La Samana Santa - Easter

This past week I had Thursay - Monday off of school for Easter break.  I was very excited to see how Easter is celebrated in another country.  Here in Valencia, the most Easter activity is at the beach and here it is called, "La Samana Santa Marinera." There isn't much activity in the center of the city except for additional tourists and the Cathedral.  

This week for Easter, my host mom bought me a traditional Spanish Easter goodie called "Mona de Pascua."  It's a sweet bread and then it also had a chocolate egg with a surprise inside. 

 
Thursday I went to the beach for a little while since we had nice weather to play volleyball.  Thursday night I went over Hannah's house to hang out with her and some friends.  
Friday Christina's friend came from Salamanca (she's studying there) and I went with them around the city.  
Friday night was pretty cool because we went to a procession at the beach.  There were many processions there all of the Holy Week.  The one that we went to Friday night was the burial, which was called, "Procesión General del Santo Entierro."  Watch the video and find out what it was like!  (No, that is not the KKK.) 

Still kinda scary even though it's not the KKK

I looked up where this tradition of wearing the hooded cloaks came from because I was curious. This is what I found:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capirote

 Saturday, my friends and I that were around took a day trip to Dénia.  It is a smaller port city that is located south of the City of Valencia, but is still in the Comunitat Valenciana.  It was about an hour and 45 minutes by bus.  I really enjoyed the city and the time that we spent there.  Our day included hiking up a mountain that contains caves, exploring remains of a castle, and hanging out at the beach.  (To me, what else can someone ask for?!) 

Selfie from mountain side while hiking

View from the inside of the cave

After exploring caves we stopped on the mountainside to eat lunch

Medieval-themed marked where we discovered a candy stand

View of mountain from window in castle tower

Castle ruins

Panorama photo of the port from the castle ruins

Beach!

Sunset at the beach

Crazy statistics according to my FitBit from our trip

Sunday was Easter and my host mom's daughter came over for lunch with her family.  It was really fun to get to see them visit.  It was her daughter, her daughter's husband, and their four children (Javier, Diego, Blanca, and Lucia).  The youngest is Lucia and she's only 7 months old.  
After they left, I Skyped with my family for a little bit before I went to mass at the Cathedral.  

I hope that everyone had a good Easter!