Las Fotos

Besides the wind, the day was perfect. Which explains why over 300,000 people dressed in traditional Aragonés clothing and brought flowers to offer to the Virgen. The poster behind me is the logo from the advertisements for the Festival.
This is the giant wire structure where all the flowers go, with the Virgen del Pilar on top.
On Monday, the next day, there was more regional dress in the Ofrenda de Frutos - the offering of food. There were groups from every autonomous community in Spain. Above, the group from Castilla la Mancha.
The Andaluces - that's the region of flamenco and bright colors, and these typical dresses.
Children dressed in the Aragonés style.
The parade of frutos lasted 2 hours, and the Ofrenda de Flores began at 7:30 and didn't end until 4 or 5 in the afternoon!!

Fiestas

They still haven't ended: the sound test for the stage outside the colegio's window is going on right now, and the resonating bass is filling the school. But for us, the vacation is over, and today is our first day of classes after five libres.
I still haven't uploaded all of my photos, so I'll post those tomorrow. However, the ladrones are more rampant during the festivals due to the influx of about 700,000 people to Zaragoza (doubling its population). The crowds were so great that walking down Independencia, the main avenue of the city, was practically impossible, and the best calamari restaurant had a 30 minute line (they also have the best papas bravas for those of us who don't eat seafood).
The parades of religious and historical significance and the free concerts, both of the popular singers and the traditional jota, were awesome, the food was incredible (churros for breakfast!), and I have discovered the deliciousness of almendradas...and how to candy orange peels and make a chocolate tart.
Photos to follow!

Monks and a Queen

It’s hard to believe that one and a half weeks have already passed since our school-wide trip to Leyre and Olite, small towns in the autonomous community of Navarra. (Note on Spanish geography: Spain is divided into 17 autonomous communities, each of which is divided into smaller provinces, named for their capital city.)
In Leyre, we visited a monastery, still in function but mostly outfitted for tourism. The underground crypt, which in this case was a room for funeral proceedings, showed off miniature columns topped by giant capitels, but the most striking was the cathedral. Half of the church sported lopsided Roman arches, built before the discovery of the keystone; the other half was gothic, with pointed arches and a single flying buttress. The main entrance to the cathedral was decorated with a huge arch of elaborate reliefs, representing the various sins but also saintly conquests. The lands around the monastery were enjoyable to explore, and very different from Zaragoza.
After eating some amazing bocadillos of Spanish tortilla as a picnic in the hills around the monastery, we boarded the bus (again) and drove to Olite. The treasure of Olite is a gorgeous castle from the 16th century. After a guided tour, we had an hour or so to explore the castle of our own accord. The gorgeous hanging garden, a caprice of the queen; the tall towers with winding caracol staircases. The rooms, originally decked out with bright tapestries and fine furniture, are now bare, but the giant fireplaces and balconies suggest their wondrous past. I could imagine servants and nobles and the queen bustling about in gorgeous clothing when we visited the queen’s room, and the princesses playing in the towers. The incredibly luxury, despite the fact that the rooms are now bare, astonished me. And convinced me that I want to be a queen when I grow up.