This was the sign outside of the cathedral tower that Emily and I wanted to climb.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Typical Espan-eesh
This was the sign outside of the cathedral tower that Emily and I wanted to climb.
Galicia
Santiago de Compostela is a small city with a huge cathedral and a special history. A really long time ago the remains of Saint Santiago (I forgot his English name) were found at the site of the current cathedral. The Catholic Church decided to build a monument in his honor, a cathedral that would hold his remains.
According to tradition, when you go inside the cathedral you have to give the bust of Santiago, which sits on top of his tomb, a hug and you have to touch, or headbutt, your head to the back of his. I don’t know why exactly, but tradition says this is what you do so this is what I did. In the cathedral is also the largest botafumaero in the world (a botafumaero is the incense dispenser used in the catholic church). It weighs 54 kilos and it takes eight men to pull the ropes of the pully system to get it to swing over the congregation. It was historically used to cover up the stinky smell of the pilgrims.
Santiago de Compostela is the last city of the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage that starts in southern France and crosses northern Spain, covering over 800km and lasting about 30-33 days. Before coming to Santiago I had wanted (you know, like “oh that would be kind of cool to do someday” kind of a feeling) to do this pilgrimage at some time in my life, but being there and seeing the pilgrims sitting in front of the cathedral (especially amazing where the young women who did the walk alone) solidified and intensified my desire to do the walk. Whether religious or not, the spiritual journey is said by many to be incredibly rewarding and life changing. I have already signed Caitlyn up to be my walking buddy but if anyone else is interested (I am really serious about this…I have promised myself that I will do this, so the sooner the better) let me know. You can’t tell me you don’t want to walk 800km and spend 30+ days in northern Spain where it is more likely to rain than be sunny.
I also went to a teeny tiny fishing village called Cabo Finisterre, The End of the World. This is the westernmost point on the Iberian Peninsula and once thought to be the end of the world, literally where you would fall over the side of the Earth. Many pilgrims doing the Camino de Santiago continue their journey until they reach the coast, where they burn their clothes and throw the ashes into the wind (doesn’t this sound great?!? Okay, who wants to do it with me??).
Las Fallas
March 13-16th Emily and I headed east to the Mediterranean to see Las Fallas of Valencia. Las Fallas (which means fires/flames) is a celebration/carnival that started as a pagan ritual celebrating the coming of warm weather. The Catholic Church then adopted the festival as a tribute to the city’s patron saint, Our Lady of the Forsaken. So, the city hire specialized artists to work year round to design and build giant caricatured papier-mache sculptures called ninots. The ninots depict anything from pop-culture icons to political figures to important events of the past year.
Originally the ninots were simple, faceless wooden structures dressed in old clothes that were fed to the springtime fires in celebration of warm weather. This tradition has turned into something much more artistic, political, and expensive- the artist’s budget often reaches and exceeds 1 million euros and artists are chosen a year in advance!! Then during Fallas week the ninots, which can be 30ft tall or more, are burned to the ground as a special thank you to spring.
So to sum up, this pretty much is a celebration that gives Valencianos a reason to celebrate and party for a week (actually, the celebrations begin in January…choosing a Fallas princess, fireworks here and there, etc.), to set off about a million firecrackers and bottle rockets every day at 2pm, and to allow children to throw fire crackers anywhere and everywhere all day and all night long. There were also parades, which started at 11pm and lasted about 3 hours, and special night time pretty firework displays. And to top it all off, Emily and I were in a 10 bed hostel room in which 8 of the beds were occupied by late 20 something Italians who would get back at 5 or 6am and thought it would be a good idea to start taking pictures of us, asking us to take pictures of them, yelling, and pretty much just running amuck and causing a ruckus while 1 friend said shhhhhhhh every 2 minutes to try to quite them down. Haha, then in the morning they asked us if we heard them the night before.
Also great was our lunch time ritual of going to the market and buying fresh cheese, bread, and strawberries and a bottle of wine. Then we’d go to the plaza sit in the street and eat and drink, listen to the booming and watch the smoke of the fireworks, then walk back to the hostel for siesta. And perhaps after siesta we would go to one of the many bunuelo stands to buy some fried dough with sugar and go sit in the part and eat and rest.
The city of Valenciana, even apart from Las Fallas, is one of my favorites in Spain. In 1938 the river that ran through the city was diverted after a flood devastated the area. In the old river bed they have created a beautiful park with soccer and rugby fields, bike lanes, paved walkways, grassy areas (uncommon in much of Spain), and various gardens.
I think the thing Emily and I liked the most was this jungle gym climbing thing for kids. It was awesome, you have to crawl across it like a spider, and avoid the 15 year olds jumping up and down and trying to knock their friends off. Man, it was great.
Valencia is the city of paella...here Jose Maria and company are making paella on a wood fire in the middle of the street. The paella we ate was complete with snails that we had to pull out the shell as well as a rabbit heart/lung set. Yum yum.
Trying to climb the tree but it got in my eye.
Originally the ninots were simple, faceless wooden structures dressed in old clothes that were fed to the springtime fires in celebration of warm weather. This tradition has turned into something much more artistic, political, and expensive- the artist’s budget often reaches and exceeds 1 million euros and artists are chosen a year in advance!! Then during Fallas week the ninots, which can be 30ft tall or more, are burned to the ground as a special thank you to spring.
So to sum up, this pretty much is a celebration that gives Valencianos a reason to celebrate and party for a week (actually, the celebrations begin in January…choosing a Fallas princess, fireworks here and there, etc.), to set off about a million firecrackers and bottle rockets every day at 2pm, and to allow children to throw fire crackers anywhere and everywhere all day and all night long. There were also parades, which started at 11pm and lasted about 3 hours, and special night time pretty firework displays. And to top it all off, Emily and I were in a 10 bed hostel room in which 8 of the beds were occupied by late 20 something Italians who would get back at 5 or 6am and thought it would be a good idea to start taking pictures of us, asking us to take pictures of them, yelling, and pretty much just running amuck and causing a ruckus while 1 friend said shhhhhhhh every 2 minutes to try to quite them down. Haha, then in the morning they asked us if we heard them the night before.
Also great was our lunch time ritual of going to the market and buying fresh cheese, bread, and strawberries and a bottle of wine. Then we’d go to the plaza sit in the street and eat and drink, listen to the booming and watch the smoke of the fireworks, then walk back to the hostel for siesta. And perhaps after siesta we would go to one of the many bunuelo stands to buy some fried dough with sugar and go sit in the part and eat and rest.
The city of Valenciana, even apart from Las Fallas, is one of my favorites in Spain. In 1938 the river that ran through the city was diverted after a flood devastated the area. In the old river bed they have created a beautiful park with soccer and rugby fields, bike lanes, paved walkways, grassy areas (uncommon in much of Spain), and various gardens.
I think the thing Emily and I liked the most was this jungle gym climbing thing for kids. It was awesome, you have to crawl across it like a spider, and avoid the 15 year olds jumping up and down and trying to knock their friends off. Man, it was great.
Valencia is the city of paella...here Jose Maria and company are making paella on a wood fire in the middle of the street. The paella we ate was complete with snails that we had to pull out the shell as well as a rabbit heart/lung set. Yum yum.
Trying to climb the tree but it got in my eye.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
