There goes Jesus- say hi!

Semana Santa has now come and gone… and now is the time for you all to find out how it went for me and Mike! We’ll start with meeting Mike at the airport…

SO early Monday morning (8am) I had caught a 5 hr bus to Madrid (from Cordoba). When I got to the bus station there I then made my way by subway over to the airport and hung out for a little while as I waited his arrival. FINALLY he arrived! Yay! After 7months of being away from him, this visit was much needed for both of us. After some hugs and kisses we pretty much headed straight to the train station so we could go to Toledo for the evening. If you go visit Toledo it’s definitely worth it by train…only takes 30min and it’s a beautiful ride over. Once we got there we were just in love with the place. I mean we’ve both traveled around Spain but this was our first time in Toledo and it was just amazing. This town just looked very different from all of the other small towns that I’ve visited in Spain and it just had a relaxing feel to it. We got off the train and walked our way into the train station which looks like a small cathedral (there is some history to it but I don’t remember it), made our way over to the taxi and caught a ride to the hotel. Our hotel, Hotel Santa Isabel, was just great and in a perfect part of town, in the old neighborhood and right next to a convent. That night we explored the town and found out just how small it is. You can pretty much walk from one side of town to the other in about 15min…so needless to say, we were able to see “a lot” of the town.

I should also mention that this was during Semana Santa so of course they had a procession happening and it was just amazing. The whole town seemed to be out and following the statue of Jesus being carried through out the town. We followed for a little bit but then headed another direction to grab a bite to eat. We wandered the medieval town with lantern lit streets and stopped in a nice, romantic little restaurant where we were able to sit outside and enjoy the warm evening eating a wonderful meal. 
 

Beyond this place just being a good spot to eat, it was prime for seeing the procession come by that night. The procession made its way through the narrow, cobblestone town roads and lasted a few hours. We didn’t watch the whole thing, since we didn’t follow us after it passed the restaurant, but we end up meeting back up with the group when we headed back to the hotel. They had stopped right behind the convent right next to our hotel. Again, just precious to watch.

The next morning we explored some more of the town. We stopped by a view point that out looked onto some beautiful scenery and some military academy, wandered around Zocodover Square, and got ourselves lost in the winding roads of Toledo.
We found ourselves in front of a cute restaurant so we decided to stop there to get some lunch before we had to head out. The place we went to had absolutely delicious food and we didn't really want to leave BUT we had to go since our train was leaving soon. In fact, it was leaving so soon that we almost missed it; we had to run to the hotel, grab our bags, get in the taxi that was waiting for us (because I had just called it a few minutes before) and he rushed us to the train station. We got there with 2 MINUTES to spare before they would close the "entrance"...Luckily though we did make it and we were then off to Madrid to then catch another train to Cordoba...and then home :) 

That night we arrived to Lucena around 9pm and got picked up by my Spanish family. They were really excited to meet Mike so we all hung out for a few hours, had some traditional spanish tapas (jamon, typical spanish cheese, olives, salmorejo, bread sticks and some little typical Easter treats). Needless to say, we got home really late so the next morning was a little slow...but luckily it was a rainy day. Well I guess that was good and bad. GOOD because we had an excuse just to relax and hang around the house, BAD because they had to cancel tons of processions around Spain. In fact, the rest of the week it rained and the majority of processions ALL OVER Spain were either canceled or severely shortened (they usually last many hours). I was told (from newspapers) that this was the most rain that they've received during semana santa for the last 80 YEARS! We were lucky enough to see a few processions (in Toledo and Lucena) but in places like Seville where people come from all over the world to see the processions, well they were all just out of luck because ALL of those were canceled...just a little disappointing. 

The next procession we did see was in Lucena on Thursday. Normally they start the procession at 6am and stay out until 3pm but this day (due to the rain) they left late, around 9am or so, and ended at noon. We met up with my my Spanish family once again (Carlos' fam) and grabbed some breakfast, then went and watched the processions. And to make things even more special, Elena (my Spanish mom) had a friend invite us up to the balcony right in front of the church...where the saints were going. Not only were we able to see the whole procession with an amazing view, we also stood right next to the singers that perform for the processions. It was so special to see that and have Mike also get a chance to see a small town procession (since they're so different from the big city ones) from a great view. 

After the procession ended it started to rain, of course, so we headed back to the house. The rest of the night was just spent hanging out and relaxing since we had a day of travel ahead of us. Well, not really a full day but we did head over to Baena the next day with intentions of seeing the processions there. First thing we noticed, as soon as we started to drive, rain started to pour down. Since Baena is just a small town close by we knew it'd be raining there too. And what do you know....it was. So we got there and hung out with some friends I have since we really wanted to see if it would stop raining and they would start the processions...but no.

In the background is the back of a coliblanco!

The processions there are pretty cool because they are VERY different from in any other town. They dress up in special costumes, some as the Romans, others as the Colinegros and Coliblancos (they represent the Jewish) and some other costumes which I have no idea what they represent. The Colinegros and Coliblancos (not sure why there are 2 different groups) go around and play the drums throughout the procession. If you remember from an earlier post, I mentioned going to Baena for the San Jose festival and they were playing the drums all day and ALL night. This is basically the same thing but much more formal and the people are in costume. In the end we didn't get to see the people perform, although we did see a few people walking around in their costumes so I guess it wasn't a total loss. Plus we got to hang out with some pretty cool people over there. Finally around 11 we headed back home since no processions ended up happening.

The next day was again full of rain, so instead of going on a small trip to some nearby towns, we just stayed in the house. That night we did make it out for some tapas with friends and just chilled with them the rest of the night. The next day- well we had to go return the car rental so we hopped in the car early in the morning and headed down to Malaga. First though, we made a stop in a nearby town of Antequera. Why? Well we had stopped there on the way up from Malaga and found out they had a wolf park! So obviously we had to go back to check it out. We made our way up there and got to see some animals from afar such as wolves, peacocks, horses, goats and chickens. We didn't get to go on the tour though because it wasn't going to start until later and we had a car to drop off. 

oh how I love Spanish translations:
please read this...mostly paying attention to the 1st two "rules"

After our stop at the wolf park we took a winding road down to Malaga, the whole way to Malaga but I do have to say it had some amazing views. Definitely worth it to check out. We got a few great photos and just heading down to Malaga (less than an hour away from Antequera). Finally we got the car to the dealership and then made our way back over to the bus station to catch a ride back. We would have hung out in Malaga longer but since it was rainy and cloudy, well, it wasn't really ideal weather for Malaga. 

When we came back to Lucena we met up with my Spanish fam again.
On Sunday, what we consider to be Easter in the states, all the towns bring down their saint (the saint is usually up in a church in the mountains/hills). They literally carry her down and this takes over 4 hours to do just going one way. So they brought her down and we got to see her pass...although she was covered in a plastic sheet because it was.......RAINING. Are you starting to see a theme here? Anyways the rest of the day we just hung out with Carlos and Salva (my 2 spanish brothers). Then we headed home and relaxed because the next day I had work! So that's it for Semana Santa. I know that was a long post but hoped you enjoyed reading about the semi-eventful week that we had. 

Now, we're about to leave to go down to Malaga BECAUSE tomorrow we're catching a flight to Barcelona. I will be bringing my computer with me so hopefully I'll be able to tell you about it as I go...