This series of posts will chronicle, as faithfully as possible, our recent trip to Iceland and Andalusia. Comments and thoughts are most welcome! Photos from Iceland are courtesy Gireesh, Anchal and Janani and the ones from Amsterdam and Andalusia courtesy Gireesh. :)
Hola España! It was an early morning start from Amsterdam and a cab, a train, a super expensive breakfast at Schipol (40 euros for a couple of cold sandwiches and drinks, you gotta be kidding me!), a flight and another train later, we were at Maria Zambrano, the main train station in Malaga, our entry point into Andalusia. As you can figure out from the earlier posts, we were fresh from an amazing trip to Iceland and were now looking forward to a week in the land of tapas, flamenco and a unique confluence of Muslim and Christian cultures. From Malaga, we were going to take a train to Seville and spend a few nights in the city before picking up a rental and driving around the Pueblos Blancos – white villages – around Ronda and Arcos de la Fronterra.
We had a few hours to kill at Maria Zambrano before our train to Seville, so we decided to saunter outside. The first thing that struck us was the sky – bright blue with not a cloud in sight! After a week of getting beaten by the weather, blue was definitely what the doctor ordered for us – no more of those layers and layers of thermals, no more frantic hunts for that lost glove and most importantly, no more of looking the same in all our pictures.. this was bliss!
The initial euphoria about the weather apart, there was not much to see around the station. We were quite grubby but most restaurants around the streets were shut. Not even a convenience store was in sight. We were in Spain and this was siesta time, thank you very much! We did finally manage to find one tiny little café where, after a lot of sign language and digging through our Lonely Planet’s food section, we were able to get some cold sandwiches. What the café lacked in the culinary arts, it more than made up for in its location, right next to one of the main streets and ideally suited for people watching. Wait a minute, didn’t I just say it was siesta time? Then where were all these people coming from? Men and women, young and old, children with their grandparents, couples with strollers, groups of garrulous teens, coteries of dainty old ladies, suddenly they were all marching past us dressed up in their Sunday best, as if heeding the call of some inaudible bell. Curiosity got the better of us and off we went, following the crowds to wheverer they led us. Soon we were on a bridge and in midst of a big crowd -- the excitement was palpable, the buzz raucous and it felt like people were just waiting for something to happen before they could let out the cheers building up in their throats. And then it struck us.. Semana Santa! Today was the start of the Holy Week, and almost all of Spain, especially Andalusia, celebrates it with a lot of fervor, devotion and revelry leading up to the final celebration on Easter Sunday. You could think of it as a Christian equivalent of the Rath Yatra in India, with a lot more sangria in the evenings perhaps. :) Anyway, more on Semana Santa later. At Malaga, we were just about able to catch a glimpse of one procession featuring the Virgin before it was time to go back. It served as a perfect teaser of things to come though!
Our train ride to Seville was quite uneventful, but for two things.. Gireesh’s camera going clickety-clack in burst mode every few minutes (yes, the Geysir-striken Panasonic was alive again!) and our attempts to make coherent Spanish conversation with our friendly neighbor who seemed quite amused by our touristy fervor. There was quite a bit lost in translation when speaking to her, but thanks again to Lonely Planet, we were able to get by somewhat. She seemed to have quite a job though, nurse by day, flamenco percussionist by night! And, she also said she loved Bollywood! We Indians really are taking over the globe! :)
Soon it was time to land in Seville, and after quite a bit of confusion with bus routes and the location of our hotel, we were finally checked in, siesta-ed (when in Spain.. do the siesta!) and all ready to hit the town. Our hotel was quite conveniently located in Barrio de Santa Cruz, the most convenient area to explore most of Seville’s attractions. And that evening, it felt like there was a fair going on along the entire barrio. Cafes were open, packed to the brim and still soliciting more patrons, people were just hanging around, eating and drinking away like there was no tomorrow, children were running around having a little party of their own – those cobblestones streets seemed like home to everyone. This was exactly the kind of place one needs to get lost in, and get lost we did, through narrow roads and alleys, from one naranjos-lined patio to another (naranjos = oranges, there were plenty of them all around ripe and ready to be picked up, but supposed to be notoriously bitter!) . And all along, we had people for company. Everyone was moving one way or another, but still, miraculously not getting into each other’s ways. You need centuries of practice to be able get so much order in chaos.
Our little tromp led us, quite unexpectedly, to the Cathedral, the most famous building in Seville, and definitely one of the most magnificent pieces of architecture I have ever seen. And the way it showed itself to us, silhouetted against the twilit dusky sky with its various faces alluringly fading into shadows, is one of the most memorable experiences of our Spanish adventure. It was too late to try to enter the cathedral then, but we were just in time to catch quite a few processions originating from the church. The highlight of all these processions, for us, was the nazarenos, somber, hooded candle bearers walking before and after the main tableaus, dressed in colors representing their respective brotherhoods. There didn’t seem to be any age limit for becoming a nazareno – we even saw little kids walking in the main parade, often accompanied by a parent or a sibling. Kids were having a blast even otherwise, collecting balls of wax, candy and stamps from the marchers. The buzz that we had felt in Malaga reached a crescendo here as various processions walked out. You could smell revelry and energy in the air, but it wasn’t rowdy or even noisy. There was so much life all around, people just having a good time with their families and friends, it created such an an aura of positive energy that it was difficult not to get sucked in. And did I mention the cafes?
Our evening ended with a glimpse of one of the biggest symbols of Andalusia – flamenco! Since we didn’t have time to book a proper show, we stopped by at the crowded La Carboneria for a free one. It was a fun experience, my first one in fact, though the show itself was slightly restricted by the space and noise – it is a pub after all! But it got us interested enough to book a proper flamenco show the next evening, so I guess it played its part.
Food, laughter and joie de vivre set against the claps of a ravishing bailaora – this was Seville in a nutshell! Or maybe it was all of Andalusia? I had been here for just a few hours and I was falling in love already!
Hola España! It was an early morning start from Amsterdam and a cab, a train, a super expensive breakfast at Schipol (40 euros for a couple of cold sandwiches and drinks, you gotta be kidding me!), a flight and another train later, we were at Maria Zambrano, the main train station in Malaga, our entry point into Andalusia. As you can figure out from the earlier posts, we were fresh from an amazing trip to Iceland and were now looking forward to a week in the land of tapas, flamenco and a unique confluence of Muslim and Christian cultures. From Malaga, we were going to take a train to Seville and spend a few nights in the city before picking up a rental and driving around the Pueblos Blancos – white villages – around Ronda and Arcos de la Fronterra.
We had a few hours to kill at Maria Zambrano before our train to Seville, so we decided to saunter outside. The first thing that struck us was the sky – bright blue with not a cloud in sight! After a week of getting beaten by the weather, blue was definitely what the doctor ordered for us – no more of those layers and layers of thermals, no more frantic hunts for that lost glove and most importantly, no more of looking the same in all our pictures.. this was bliss!
The initial euphoria about the weather apart, there was not much to see around the station. We were quite grubby but most restaurants around the streets were shut. Not even a convenience store was in sight. We were in Spain and this was siesta time, thank you very much! We did finally manage to find one tiny little café where, after a lot of sign language and digging through our Lonely Planet’s food section, we were able to get some cold sandwiches. What the café lacked in the culinary arts, it more than made up for in its location, right next to one of the main streets and ideally suited for people watching. Wait a minute, didn’t I just say it was siesta time? Then where were all these people coming from? Men and women, young and old, children with their grandparents, couples with strollers, groups of garrulous teens, coteries of dainty old ladies, suddenly they were all marching past us dressed up in their Sunday best, as if heeding the call of some inaudible bell. Curiosity got the better of us and off we went, following the crowds to wheverer they led us. Soon we were on a bridge and in midst of a big crowd -- the excitement was palpable, the buzz raucous and it felt like people were just waiting for something to happen before they could let out the cheers building up in their throats. And then it struck us.. Semana Santa! Today was the start of the Holy Week, and almost all of Spain, especially Andalusia, celebrates it with a lot of fervor, devotion and revelry leading up to the final celebration on Easter Sunday. You could think of it as a Christian equivalent of the Rath Yatra in India, with a lot more sangria in the evenings perhaps. :) Anyway, more on Semana Santa later. At Malaga, we were just about able to catch a glimpse of one procession featuring the Virgin before it was time to go back. It served as a perfect teaser of things to come though!
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| On the streets of Malaga |
Our train ride to Seville was quite uneventful, but for two things.. Gireesh’s camera going clickety-clack in burst mode every few minutes (yes, the Geysir-striken Panasonic was alive again!) and our attempts to make coherent Spanish conversation with our friendly neighbor who seemed quite amused by our touristy fervor. There was quite a bit lost in translation when speaking to her, but thanks again to Lonely Planet, we were able to get by somewhat. She seemed to have quite a job though, nurse by day, flamenco percussionist by night! And, she also said she loved Bollywood! We Indians really are taking over the globe! :)
Soon it was time to land in Seville, and after quite a bit of confusion with bus routes and the location of our hotel, we were finally checked in, siesta-ed (when in Spain.. do the siesta!) and all ready to hit the town. Our hotel was quite conveniently located in Barrio de Santa Cruz, the most convenient area to explore most of Seville’s attractions. And that evening, it felt like there was a fair going on along the entire barrio. Cafes were open, packed to the brim and still soliciting more patrons, people were just hanging around, eating and drinking away like there was no tomorrow, children were running around having a little party of their own – those cobblestones streets seemed like home to everyone. This was exactly the kind of place one needs to get lost in, and get lost we did, through narrow roads and alleys, from one naranjos-lined patio to another (naranjos = oranges, there were plenty of them all around ripe and ready to be picked up, but supposed to be notoriously bitter!) . And all along, we had people for company. Everyone was moving one way or another, but still, miraculously not getting into each other’s ways. You need centuries of practice to be able get so much order in chaos.
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| People! |
Our little tromp led us, quite unexpectedly, to the Cathedral, the most famous building in Seville, and definitely one of the most magnificent pieces of architecture I have ever seen. And the way it showed itself to us, silhouetted against the twilit dusky sky with its various faces alluringly fading into shadows, is one of the most memorable experiences of our Spanish adventure. It was too late to try to enter the cathedral then, but we were just in time to catch quite a few processions originating from the church. The highlight of all these processions, for us, was the nazarenos, somber, hooded candle bearers walking before and after the main tableaus, dressed in colors representing their respective brotherhoods. There didn’t seem to be any age limit for becoming a nazareno – we even saw little kids walking in the main parade, often accompanied by a parent or a sibling. Kids were having a blast even otherwise, collecting balls of wax, candy and stamps from the marchers. The buzz that we had felt in Malaga reached a crescendo here as various processions walked out. You could smell revelry and energy in the air, but it wasn’t rowdy or even noisy. There was so much life all around, people just having a good time with their families and friends, it created such an an aura of positive energy that it was difficult not to get sucked in. And did I mention the cafes?
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| Nazareno |
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| One of the processions showing the crucification of Christ |
Our evening ended with a glimpse of one of the biggest symbols of Andalusia – flamenco! Since we didn’t have time to book a proper show, we stopped by at the crowded La Carboneria for a free one. It was a fun experience, my first one in fact, though the show itself was slightly restricted by the space and noise – it is a pub after all! But it got us interested enough to book a proper flamenco show the next evening, so I guess it played its part.
Food, laughter and joie de vivre set against the claps of a ravishing bailaora – this was Seville in a nutshell! Or maybe it was all of Andalusia? I had been here for just a few hours and I was falling in love already!
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