All posts tagged: Semana Santa

Bogotá Part II: Making Friends while Traveling

I arrived in the Anandamayi Hostel in La Candelaria, the historical district of Bogotá and where most of the main sites are located, dragging my suitcase and neurotic self. And yes, I am travelling with a bag with wheels as I have intention of permanently bending my spine. It does go on one’s back if one choses to put it on one’s back but I haven’t had any reason to do so as it rolls on practically every surface just fine. The hostel is like an ashram in the middle of the city with its garden courtyard adorned with hammocks and blue-green painted décor. They even play the kind of music you’d hear at a spa in Thailand. Yet considering the internal frenzy I was in having finally stepped out into the solo travel episode of my journey, no amount of Zen was going to calm me down. I left the hostel and ventured into the Botero museum. After about 15 minutes of walking around trying to figure out where to purchase an audio guide, …

Bogotá Part I: Passover, Semana Santa, and Celebrating My Arrival in Colombia

Having lived away from my “home” country and family for most of my life, I never developed a soft spot for holidays. We don’t have family traditions cultivated over years and years of celebrating Passover or Rosh HaShana. I remember celebrating one Passover in San Diego with our Muslim neighborhood tailor and Christian friend. Another I celebrated in Boston with a childhood friend of my father, who had become religious since my dad last saw him over 20 years ago. That was my longest Seder, as the Hagadah was read in Turkish, English, and Ladino! In Israel, my sister and I always receive multiple invitations from distant relatives and friends. Last Rosh Hashana, I was in Ko Lanta, Thailand and celebrated entering the Jewish New Year splurging at the Pimalai Restaurant with an Israeli-Dutch couple we had met that day. No matter where I am on holidays, alone I am not but most likely not with my family either. Even with my missed-flight episode, I was to do the Passover Seder with a Bogotan Jewish …