botellón = a get-together where friends drink something that comes in a bottle (botella), usually outdoors somewhere
torrijas = a Semana Santa dessert, very similar to french toast
Let's play a game.
It's called, "Last Day In Spain: Time To Write About Everything That's Happened In The Past Like Month."
For the sake of pretending I've been keeping up with this blog thing, I'm going to dedicate one post to each city I've visited since I last communicated with you all (that would be four cities).
Here we go!
So, the week leading up to Easter, Holy Week, here in Spain is called "Semana Santa" (literal translation). We got a week and a day off from classes. Some friends and I aprovechamos the break to spend a few days in the city of Málaga, to the south.
The weather was absolutely beautiful.
Obviously, we spent the entire week on the beach. This left little time for picture-taking, but don't worry—I got a few.
Our first day on the beach was extraordinarily windy. Like, really. The sand blowing in our faces genuinely caused pain. But it was very warm and very sunny, and I very quickly got very tan. Bahaha.
There isn't too much to say about Málaga. I didn't do any sightseeing. We were honestly just there for the beach.
We did catch a Semana Santa procession, though. I'm not up on the full tradition, but it involved many costumed clerics carrying floats of Jesus and Mary. Their costumes are reminiscent of the KKK, but rest assured, these folks have nothing to do with them.
Semana Santa procession
Candles!
The rest of the week was solid beach-going. On the last night, we met some people in our hostel and had a mini botellón on the beach. That was pretty fun.
The following Sunday was Easter. Ana showed me how to make torrijas! It's very simple. She boiled a medium-large quantity of milk with cinnamon sticks, a lemon peel, and sugar. When it was "ready," she took it off the heat and let it cool off. She had a special "torrija" bread that she used, but it was basically just a thick-sliced baguette.
She arranged the bread slices in a pan and poured in the cooled milk mixture, and she let it sit for about twenty minutes and soak up the milk. Then she filled a deep frying pan with—you guessed it—olive oil, got it hot, and deep-fried the torrijas.
¡Y ya está!
She also made a glaze from boiled honey, lemon juice, and sugar, which she poured on the torrijas afterward to keep them from drying out. Other common toppings include chocolate sauce and cinnamon-sugar.
Installment 2: León is soon to come! Stay tuned.
