Hi Friends and Family!

Last week was my spring break, so I did lots of traviling! Here’s a bit about what I did and lots of pictures:

Friday: My friend Maggie and I got up bright and early to catch our a 6am flight to Lisbon, Portugal. We spent the day going on two walking tours. The first tour was of Lisbon and the second was to Belém, a town very close to Lisbon. On the tour of Lisbon, we saw the Santa Justa Elevator, Carmo Convent, Barrio Alto, and more! It was pretty cool, but the tour of Belém was my favorite. We saw Wind Rose (the marble map below), the Belém Tower, Jeronimos Monastery, and tried their famous pastry, pastéis de nata. We ordered pizza for dinner. Because of our exhaustion and hunger, I think it was one of the best pizzas we had both ever eaten.

 

Saturday: Maggie and I took at 45-minute train ride to Sintra, Portugal. We went to the Pena Palace, a really colorful castle with an incredible view of the city. We walked up to the High Cross, which had an incredible view of the castle.  After that, we went to a second castle/mansion called Quinta de Regaleria. The castle was not as impressive, but they had beautiful gardens, a labyrinth, a chapel, and a waterfall. The best part was the caves and an unfinished well, which we got to walk up. We found a Chinese restaurant for dinner since we were both craving it!

 

Sunday: On Sunday – Palm Sunday – we went to Fatima for Mass and to see the Chapel of Apparitions. We spent the morning praying the Rosary with the huge crowd, watching the procession with palms, and going to mass outside! It was a 3-hour ordeal, so we both got a bit sun burnt. Mass was really beautiful, and my favorite part was when the Eucharistic Ministers walked to their places, each accompanied by someone holding a big umbrella to block the sun. After Mass, we ate our picnic lunch and the walked the Stations of the Cross, which were really beautiful too. When we got back to Lisbon, we had our last dinner in Portugal with delicious local wine.

 

Monday: On Monday morning, we flew to Valencia, Spain! It was so nice to hear Spanish again, instead of Portuguese, since neither of us knows any Portuguese.   We went to the College of Arts and Sciences, which was cool to walk around and see! It was an absolutely beautiful day, and we rented bikes and biked to the beach. We met up with Maggie’s friend, Julia, who is studying in Valencia. She took us to a good restaurant for Paella Valenciana and we tried “Agua de Valencia.”

 

Tuesday: We went on a walking tour of Valencia, and got to see the Cathedral, the Basilica, and their huge market. Maggie and I both got dried fruit and fresh fruit juice at the market, which was really good. That night, we flew to Sevilla, Spain. Maggie went to our Airbnb for a phone interview, and I met up with my good friend from high school, Katie, and four other St. Thomas students who are all studying in Rome this semester but were in Sevilla for spring break! We got some awesome Paella for dinner! I also got to experience the Semana Santa (Holy Week) Processions for the first time. In Sevilla and other southern cities in Spain, churches have processions of pasos, which are floats with wooden sculptures of scenes of Mary or of the Stations of the Cross, during Holy Week. While they seem like a parade, they are very prayerful in nature, and they were so incredible to see!

 

Wednesday: Maggie and I both slept in a bit on Wednesday, and then we met up with the St. Thomas crew. We walked around, did some shopping, and got lunch together. I tried some octopus for the first time, which was interesting to say the least. We hung out in a park for a while, since we were all tired and the Rome crew had their bags with them. After my St. Thomas friends left for the airport, Maggie and I went on a tour of the Sevilla Bull Ring, saw a few processions, and got tapas for dinner.

 

Thursday: Maggie and I went on a day trip to a little city called Ronda. We had more traditional Spanish food for lunch, saw their two famous and beautiful bridges, visited some churches, and did lots of shopping!

 

Friday: On Friday, we stayed in Sevilla and went to the Plaza de España, which is huge – much bigger than Madrid’s Plaza. The surrounding park was beautiful too! We went to the Sevilla Cathedral for a Good Friday service, which was really beautiful but a bit difficult to follow, since it was in Spanish. We saw two more processions, and then had tapas for dinner again.

 

Saturday: Saturday was our last day trip, this time to Córdoba! We stopped for breakfast and had delicious torreja (French toast)! We visited the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, which was so interesting to learn about and see. The place started as a Basilica in the 6^th century, turned into a Mosque in 786, and then became a church again in 1236. We walked across the beautiful bridge near the Mosque-Cathedral, had some lunch, and then went to the Castle there. The castle was cool, but the gardens were definitely the best part. We took the train back to Sevilla, had some more tapas for dinner, and went to the Sevilla Cathedral for Easter Vigil Mass. While waiting in line, we met a really nice Australian woman who was visiting Sevilla! She had just retired from her long career as a doctor and was spending three months traveling. She was so nice to talk to before Mass started. Mass was about two and a half hours long, but it was super nice! Thankfully, they had books for us to follow along too.

 

Sunday: We spent Easter on a train back to Madrid! We did celebrate with some more French toast and Orange Juice at a nice café for breakfast. Once back in Madrid, I took a nice long nap.

Thanks for reading my long post! Hope you all had a blessed Holy Week.

See you in less than a month!

Katie