The Last Puente

A uniquely Spanigh thing I will definitely miss when I go back to the states:
Puentes!

I've mentioned these before, but in case you don't remember, a puente is basically a long weekend due to a day off on either a Tuesday or a Thursday.  Instead of dragging yourself in to work on the Monday or Friday between the weekend and the day off, Spaniards just say - lets just make the weekend extra long and take the in-between day off too!

Boy, is that the total opposite of the American workaholic culture! I will surely miss this mentality!

So for this puente my roommates and I decided to rent a car and went to two big events in Andalucia during springtime: Sevilla for the feria, and Cordoba for the Cruces de Mayo y Patios.

The feria in Seville (which is one of the biggest in the country)

La Feria de Sevilla

And admired all the women dressed in traditional Andaluz dresses

I am in love with the dress the woman on the left is wearing!

Then we stopped in Almeria for a few hours and admired the Alcazaba and the beautiful coast

The view of Almeria and the port - it is extremely different than the archetecture of Malaga, for sure!

The gorgeous floral arrangements along the side of the alcazaba

I love the typical water streams flowing throughout the alcazabas and leading to lovely little fountains all over the grounds

The beautiful view of the sea from Cabo de Gatos, Almeria

And then we headed to Cordoba for the Cruces de Mayo y Patios

One of the cruces (crosses made of flowers)

One of the cruces with the wall behind it decorated with the patio (flowers)

And the patios are can be the windows and balconies of local homes and apartments beautifully decorated with colorful flowers that dangle and dance around the bars and walls of buildings

A gorgeous patio decorated from top to bottom in flowers and a few fountains placed in the center of the outdoor rooms with the peaceful sounds of running water to add to the serenity of the area



Love the goemetric shape around the fountain:
very typical of Muslim architecture, which is very prominent in the South of Spain

Overall a great road trip during the puente, with only a few (major) hitches on the last day - but at least we got to enjoy the days before!