Sofia Somewhere

In the evening I headed to  Girona  to visit one of my very good friends from Pamplona, Maria. It was the 5th of January and the city was getting ready for the  Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos  ("Three Kings/Three Wise Men Parade") which would take place in the evening. In Spain, the Three Kings is huge, even bigger than Christmas for children since it's from the Three Kings that they receive their presents, and not form Santa Claus. They even write their letters / send their wish list to the Three Kings. In the c abalgata , the three kings would parade around the city in floats called  carrozas  and throw candy to the children watching from the streets. It's quite the elaborate parade with many floats, costumes, and candy. The next day, the 6th was  el Día de los Reyes Magos  ("the Feast of the Three Kings"). We all woke up early (early being 9am), and Maria and her brothers had their gifts from the Three Kings in the living room. They were n...

On the 2nd of January I left Madrid for Catalunya via a seven hour bus, which wasn't so bad -- after the 22 hour bus ride in Peru, this was a piece of cake. I arrived at Barcelona Sants a little after 6pm and was on the 7pm high speed train to Figueres , the city with the nearest train station to my aunt and cousin. Spain has slowly been building train stations and introducing the high speed trains called AVE. The trains are much nicer and faster, and as my aunt pointed out, sometimes only 2-4 euros more expensive than the normal trains. My aunt picked me up at the train station in Figueres and we drove the 15 minutes to Palau-Saverdera where they live.  I met my cousin Maya and her boyfriend Nardi at home, and we all had a good dinner before calling it a night. Me: Let's take a picture to send to Ange Maya: Wait, I need to hold a glass of wine! The next day we headed to Roses to take a morning walk by the beach and I was pleasantly surprised by how warm it was! Afte...