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| Its Carnival!! |
Hey everyone, time for the February update! It was a crazy month including trips to to Ceuta (a Spanish city in Africa), Granada, and most recently Italy!
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| The Alhambra and Sierra Nevadas from St. Nicholas' lookout |
As the Carnival was ending and all the costumes and masks where being put away we didn't let the party go home. I headed up to Marbella to meet Vanessa's new host parents(who are some of the sweetest people in the world), and to have some American time. We watched the Pirates of the Caribbean, which follows in the great tradition of amazing movies based on rides at Disneyland that I loved as a child. Afterwords we took a walk downtown to see the parade in honor of the last night of Carnival.
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| Gibraltar and Ceuta are known as the pillars of Hercules |
After a relatively quiet week my grandmothers came for a family dinner on Friday and the next day Mama, Papa, Moko, and I headed to Granada. We saw the snow in the Sierra Nevadas, a great view of the Alhambra from St. Nicholas's lookout, the Cathedral, the final resting place of the Catholic Kings, Isabel of Castilla and Ferdinand of Aragon , and some of the many beautiful other things Granada has to offer. We also participated in an old family past time, running into relatives in random places when we met up with my Aunt Monoles and her family who also happened to be in Granada shopping.
That night I got home exhausted and went almost directly to bed, but, after I had said goodnight and turned off my light, I got on Facebook to quickly check my messages. I had one from Shona outlining our plans to go to Ceuta the very next day. So I wandered sleepily back to the living room and said, " Ummm I am going to Africa tomorrow. I have to leave early so I probably wont see you til tomorrow night, is that okay?"
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| So long Carnival until, 2014! |
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| The Fountain of Trevi at night |
And with that off we went! I met up with the guys on the way to Algeciras to catch the ferry and we passed over without problems. It felt great to stand on the African continent, but it wasn't the only reason that we had gotten together that day. We had a British guest with us; it was our first chance to meet Nina's grandson Christian whom Shona had met and told us a lot about after her trip to England for Christmas. The views were spectacular and we managed to catch the End of Carnival Parade; although, to be honest the term parade is a bit misleading. It was a funeral march culminating in the slaughtering of a huge sparkly fish sculpture representing Carnival 2013. After chowing down on some Kebabs we caught a boat back to Europe and started the long trip home.
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The climb up, so steep
that it has to curve
to the shape of the dome |
I didn't have much time to rest, however, because the very next Saturday my friends and I took a 6:10 flight to Madrid as the first leg of our trip to Italy. No words can truly do this country justice, and pictures are a pathetic reflection of its true beauty. As a child I watched the travel channel religiously and studied the history and architecture of Italy with zeal up until the time of the Renaissance, but nothing could prepare me for seeing Rome. The first day I spent in a total daze not truly believing my own eyes.
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| After the climb to the top of the Basilica |
It seems that when I take trips to other the countries they are typically heralded by some historical happenings, and this one was no different. The inconclusive elections lead to a general air of frustration and uncertainty among locals and sent small shock waves through the EU. With no clear future for the Italian government and the distinct possibility of political unrest in the country with the EU's third largest economy it captivated News stories and cause nearly universal losses in the continents financial markets.
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| The candle holders |
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| The crowd waiting for the Pope |
Something I observed more directly was one for the History books. While we where in Rome we stood on the deck that surrounds the Dome of St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican and listened to the last Angelus and Sunday blessing of Pope Benedict the XVI, and were witness to a beautiful Mass full of Cardinals and Bishops before meetings in the Sistine Chapel to choose the next Pope. It was one of the most beautiful things I have been privy to. Something in the Pope's words that day reflected a great man of faith who had been lead after much prayer to do what he felt was best for his fellow believers with the full knowledge that it would not be easy. His voice sounded tired and he looked much frailer than the day of John Paul's funeral 8 years ago. It was his humble nature and contemplative tone however that made the biggest impression demonstrating to the entire world that walking the road of the cross is neither easy nor sure, and that even the greatest men are still servants to God's will and must look to him for guidance. He was trying to do what he thought was right, and asked for the Catholic church bodies support and prayers. He is the first Pope to resign in nearly 800 years.
As the square was filling up and I was enjoying the hard fought view (we took the stairs up to the top) I happened to look down at the dome and saw a tone of little metal disks tracing every line on the dome, in the middle each one had a little spike sticking out of it. At first I didn't know what to make of them they looked so out of place in the airy elegance of the basilica. They must have a purpose, I thought, but what? Then I realized that in the days before electricity the entirety of the dome had been lit by candles inside and out. I spent the next ten minutes thinking about how they had gotten all of the candles up and placed without the help of such modern technology as elevators or climbing equipment to place them around the dome 453 feet in the air. Later we saw the Fountain of Trevi(a personal favorite) both by night and day, the Parthenon, the Colosseum, and countless other things that had seemed only figments of my imagination before.
On the way to Florence we stopped by Sienna to see the famous square of the horse races and Pisa to take some cheesy pictures. In Florence we saw the Gates or Paradise, David, Primavera, the birth of Venus, the Medici Museum, and possibly the most important and influential Dome of the Renaissance and maybe even of all time. As we walked through what used to be the Medici's private collection literally getting lost in the enormous maze of galleries I pondered the power of one non-royal banking family to make such a lasting impact on the history of Europe bringing it out of an age filled with doubt, disease, and wars into a much more beautiful time valuing knowledge and advancement of all types. Even though the city of Florence itself cannot rival the magnificence of Rome in the remotest sense, walking the streets that the fathers of the Renaissance walked and seeing what they saw and created almost as it was in their time is enough to awake anyone's imagination. I couldn't help but wonder if Michelangelo had ever imagined the impact his art would have on the world, or what he saw reflected in the buildings and people around him.
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| In a Gondola in Venice!! |
Soon enough though it was time to pack up and go to Venice by way of Padua a City home to the most horribly mismatched church I have ever seen and a gelato shop serving up 5 different kinds of creamy goodness in a homemade waffle cone.
Once in Venice we rolled up our sleeves and started on the job we had been ignoring and procrastinating all week long, shopping. Up until that point we had put that aside to see everything we could see, rushing across Rome on foot covering many miles everyday. To show for my efforts I had 2 Euros in post cards, 3 key chains and an etching from Florence, but in Venice we made up for it. After seeing the Cathedral, the square, the Bridge called Rio Alto, and taking a ride in a Gondola we settled down to work. I came away with 3 handmade masks, 2 pairs of Venetian glass earrings, and one Pandora bead. The masks where a group favorite, almost everyone bought at least one and afterwords we walked around Venice clutching our shopping bags and wearing the world's dorkiest smiles on our faces, singing, and talking about masquerade parties. I fell in love all over again with Venetian glass and had to exercise some serious self restraint, and at the same time Ada was finding a passion of her own, buying 45 Euros worth of pasta that she carried all the way back to Malaga by hand.
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| In Retiro in Madrid |
On the trip home we slept through the entirety of the bus and plane rides, but made the most of our layover in Madrid seeing the Puerto del Sol and the Retiro Park before making our way home to Malaga. Afterwords we all welcomed the sight of our beds and fell asleep with smiles still dreaming of Rome.
