Zaragoza - Fiesta del Pilar

Hello all. Sorry I have not written lately. We are in the process of getting a new internet connection at our apartment, and it is coming soon. I've been so busy with classes and other things that I haven't taken the time to write much. I'll let you know what has been up though.

Abby and I went to the nearby city of Zaragoza for their town's big festival known as Fiesta del Pilar (Pilar being the virgin saint of the city). Zaragoza is a little bigger than Logrono, and their festival was a little bigger than Logrono's also. Zaragoza is about two and a half hours away by bus, through rolling hills, vineyards, and pueblos (looks a little like Arizona / Nevada desert land actually). It is the captial of the province of Aragon... and so they have a slightly different Spanish accent there than in La Rioja, also, they have different customs and regional products they are very proud of--much like all of the autonomous communities of Spain.

The big day for fiesta was also the same as a national festival day for Spain (we had school off, and everywhere in the country was closed). It was Spain's equivalent of Columbus Day, though I'm not really sure why they celebrate it when they do. I would love to have time to research a little more about many of these topics, but the truth is that when I have access to the internet I am always writing people and doing other necessary things. So, if you're at all interested, you'll have to log onto Wikipedia.org free online encyclopedia and tell me about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaragoza%2C_Spain Ooo... there is a nice picture on this website also--check it out.

Anyway, everywhere in Zaragoza was booked on Friday and Saturday for fiesta (celebration wasn't near as huge in Logrono). Abby and I wanted to see Zaragoza though, and so we booked a night in a nice hotel on Sunday night (the last night of fiesta) because our day off of work is actually Monday. So Friday we hung out around the apartment for the most part, watched the festivities in Zaragoza on the television (they had a huge military march and parade) and then we went out to eat at a restaurant in Logrono that was having a sale on their Crianza red wine. The meal was especially delicious now that I think of it.

Sunday we took off for Zaragoza and we were sitting in our hotel room on the tenth floor looking over the city by early afternoon. The rating on the hotel was decent (as was the price), but we found out that it was much underrated. We were quite impressed with everything, except the shower didn't run the best, and the jacuzzi jets in the tub didn't function. Honestly though, it was the best place we stayed in so far... called Zenit Don Yo. I think Zenit is a pretty big hotel chain, since they are located all over Spain... I dunno about Europe.

We picked up a couple maps of the city, dropped our day-bags in the hotel room, and stepped out into the city. One of the main roads right outside our place was empty and blocked off. We walked a mile or so down it past street venders of all kinds. This street was usually very busy with traffic (being about six lanes wide and in the middle of town and all) and we thought that it was probably the street that we had watched the military march on earlier that Friday.

Zaragoza, like Logrono, has an old part of town with the majority of the cathedrals, churches, and large plazas. We made our way to Plaza de Nuestra Senora Pilar and found the center of the fiesta. There were so many people. Imagine a giant European city plaza with a huge cathedral (six great spires spiking the sky behind), large hundred-year-old churches on either side, cafes running up and down the entire length filled with Spanish festival goers enjoying coffees, beers, wine, and snacks of all kinds, a massive bandstand ready and tuning for the evening's musical performances, a great pillar of a flower monument for the Virgin Pilar at least twenty feet high packed with different varieties of flowers coming from the entire city and all the commercial enterprises responding also with their personal flower concoctions, a dancing, chanting, circling group of traditional dancers lighting up the scene with drums and horns and special feathered costumes and outfits--eventually making their way over to the monument for Pilar to conclude their musical tribute, and finally there were two bright-eyed Americans taking in the spectacle, cameras clicking and flashing, legs rambling behind our active brains, spinning from an explosion of sensual excitment. Maybe that will do more justice to the scene than my pictures will.

We hung around the excitment and thought about the evening's schedule of activities over a cafe con leche (coffee with steamed milk) at one of the outdoor cafes. Then we went walking again and scoped out some of the city, the Ebro River (the same river that runs through Logrono!), the back-streets and the front-streets, soaking it all in the best we could. Eventually we went back to the main plaza and went into a restaurant we discovered gave us a three-course meal for only six and a half Euro (app. $9?); a meal that had seafood paella as an option for the first course! We couldn't believe it.

The food is to die for here. We're glad the cities of Spain force you to do so much walking, because otherwise we'd really be gaining weight. Spanish cities are different than many European cities in that they are all scrunched together very closely, everyone living in apartments on top of each other. The city buses run most everywhere, but if you want to go somewhere you'll usually have to walk a good deal. Abby and I walked everywhere in Zaragoza, with the exception of taking the bus to and from the bus station, which was new, and located on the outskirts of the city. For the Sunday night, the last night of the week long festival, and the first night of Abby and my first-year anniversary, we ate a few snacks along the plaza, listened to some Spanish pop-rock at the bandstand, and skipped over a few blocks to the river front where we took what night pictures we could from the various bridges and watched the fireworks that kicked off the end of the fiesta. They were pretty good. We drank a colimocho (red wine mixed with lemon and orange Fanta--pretty dang good and refreshing when you're thirsty, and if you're thinking of making one, do not, do not use good wine, since it will be mixed anyways) and we talked to an a few older Spanish couples from Catalonia (northeast Spain, Barcelona region) who were very friendly. They told us about how good it was to be young, and we liked that very much.

Such a long day under our belts and all, we went back to the hotel after the fireworks were over, ready and prepared to head out exploring again in the early morning. The beds at the hotel were exquisite (especially when compared with the shabby set we have at our apartment in Logrono), so I think we slept very well, even if it was a little less than usual.

We checked out of the hotel and walked a couple miles over to a famous old castle called the Aljaferia. The castle has a profound Muslim influence, and the artwork, ceilings, and walls are testiments to it. It was very beautiful, and I'm glad we went. We saw the outside of the bullfighting ring also... which was huge, and packed with spectators and aficionados alike just the day before. We saw the bullfight on the TV the day earlier while we were sitting having supper in the restaurant. I will likely be attending some bullfights while I am here, since I have never seen one and they are such a big part of contemporary and well as ancient Spanish culture.

We mosied about the city for our last remaining hours, snapping photos, grabbing a bite to eat at McDonalds quick, and jumping on a bus to take us back to the station and the two and a half hour ride back to Logrono, where we both had classes early the next day. We got back in plenty of time though to crash on our sofa, watch some Spanish gameshows, and catch-up on some of our lesson plans for class.

I need to be getting along now. We might go to the theater tonight (Abby and I just got student discount cards the other day from the bank, so we'll get cheaper rates at the movies, the theater, and busrides out of town). The act starts at 10:00, and it is a Belgium mime called Zic-Zac, or something like that.

I took about 500 pictures in Zaragoza... so this is just a small small taste. I don't even know if these are the best of the bunch. I will post a bunch of them on my picture site soon (soon being sometime within the next week or so, hopefully). Thanks for reading everyone! I'd love to hear comments from you, as I hope to writing more regularly when we get set-up with the internet in our apartment soon.

Much regards from Spain! Hasta luego!