Feria de Abril and Mallorca

Sevilla is known the world over for its celebration of two famous festivals, Semana Santa and Feria de Abril. Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is the week leading up to Easter. Brotherhoods from different churches around Sevilla create "pasos," or large floats, that they parade through the streets. It is a very religious and sombering week. Feria de Abril, however, is a week-long party. Sevillanos spend crazy amounts of money during this week-- there are rides to take their kids on, each ride costing about 3 euros; there are Feria dresses to buy, which start at about 200 euros for the worst ones; and there are special Feria foods and drinks to buy during the entire week, just to name a few. I wasn't too excited about it, to be honest. I'm not really sure why. But mi amiga MacKenzie talked me into going a couple of times, and it's actually really fun (although it's admittedly more fun if one is a Sevillano). We went once during the day and once at night, and the atmosphere is really different. All-in-all, Feria was definitely something worth witnessing-- there really aren't words to accurately explain it.

As fun as Feria is, a few friends and I decided that we wanted to get away from Sevilla for a few days at the end of Feria because that is when all the tourists come in and the Sevillanos leave. So being Sevillanos :), it made sense. We started looking at flights and stuff and came across a really cheap flight to the island of Mallorca. It's part of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Sounded like a perfect, relaxing beach trip, so we booked it! And relaxing it was! We literally laid on the beach all day. The weather was perfect, and even though the water was a little cold, we waded out anyway. We had such a good time just lounging around-- no having to get up early to start a day filled with sightseeing, no classes, no responsibilities... It was a perfect weekend that came just in time. :)