Feria is a massive, week-long celebration of Andalucian culture (mas o menos) in which everyone, and I mean everyone, dresses up in flamenco dresses, suits, and ties and enters the great Portada (door) where time essentially stops. They say that once you enter into la Feria, you could come back out hours or days later, lost in a foggy haze of rebujito (manzanilla and 7up) and totally disoriented. Think of Feria as an ENORMOUS carnival comprised of hundreds of casetas, really fancy tents owned by families with music, bartenders, and food that you must be invited into to join. There are also ferris wheels and cotton candy. During Feria, it is not uncommon for grandparents to be out until 4 or 5 in the morning dancing and drinking as though they were still in college. Unfortunately, I was only able to experience one day of Feria because I was traveling so much, but one day was all I needed to see.
"Inma, you press this button!"
The majority of cities in southern Spain don't have school for half the month of April. In fact, it is almost impossible to get anything productive done because there are so many cultural distractions. In the first week of April, classes are cancelled for Semana Santa and the last week of April classes are cancelled for Feria. What's more, the Tuesday after Feria (May 1st) is a national holiday and the whole city has the day off work to rest. In Spain, whenever class on Tuesday is cancelled, 90% of the time class on Monday will be cancelled as well to form a puente (bridge) from the weekend to the holiday. As if all this wasn't crazy enough... I made my schedule early on so that all 4 of my classes fall on Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning (yep) that I had a whopping 1 day of classes in 2 weeks. Talk about living the good life!
Let me tell you what I did during those two weeks:
1. Valencia
The first weekend of Feria I went to Valencia with my interest group, Spanish Gastronomy. We had the most amazing weekend and ate paella from the city where it originated... aka tasting the best paella in the world. My interest group has become like a family to me and we had one of the fullest weekends I have had in a long time: of love, of friendship, of food, of wine, of culture, of sun. I even got to eat a true Valencia orange.
2. Barcelona
Instead of returning back to Sevilla on Sunday after Valencia, my good friend Cara and I took a 3.5 hour train to Barcelona where we booked a hostel and spent the night before flying out to Prague in the morning. I include Barcelona in my list of travel destinations because we spent all evening there on Sunday and the majority of the day there on thursday before our return flight to Sevilla on Friday. We ate at 1 amazing restaurant and 1 mediocre restaurant, visited Park Guell at night, and got REALLY good at using the metro system. It was great.
3. Prague
What can I say? I'm in love. Traveling to Prague is like boarding a plane in reality and getting off in fairy tale land. After 3 days of trying to place our fingers on the perfect adjective, Cara finally came up with "enchanting," which I believe describes the city beautifully. We stayed in a really nice hostel right in the center of the city and quickly became sponges, soaking up as much culture as we possibly could in the brief amount of time our boarding passes allowed. Almost all of the bars in Prague are underground, which provided a true "pub" experience and made me feel like I was drinking pitchers (upon pitchers...) of rich malty beer in an 18th century cave. We were lucky enough to meet up with one of my best friends, David, who is studying abroad there for the year and was the greatest tour guide! It was amazing to reconnect with a little piece of home all the way over in Prague. Cara's best friend and roommate Lindsey also happened to be traveling in Prague that week and so we spent a ton of time with her as well. The gothic architecture, cobblestone roads, giant castle overlooking the city, and aromatic charm were all truly magical.
Traditional Czech cuisine.
Underground pub
A lock bridge: lovers put a lock with their initials on it here and then throw the key in the river. The city of romance!
David and I overlooking the city from Prague Castle
Rooftop drinks
Lennon's wall!
4. Malaga
I flew from Prague to Barcelona on Thursday afternoon and from Barcelona back to Sevilla on Friday morning, where I spent the day in bed recovering from my travels and meandering up and down the endless rows of casetas in la Feria. As much as I wanted to go out that night, I needed to listen to my body and give it a break because Saturday afternoon I would be off again to Malaga with my really close friend Roman to see the electronic/trance/house god Paul Oakenfold that night. Oakenfold was incredible and we stayed in Roman's flat on the beach until Monday evening when I finally returned back to Sevilla just in time for dinner. Roman and I spent the weekend eating great food, exploring little cities around Malaga such as Mijas (famous because instead of using taxis, the popular method of transportation is donkeys! not kidding.) and touring the house where Pablo Picasso grew up! Even though Malaga is only a little over 2 hours away from Sevilla, we somehow managed to spend 14 hours in the car over the course of the weekend (?!?-- aka the distance from Sevilla to Barcelona) listening to trace music and choosing the scenic routes through the mountains over the more direct ones that would have gotten us home faster.
Lunch by the sea
At the port
The beautiful mediterranean
In Mijas
Up at the Parador (outlook) overlooking all of Malaga!
We were there right after sunset- it was beautiful
In other great news, as though I haven't already gloated enough in this post, I recently discovered that I will be able to extend my stay here in Spain a full 11 days after my program ends! There is so much of the country that I still want to see and this extra week and a half will give me the time to travel, reflect, and process all that's happened this semester before I close the chapter on my study abroad experience and open the next one to my senior year in Boulder. Roman and I are planning on traveling to northern Portugal together for the first weekend after the program ends and, from there, I will continue north by myself to explore Galicia, Asturias, and whichever other regions I feel drawn to when the time comes. Expect a final blog post about my reflections upon this entire study abroad experience sometime during those extended days of solo travel. But until then, back to studying!!! Even though it seems like my life is all fun and games here, I do have to buckle down every once in a while ;).
Hasta luego! xo
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