Notes on Norwich: Spring in Spain Part One: Reunited at Last!

After almost 3 months of being away from my boyfriend, I finally got to fly to Spain to see him! I cannot even begin to express how excited and relieved I was to see him. Unfortunately for him, spring break didn't start until three days after I got there, so he still had to go to class and work.

Since I had already been to Malaga (where he lives) in November, I was perfectly fine with just relaxing, going to class with him, and oh yeah, going to the beach!! The first day there was the most beautiful and warm day of the entire time I was in Spain, so we went to the beach. We both went into the water and I almost dunked my head! Now I can officially say I went swimming in the Mediterranean Ocean!

On one of the next days Matthew and I decided to take a long walk on the beach. We didn't realize how long of a walk we would actually take, but we ended up walking to the center of town, which is at least a 30+ minute bus ride! Along the walk we saw so much sea life that we were not expecting. We first came across these blue jelly fish that looked nothing like the jelly fish I have found in the Atlantic Ocean. Since we noticed that most of them were still moving we tried to save them, but they were sadly almost dead. We also found the biggest jelly fish I have ever seen in my life...it was at least 2-3 ft in diameter!

(weird blue jelly)

(2 foot jelly fish!)

Then we found some sort of fish that was barely alive which we tried to save. We managed to get it back into the ocean but it was belly up. And the last thing we found were barnacles. They were on boots, sticks, logs, anything they could attach to.

(a plethora of barnacles)

One of my favorite days with Matthew though was when we got to go behind-the-scenes for the Holy Week (or Semana Santa) in Spain. Basically Holy Week in Spain is filled with at least 7 or 8 processionals per day with these elaborate floats and music. These processionals are put on by the churches in the area and Spanish Fraternities (which are NOTHING like American-style fraternities). The traditional dress of the fraternity members is also startling because well, it is what the KKK modeled their costumes after. They are NOT affiliated with the KKK in the least. Matthew's one professor is part of one of these fraternities and so he allowed me to join the class in getting to see the floats up close. Of course, the entire tour was in Spanish, so my wonderful boyfriend had to translate it all for me. There is just nothing that can compare with these kind of events in America.

(Majority of the floats have a crying Mary) (this train was HUGE!!)

After we had the tour, we got to see one of the processionals going on. Since every thing is done really late in Spain (like eating dinner at 9 or 10 at night), the processional was at midnight! Can't imagine anyone having a parade in America at midnight without complaining.

Another favorite day of mine was the day that Matthew decided to take me to La Conception, the largest botanical gardens in Europe. This time we managed to get a tour in English and Spanish, so Matthew could take a break from translating. We saw so many different types of trees with a majority of the trees and plants that actually came from the Americas! I really wish I could remember more facts about the trees, but I completely forgot! It was just such a beautiful day out and being able to explore these huge gardens was so fun.