Easter Weekend in Spain

Blogspot, this website I am using to keep my travel diary in, has been doing a lot of maintenance. Whenever I want to post a blog, it’s down! So I hope I can get eventually post all my blogs soon.  I’m sorry for the delay!

My Easter weekend was wonderful! On Saturday, April 23^rd, Paulette and the girls and I drove to Medina, where Paco is from. On our way there, Paulette drove through Segovia. It’s one of those world heritage cities that Spain is full of. It was beautiful. I got to see a summer home of the king and queen back in the day which was amazing. They also had redwood trees imported from California. It was so funny to hear them talk about how exotic and special these trees were when I live only a few states away from California! Nonetheless it was still cool. There was also a beautiful church that stood out on the city and I got to see an aqueduct! Now I know it may not be that cool to some people, but this was a hugely important and impressive invention of the Romans. It was still pretty intact and really tall, taller than I thought it would be. 

Walking up to the summer home

The famous redwood tree

The back of the summer home

The "backyard garden"

Segovia

The aqueduct!

The church in Segovia. Doesn't it look like the Disney castle?

 

After touring Segovia for a bit, we headed to Medina. The family was absolutely wonderful. Their grandmother was so sweet. She was a typical tiny, old grandma who makes too much food and wants everyone to eat until they pop the buttons off their pants. I was fed really well in Medina. It was also really nice too because the grandmother, uncles and cousin didn’t speak English very well but Paulette or Carmen or Ardena would always take the time to explain to me what the conversation was about. I really appreciated it but it was fun to listen to them all speaking Spanish. 

Media castle

 After Medina, we drove to Avila, another world heritage city. There we met up with Paco’s two sisters and they were wonderful! They were so much fun and loved to joke around. We also went and toured the city. Since it was the day before Easter, there was a procession and I finally got to see it! Let me tell you it was so cool! I took about a million pictures.One thing about the costumes of the procession, they look like the KKK. It was a little creepy to see this holy and religious ceremony while people were dressed like that. Plus it was rainy and gloomy. The whole atmosphere was just incredible.

Avila

Ardena and I

The procession

It was the procession of the mourning Virgin Mary

The priest with the mourning ladies

One of the many churches in Avila

I also got to see the old city with some of its walls still intact and the seven churches that lined up with seven of the entrances into the old city. The churches were beautiful and all around a great city. I also bought some delicious candy that the girls were raving about. Its ingredients? Egg, lemon, and sugar. I know it sounds pretty gross, but it was actually good! I’d eat it again.

The next morning was Easter Sunday and I got ready to go to church with Paulette and Ana. It was nice to get dressed up and go to church since I haven’t been in awhile. It was also a good experience to see how a Spanish Catholic church was, even though they spoke English. After church, Paulette made lamb and potatoes for lunch. It was very sweet of her to do that since I told Paulette I had never had lamb. She also got us girls a chocolate bunny/some cute animal that chocolate companies make molds out of to get you to buy them because they look cute. Overall it was just a great day and weekend being around a loving family and getting to experience a Spanish Easter. 

My Easter outfit

Monday, April 26, 2011. This was the date I went to my first museum by myself, ever. It was so much fun! I was shocked at how much I enjoyed going to a place by myself. Of course I was nervous taking the train to get to the right stop and finding my way I had to really concentrate on the map. But you know what, I made it. And I got lunch by myself, sat outside the botanical gardens and ate, and went back to the museum. I spent a whole day by myself and loved it. I even went into a few shops. The museum I went to was the Reina Sofa, one of the three art museums in the Golden Triangle of art museums in Madrid. It was just a great day and a huge accomplishment for me. I even got on the right train to get back to Tres Cantos this time!

Wednesday was another fun-filled day. I met up with Katy, Cody’s friend, to go see the Thyssen museum. It’s another Golden Triangle art museum but a lot smaller than I thought it would be. It was fun to see Katy again and we had a great time looking at all the art. There were, of course, a lot of paintings of Jesus and Mary and the crucifixion. It’s just everywhere in European art.  And in case you were wondering, no photography is allowed. So it’s not that I forgot my camera, I swear.  After the museum we waited to meet up with Ardena for dinner. My phone wasn’t working and I couldn’t seem to get a hold of her using Katy’s phone. After an hour of waiting, we decided to just go get dinner. We found this great restaurant close to the Thyssen and had a glass of wine and some potato dish that was close to patatas bravas.  We had such a good time and the food and wine was so good, we ordered another round! It was a really fun night and by the end, I felt like Katy and I were old friends. I’ll have to make a trip to Oklahoma when I get back to the states.

After rushing to the train station and taking the last train I could back, I realized my phone wasn’t working. I couldn’t call Paulette! Now I had gotten a new sim card with the same service I have in Austria except with a Spanish sim card for my time in Spain. It would be a lot cheaper to use that to call Paulette. The problem is, you have to put a pin number in every time you turn your phone on. With my new sim card, I couldn't remember my pin! And of course, it had been so long since I needed my Austrian pin, I couldn't remember that one either. So with no phone working, and my sudden onset of short-term memory loss, I panicked. I sat on the train for 20 minutes trying to remember my pin for my Austrian sim card so I could change it out with the Spanish one I bought. By some miracle, I suddenly remember what the number was! Once I finally got in touch with Paulette, I could relax and enjoy the train ride home. 

Paulette picked me up from the train station at 11:30pm or so and was completely sweet and understanding about the entire thing. When we got back to the house, Ardena was still awake. She told me she had been waiting at the Prado museum, another art museum! The funny thing was, we were literally two minutes away from each other for a good hour. And of course, both our phones weren't working. Well, such is life. I had a great day and I still had a whole week in Spain left! I said goodnight to Paulette and Ardena and went to bed for some much needed rest. I still had so much to do in my one week in Spain.

More stories, adventures and pictures to come.

Sara