Semana Santa Processions

Last week has been crazy here. Every single day from last Saturday, until yesterday there have been religious processions to celebrate the ressurection of Jesus.

Every day there was about 6 or 7 processions of 100s of people dressed up in pointy hats and cloaks (the same outfits used by the K.K.K.) holding candles the size of baseball bats, people swining incents, people carrying crosses, carrying big floats, large musical bands, some military (only once that I saw) and women dressed for and actively mourning.

The freaky thing is to see the hundreds of adults and children (the penitents or nazarones) marching down the street dressed like they are in the K.K.K. Here is an example from the local media: http://servicios.ideal.es/especiales/semanasanta/album2005/universitaria.html. They have pictures from all of the processions on all of the days at http://servicios.ideal.es/especiales/semanasanta/fotografias.html.

The processions shut the city down for the whole week. The main streets are blocked. It becomes impossible sometimes to move through the city. To walk home from my class one evening, I had to walk through and sometimes next to and along the people dressed in these outfits.

Even if you cannot see the processions, you can always here them march as the patriotic/religious music fills the city.

Siesta in Granada

In Granada, they take the siestas. Apparently in Madrid they are not doing it as much.

What this means is that the normal store hours are from 10-2 and then from 5-8 and almost always closed on Sundays and Holidays.

What this means for me is that there is little point in doing things between these hours. The stores are all shuttered, so you cannot even look in the windows during this time. You cannot even tell what the store is because everything is behind steel roll-up doors.

I have lunch, take a nap and then get up around 5. I am very used to it - I am surprised it did not take very long at all. In fact, if I miss my siesta, I feel like I am hungover.

This means that the day is long here. Or that there are two days per day. One mini day, and one bigger day that goes on until very late at night. Lots of people are out on the streets at 2AM every night.

Learning Spanish in Spain

I spent last week and will spend next week learning to speak Spanish here in Granada.

I have about 3 hours of courses a day. Last week, I would get up in the morning, have breakfast, do some homework then review and then go to class until 6 or 7 in the evening. I am not doing much else during the day as it was pretty overwhelming - especially at first.

I expected that the classes would introduce the language slowly, build a minimum vocabulary and then build from there. Instead the instructors teach grammar and vocabulary almost completly in Spanish. So alot of the time I dont know exactly what the grammar teacher is saying - but I get enough to get the general idea and also get to practice undertanding the language.

Anyway here is how to ask someone their name, how to answer, ask where he is from and how to answer...
¿Como te llamas? (my pronounciation: komo tay yamaz)
Soy Sean

¿De donde eres? (day donday airez)
Soy canadiense

More likely though you might also ask someone their information by asking "¿Y tu?"...

Often I forget what language I am speaking and try and pronounce things in french. For example instead of pronouncing "te" as "tay" I say "te". I also want to not pronounce the trailing ´s´es for some reason.

Out of Madrid...

I´m out of Madrid now. I am in Granada which is in the south of Spain. I was going to spend more time in Madrid, but I actually stopped liking it so much. This is a bit of a surprise because I had such high expectations for Madrid - but maybe those expectations are what did it in.

The city is still very cool. The best parts of it are the nightlife - which I experienced only from the periphery last Saturday night. The nightlife is not that crazy every night. I went out on Sunday and Monday and there wasn´t really much going on. I am presuming things only really get going on the typical Thursday to Saturday night weekends.

The other big thing to see in Madrid are the Art Galleries (aka as the ¨big three¨). The Prado has cool Spanish artists like Picasso, Goya, Velazquez and El Greco. The Tyssen has tons of Manet, Monet, Van Goghs, Dali and Picasso in a very comfortable (airy) setting. The Reina Sofia has Picasso´s Guernica. At the Reina Sofia, I noticed some cool art which repeatedly was by Joan Miro. Cool enough so I have added him to my list of favourites. I just did some research and it turns out he is from Barcelona... And he has a painting called Bleu II. (I did not know any of this until just now, btw) Check out this thing: http://hirshhorn.si.edu/education/animals/animals3.html Here are some prints (warning it´s a poster selling site, but at least you can get the idea)
http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=999354&c=&search=MIRO

For me though Madrid was less cultural or exciting as Barcelona which has it´s own language, architectural style and beachfront access to the ocean. Pedro Almodovar has set most if not all? of his movies in Madrid so my cultural expecations were high. I will admit though - by not knowing Spanish (yet) my ability to experience Madrid culture was limited.

230 AM in Madrid

It´s 230 in the morning here and the streets are crowded. Not crowded with screaming drunkards, but rather a mix of people. Sure there are drukards out there (and one guy puking) but there are young people, old people and one or two families wandering around as well.

I have been wandering around trying to find a bank machine that will work with my ATM card. No luck so far and I have tried 9 different types of bank. In the meantime I´ve converted some leftover Hungarian money to Euros.

My initial impression of Madrid is that it is big. It has at least one highway through the centre of town so it reminds me of American cities (like Seattle). But has alot of squares which remind me of piazzas in Rome.

What impresses me is the energy on the street at this time in the morning. People aren´t ending their day - except me! I´m soo tired, I missed the snack cart on the plane while napping - The mix of young and old was a surprise as well. Sure most people are late teens or early twenties, but there are 50s and 60s year old up as well.

Really snowing in Budapest

It is snowing pretty heavily now. I think there are about 2cm of new snow on the sidewalks this morning. Pretty slippery walking around, so I am hiding right now in this web cafe listening to top-10 and euro-pop-endless-remixes (which aren't all that bad).

I guess I should get some courage and walk down to the river and see if there is a good picture of the Buda side...

Unfortunately, I did not get a night picture of the Buda side on my visit. I did not have my camera with me when I was down there the first night.

So instead I found a good one of the chain bridge online: http://www.treklens.com/gallery/Europe/Hungary/photo25602.htm

It looked the same when I was there :)

Actually, what is missing from the picture is a sense of the cliffs on the other side. I could not find another picture of that.

Daytripping to Bratislava

Budapest was a bit overcast and because I didn't feel like going into any museums, I decided to go visit Bratislava. I am in Bratislava now and I will take the train back tonight.

Slovakia reminds me alot of Czech. Everything is cheaper (Cappuchinos are $1CDN, hot dogs about $.50), there are lots of street kiosks selling food and newspapers. Like in Prague, 'Prosim' works as a hello, thank you and goodbye.

The historical centre looks like a typical medieval town centre like Chesky Krumlov, Villenus or Tallin. Maybe not as steep as Tallin. It just gently slopes down to the river.

Want to guess which river is at the bottom of the town?

Bright and Sunny in Budapest

Ironically enough, one of the best things about Budapest is the weather. It has been very bright and very clear the last couple days. This is ironic because I was really unsure about coming here because I had heard that it was very cold and the wind made walking around unbearable.

However I have been walking all around the city the last couple days. It is cold enough so that you want to wear a hat, but warm enough that you want to take the hat off every once in awhile. Yesterday I walked up to the Buda Castle and the Citatel and today I walked down to the Danube and I am now on my way to Heroes' Square.

People say that Budapest is really cheap. I don't think it is. I think it is a bit cheaper than the rest of Europe - but not 'really' cheap. A Cappuchino costs about 1 Euro (1.60 CDN) the hostel costs about 16 Euros (25 CDN), two bottles of beer from the hostel cost 4 euros (about 6CDN). They don't use Euros - they use Forints - but it is pretty common to talk in terms of Euros with other people from other countries here.

Last night I had dinner with a Mexican (Gabriel) and a German guy (Christopher). We went to a Hungarian restaurant called 'Restaurant' (but in Hungarian). I had a Goulash and then some sort of meat dish with egg gnoccis. Very filling. The Goulash was surprisingly good and very paprika-y.

Christopher told me yesterday the Hungary is famous for its cakes and pastries. This was a surprise, but as a result I have been looking out for cake shops today. So far I have had a Chocolate Moose Cake. Very Moosey.

It's not snowing in Budapest

But it is sunny and cold. A dry kind of cold that makes your face hurt. A bright kind of sun that doesn't warm.

I just got here yesterday, walked to the Danube river in the dark. The view across the river to the Buda side was really stunning. The combination of a series of impressive buildings and statues separated by green spaces lit up at night on top of a steep hill across a river laced with bridges is - like I said - stunning. A good setting for a spy novel or a romance.

I have not learned much about the history yet... but on the ride over and English man pointed out that the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was in power longer than the Roman Empire.

Today, I am going to walk back down there and do some more exploring...