Feria de Abril

Finally I am only 1 week behind! ha. It is kind of hard to put time aside to blog when I have so much to do in the few days that I have left here in Sevilla. But I will gladly write about Feria, because it was probably my favorite time in Sevilla all semester. Originally I was planning on traveling during feria, but my plans fell through and it was definitely a blessing in disguise! Feria de Abril, or the Seville spring fair, happens every year 2 weeks after the Easter holy week. It is basically this huge festival where everyone drinks, eats, dances, and gets dressed up in the traditional flamenco clothing. There are hundreds and hundreds of casetas, or tents where families and friends get together the whole week. There are a few public tents, but most of them are private and require that you come with someone that has paid to be a part of the tent. These casetas are ridiculous!! They are completely furnished with tables, stages, bars, and bathrooms. Some of the ones I saw even had chandeliers! Also, one of the main attractions about feria is all of the horse carriages and caballeros riding on their horses through the streets of the city and at the fairgrounds. One part of the grounds is called the "calle del infierno" or hell street, where there are a ton of vendors, rides, and other kinds of entertainment. The traditional drink of feria is called a rebujito, which is a combination of sprite and sherry from Jerez called Manzanilla. I think the wine by itself is way too strong, but when it is mixed it tastes delicious :)

Jillian, Maria, Antonio and I in the caseta

I consider myself really lucky, because Maria and Antonio had their own caseta, which they invited me and my friends to. (a lot of families don't have casetas since they are so expensive). They had a live band every night and some of the other people in the tent tried to teach me how to dance sevillano flamenco (somewhat unsuccessfully). Antonio told the singer to do a special shout out to Jillian and I, and it completely caught me off guard and everyone was clapping and telling us to go dance... so awkward! but funny at the same time, so we just went along with it. It was so much fun! We also had fun with getting dressed up and buying flowers for our hair, huge earrings, and a little shawl that all the women there have. (pictures to come). After the tent kind of died down every night, we would go to the rides. It was hilarious and I felt like such a small kid, but it was the part I looked forward to most. ha. Our favorite ride was the huge viking ship... if you jumped when it was at its highest point, you felt weightless for a couple seconds. Of course I tried out quite a few other rides too, but that was the bestThe ferris wheel was cool too (faster than most ferris wheels), but we also got a great view of everything from above. . In general it was just so interesting people watching at feria. The women get so dressed up and have so many matching accessories it's ridiculous. Some of the dresses are beautiful, but half of them are way tacky and I couldn't take them seriously. They also all wear flowers on the top of their head, sticking straight up, which I still think looks so funny. Maria actually dressed Jillian and I up in a couple of her old flamenco dresses and told us we could wear them out... but one of them had the pattern of a couch in a nursing home and the other had sleeves that were so big they looked like wings that we decided against that. They also had the most amazing waffles (gofres) I've ever tasted (me and my sweet tooth). I never wanted feria to end! Feria unfortunately had to end last sunday evening at midnight, when they shot off hundreds of fireworks over the Guadalquivir river. I was standing on the next bridge from where they were shooting them off so I got a great view, and it was so pretty to see them reflecting in the water. I feel so bad for people that were traveling all week... they have no idea what they missed!The entrance to feria!

Some women wearing the flamenco dresses