be a rally of students/youth in support of the Pope. Apparently he's been accused on some rather serious sins.


Interesting cultural experience #1: Italian party thrown by the Italian student Asia lives with where we taught some of the Italians how to play beer [wine] pong and drank a lot of wine and ate a lot of delicious food. Italian culture can't really be topped by any other.


I'll spare you all of my photos of Roman monuments because I saw a lot of them. Actually, it's almost impossible to go anywhere in Rome without seeing breathtaking buildings of centuries past. This is the pantheon, and I also saw Trevi Fountain, many of the gardens in the north-eastern part of Rome, Piazza Novana, and a variety of buildings I had never even heard of but seemed very important.


Okay I also went to the Colosseum at night and it was incredibly beautiful. How did they build something so magnificent without technology or machines?

Other Roman highlights: I met a ton of Americans who are studying in Sevilla and went out with them (some were staying in my hostel). The gelato was OUT OF THIS WORLD. It's sooooo good. Pizzas are served whole and they are incredible. Basically I am in love with Italy and its sunny wonderfulness.

Next, I went to Cividale to visit a former exchange student of my family, Erica. Cividale is about 10 minutes from Slovenia so obviously we went to Slovenia -- such an awesome country to add to my list. To give you a better reference, it is also 1.5 hours from Venice. The town is very small and quaint and I mean, who can say no to authentic Italian country cooking? The answer is no one.


We made pasta! Obviously Erica helped me but mostly I handmade both types seen above myself: ravioli with a yogurt, ricotta, and freshly picked herbs filling and parparadelle with nettles in the dough and topped with freshly-picked-garlic-leaves pesto sauce. Erica made the rest of the meal: risotto with dandelion buds and herbs from her garden and fresh salad with flowers and an herby dressing. DELICIOUS! We also had the best gelato I've ever had in a nearby town, San Giovanni, which is made fresh every day and once won the award for the best gelato in Italy. Mmmm

My last destination was Galway, Ireland. I stayed with my friend Cameron and met all of her fun friends! We went out after their last day of classes (so unfair - I have two more months of class!) and then most of them scurried away on European travels. First off, Ireland is incredibly beautiful! Also, Galway is Seattle's sister city! Who knew? Makes it that much cooler. That weekend, Cam's sister and mother both came and it was a ton of fun to see them too. I know them both relatively well because I've visited San Francisco where they live more times than I can count.


In Galway, there are swans everywhere! And this city is one of those canal cities that is also on the river so the sunsets are always gorgeous.


So pretty :)


Cam, Hadley (her sister), Lee (her mother), and I went biking around the Aran Islands. These are the cliffs we stopped to see! Don't worry, there was no biking near the edge. Although there was no fence and nothing stopping you from hanging your feet off the edge -- or falling to your death. Oh to be outside of the US... We also got our hands on the beautiful Aran Island wool sweaters. They looked too weird on to buy, but they were very soft and beautiful!


Last tourist site: The Cliffs of Moher. These are also beautiful and also frightening.

Other Irish highlights: Cameron and I saw the weekly Irish dancing in one of the pubs in Galway -- very silly. I bought some excellent earrings and I got to make macaroni and cheese and chocolate chip cookies which are two of my favorite recipes to cook and which I cannot get in Spain. It was so great to cook again! I miss it a lot.

This weekend some friends are I are celebrating two important birthdays (Liz and Ferry!) at the beach since it is now beautiful, sunny and warm in Granada. Next week we head off to Morocco! The time is ticking away here... Real life is fast approaching.