Traveling....Sevilla!

Well, let’s go back to the beginning…

First. Sevilla.

Lindsey, Shannon, Tep and I all went to Sevilla for three days at the start of Semana Santa, or the Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday. We stayed in my friend Kate’s apartment and she wasn’t there so we had the place to ourselves! We took a train at 7:30 from Madrid and got to Sevilla at 10 am. We all planned to meet at the station at 7 and when Shannon wasn’t there by 7, I called her and said “Where in the world are you?” She had slept through her alarm and had just woken up. We were all so afraid she wasn’t going to make the train, but she did! She went from bed to train in a record 25 minutes! She said she told her taxi driver to drive as fast as he could and he laughed at her. Just like in the movies.

So we had a non-stop three days in Sevilla, seeing the sights and watching the processions. In case you didn’t know, Sevilla is known for these religious processions during Semana Santa. Various churches in the city have these brotherhoods that carry these ornate, richly decorated floats of Jesus or Mary through the city. All of the floats leave from their respective churches and make their way to the cathedral and back. Some of the floats are hundreds of years old and some brotherhoods have up to 2500 hundred participants in their church’s procession.

Since we were there on Palm Sunday, we saw a float (in Spanish, a paso) with Jesus depicted riding in on a donkey with palm branches. And we saw a paso with the Last Supper displayed. These pasos weigh tons and they are all carried by men underneath them. They carry the paso at the base of their necks and they take small steps in time to the music and make frequent stops. It’s amazing that these guys will do this for hours because it takes a long time to go from the church to the cathedral and back. My friend Manolo’s church’s paso leaves at noon from the church and doesn’t get back until almost 2 am! That means the procession goes on for 14 hours!

So, we saw pasos Sunday and Monday but on Tuesday, it was raining so the pasos didn’t leave the churches. Shannon and Lindsey had never been to Sevilla so they saw the major sights, like the Cathedral and the Alcazar, while Tep and I hung out and did some shopping. It was so good to be in Sevilla again because I love it so much but it was crazy because there were so many people there. There were people everywhere. But we had a good time anyways. Minus the rain, the weather was nice and the orange trees smelled fabulous. I hope I can go back to Sevilla again one day!