The plane took off and landed as it should, and I raced to baggage claim. I knew Eline and Miguel might be a bit late, but I wanted to be ready for them when they showed up.
I did end up waiting an hour for them to arrive, BUT as with anything seemingly negative in Spain, this turned out to be a blessing in disquise. For in my wait for my friends, I was able to score 2 Fiestas de Primavera posters that I had been scheming to get my hands on for a month. Yes!
With posters in hand, I find their car loaded down with our crazy flamenco dresses, luggage and god could only guess what else. We are headed to Antonio’s, where we are staying for the weekend. He lives slightly outside of Sevilla, BUT we were going to be taking the newly opened Sevillian Subway! (I kid you not, it had just opened two days prior).
Minus a few misguided directions, we found Antonio, parked the car and loaded everything into the elevator. Antonio gave us a tour of his flat, and told us that if we needed to we could move his stuff out of the closets and put our stuff in we could. Such hospitality! Now, it was time to prepare for FERIA.
In 45 minutes, Eline and I are dressed and giddy with excitement. I have no clue what I have signed up for, but I do know that whatever it was I was going to look fantastic!
As we head to the subway, I cannot get over the amount of polka-dots making their way down the street! The dresses are hilarious. Men are dressed to the nines, and the bambinos are killing me in their mini-dresses and shorts with suspenders. The costumes for this affair were amazing!
In 20 minutes we have made it to the 'Fair Grounds', and seriously, the scene is straight out of the 1950’s at a Southern County Fair! The dresses, the ferris wheel, the games, the horses, the food… everything! Millions of mini-lanterns decorated the sky, and while I took all of this in, Eline and Miguel pulled me into our first casita.
Flamenco was the tune, rubojito was the drink of choice, and Tito was the guy to meet. Most of Miguel’s family was hanging out at this house, so I meet his entire family. I was thankful they spoke English – for the most part – as this could have been difficult.
From the first house, we went to meet up with Jaime -- Eline and Miguel’s quiet, mild-mannered, banking friend. However, quiet and mild-mannered was not Jaime’s tune tonight. He had been sipping the rubojito for most of the day and was down to party.
At Jaime’s casita we had a few snacks, more rubojito and attempted Flamenco again. Jaime was all about practicing his English, which I was grateful for. At some point, Nacho, Pederico and Gabbi show up, and once again our group begins to morph like a mushroom farm.
We wander, talk, drink, eat and just be. I have no clue what time it is, and I don’t even care. Sevillian life is so splendid, and this scene was truly something to be a part of. My decision to buy the dress and return for such an affair was definitely the best of my entire trip… and today is only Wednesday. We have a whole weekend of this. Viva la Feria!
No comments:
Post a Comment