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Spain
Now living in l'Olleria, south of Valencia

Friday 27 December 2013

l'Olleria Festes

Well... I know I haven't posted for a while, so I thought I ought to catch up!

For a long time, I've tried to post 8 or so items a month, but, to be honest, there is only so much you can write about the same things!

I won't give up the blog, but I won't be putting so many posts up any more. I'll try to do two per month, in the hope that I can find something interesting enough to keep you all entertained!





The annual Fiestas went well as usual, with the parade taking a little less time than previously. It was still an astonishing sight, for those that hadn't seen it before. Sadly, with the crisis affecting everyone, the numbers were a little lower, but this was to be expected.





The bull running this year was totally different. The set up was the same, but, this year, much smaller bulls / cows were used. On the second night, they were only calves. Although only tiny in height, they were much friskier than the normal sized cows. Worse than that, these were small enough to simply run between the bars of the safety cages, and join the crowds that were hiding. (The ends had been blocked off, to stop them from escaping onto the streets.) It was very funny. Instead of the animals running around the bull ring, it was the spectators. The last day had to be cancelled, as we had very heavy rain. The bullring is situated in an area that floods (traffic is not allowed to pass in bad weather) and the whole area was under 1m of water.



Paella night took a twist this year. Previously, we have cooked the paella at Paco's house, after he has collected the ingredients from the park. This makes sense, as with having much older family members there, as well as a disabled one, sitting in the park is a difficult option. This year, however, in order to collect your ingredients, you had to show them your fire and prove that you were participating fully in the event. Oh dear. I got a late phone call - pack everything in the truck, we need to take the tables and chairs to the park. I unloaded the car, and moved everything to the truck. Then, another call. It's ok, come in the car, we are cooking at home! Unload the truck and put it all back in the car! Whatever - wherever we ate, we were guaranteed a good time.

As it happened, eating in the garage turned out to be a good move. At around 11pm, the heavens opened again. Thankfully, we weren't in the park, dashing to pack everything back up.



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