Sunbathing in Sevilla

Welcome reader. Thanks for coming. I should first of all say that the weekend in Sevilla that I´m writing about here was this past weekend - duringHoly Week - which is a huge deal here. Maybe I should have named this entry Holy Week in Sevilla. Sevilla is such another one of Earth´s beautiful cities - even if it were empty and without celebrations it would still be worth checking out. But it´s full of people and has this week the Holy Week stuff.

I arrived on Saturday night and got lost on the way to a lively promenade called the Alameda. The weather was PERFECT and I finally arrived at the promenade. I met up with my friends. My American friend in Sevilla had some friends visiting from the States. The principal players Saturday, both his friends and other Sevillans, were Liam, Dan, Izzy, John, Ana, Veronica, Regis, Iñigo and the story-telling bartender at the Bar Erasmus. Great night.

Sunday we walked around the old walled part of Sevilla and eventually got the Guadalquivir Riverfront. With another day of nice weather, there were people everywhere sitting around and taking in sun. The principal players Sunday were the same group less Veronica, Regis, Iñigo and the story-telling bartender. We rented bikes and rode along the length of the riverfront. Then we plugged them back into one of the parking stations and took off on foot to find food. Hunting in Sevilla for food is difficult. Good thing we´re normal and went to a restuarant. After food we went around checking out the Holy Week procession groups. During Holy Week in Sevilla groups of sometimes as many as 10,000 people pace slowly around around the city carrying all kinds of things, dressed up in different ways, with everything centered around each groups paso, or life-size representations of the life of Jesus. These pasos require a team of people to carry around. Ahead and behind the pasos walk folks dressed up to conceal their identities and carrying candles and crosses and other things. This all attracts just about everyone in the city so it´s a cool experience - to be there with all the people out in the street, late into the night.

We found an ice cream joint and stopped for some. I had a sccop of coffee and scoop of mint chocolate chunk.

The processions this Thursday will go all night and into Friday I think. If you are reading this in the States and would like to come to check it all out, with what little time we have left to plan, I should be able to scramble to put together a weekend travel package for you - States-Sevilla-States - for probably around $5000 dollars. Let me know.

Thanks for reading. I probably love you.