feria in Sevilla

It seemed like a long time coming since she bought her plane ticket way back in September, but at the end of April one of my best friends from home, Amanda (aka Regulator/Regs), came to visit. We didn’t know it when she booked her ticket, but she had planned her trip to coincide with Feria in Sevilla, an annual celebration and fair. This is when the women dress in the typical, colorful flamenco dresses and the men wear dapper suits and hats and ride horses around the fairgrounds. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen since being here in Spain.

nighttime at feria

When we got to the fairgrounds we felt like we were in another world, like it was kinda crazy how so many people have maintained the tradition. We walked around for a bit just people watching since there was so much to take in. At the fairgrounds there are hundreds of private tents where people eat, drink, listen to music, and dance. (There are also a few public tents that are open to everyone.)

After a little while we went to one of the food tents to get some grub. There was no menu so I asked the waiter what they have. He basically responded “everything” then made us get up and follow him so he could show us the food (traditional tapas, chicken roasting on the spit, etc). We told him we wanted to share one serving of chicken and that we wanted an order of croquetas and fried shrimp. It was my own fault for not specifying we wanted a tapas portion, or asking how much stuff cost, but the end of the story is we ended up with a 70-euro dinner (including our wine). Dagger. Oh and we also ended up giving probably 15 euros worth of food to a gypsy who was begging in the tent because there was no way we were going to finish the croquetas and gambas…

me and Regs hanging out at Bicheando

We only stayed in Sevilla for two days, then returned to Huelva on Saturday (April 24 for anyone keeping track of dates). We met up with two of my friends here, Brittany and Ashley, and went to “bicheando,” a big beach party in El Rompido, one of the small coastal towns in Huelva. This was another one of the cooler things I’ve been to here. It was a really authentic beach party with live music and people grilling/cooking huge pans of paella in their tents. Unfortunately we had to leave before we wanted to, around 8, because we had to take the last bus back into Huelva. Of course because there were tons of teenagers drinking at bicheando and all riding the bus home, the kid sitting across the aisle from us on the bus got sick on they way home and had to use my plastic grocery store bag to puke in. And kids were smoking pot in the back of the bus. We felt old (and sober).

Saturday night we took Amanda out, Spanish-style til 6:30 in the morning. That meant we were pretty lazy on Sunday, but eventually got up and moving to head out to the beach. Monday after I was done with work we went to the beach again, then it was time for Amanda to go on Tuesday morning. It felt like a really short trip, but I’m glad she got to experience Spain and Huelva and meet some of my friends here. I think Spain would be proud of all of the “typical” things we showed her…