So when I last left you we had successfully managed to find the Plaza Mayor, the King and Queens house, and a few choice spots in between.
Then we crashed.
And I mean crashed.
One of the hardest things in the world to do is wake yourself from a jet lagged induced nap, so I give full credit to Liz for being horribly obnoxious about getting up, otherwise the rest of us would have slept the rest of the afternoon away and woken up a 3 am, which in Spain isn't the worst time to wake up and go out, but the kids don't like to drink first thing in the morning like I do, so it's a good thing we didn't.
Also, we would have missed out on one of my favorite nights ever.
While we were meandering back and maybe, or maybe not getting lost along the way back to our hotel, we noticed a lot of streets blocked off and being set up for some sort of festival. This of course brought me straight back to the street fests of Germany and my many fond memories of such, so I was particularly excited to be able to share one with the next gen of Gerloff's.
Let me tell you about street fairs in Europe for a minute.
First of all, let's just dispel the notion of New York even having anything that can even hold a candle to the ones in Europe.
Apart from the lack of thousands of pairs of socks available for purchase in European Street Fairs, the other major differences are as apparent as the major differences in the culture of America and Europe themselves.
For starters, in Europe people actually like children and aren't so ashamed of their own drinking (and resulting behaviour) as to want to hide it from them.
What this means is that there are things for the kids to do, all the rides and carnival games as well as puppet shows and the like, not just until, say 5 o'clock, but all night long as children are generally considered to be part of the family to the point of actually wanting them around in the evening to well into the night.
Any "festival" I can think of in the good ole US of A does have it's drinking and eating, but unlike in Europe this generally means the worst possible food and the worst possible drinks. The more successful ones I've been to here are all assuredly based on ones in Europe (think San Gennaro), but the quality of food a beverage, not to mention the participants is as far away from good as Europe is from here.
In Europe it seems like the whole town/city comes out for festivals. It's a point of pride for the city. Old people, young people, whole generations of family getting together to enjoy eachothers company and have a good time. While in America it seems like it almost seems like a place to avoid rather than anything that anyone is proud of...
Maybe I'm jaded, but I don't remember the last time I looked forward to a festival in New York. For me it just means snarled traffic, thousands of people I hate, lots of tourist and topped off with the dregs of humanity.
Whether that's fair or not I don't know, but even the daytime art fairs or the children's fests are crammed with douchebag New Yorkers that I more often wish were dead than were my friends.
I haven't been to a street fair in Europe, young or now older that I didn't want to stay at, or that I didn't end up meeting people that I'd want to have a drink with. Guards are down, and people just seem so, I don't know... unAmerican.
Anyways...
So we set out early into the still-light sky...
... and wandered down the streets of the city to see what we could see.
Here's just some random shots from the night, I'll comment on some, but mostly it's just one of the great nights of my life where location, weather, family, and the promise of tomorrows filled the air with sweetness sweeter than the smells coming off of the many, many grills...
I mean... come on!
So we found a little area that was having a puppet show and lots of kids running around as well as the most ridiculous food and drinks ever, the pig above is just a small sampling of what the food was like...
There was a puppet show that (obviously) was all in Spanish, but the girls enjoyed all the same, this next one is one of my favorite pictures of Thalia ever, I don't know why, it just is.
And this is cute as well...
And then of course we found a face painter...
And mommy and daddy found the drinks...
And a few more of the food...
I love this next one... Disco Chef!
Love this one, proves we're not the only loco-for-localvores out there...
And the inevitable conclusion of the cotton candy story..
And of course the night can only begin how the day began...
With a full ham shop at 1 in the morning!
Love this place.
Now, apart from the better-than restaurant quality food being served, the abundantly flowing, and delicious Estrella Damm (I like the Galicia better, but Estrella is on of my faves either way), and the kid friendly atmosphere until well into the early morning hours, was there anything better about an American Street Fair?
Well, there are the thousands of pairs of socks available for purchase...
People need socks.
So, sadly in a way, this concludes our first day in Spain. I know it seems almost insane how much we crammed into one day, but as far as first days of vacations go, this has to be one of the best ones ever, if not one of the longest...
The next morning we were up as bright and early as only a jet lagged tourist with small children could be and headed out into the wilds of Galicia, or Spain's Maine as I like to call it...
But more on that then...
Until then, hold your socks tight tonight, and tell them how much you love them, but let them know that they are only one New York City Street Fair away from being out with yesterdays garbage...
Me? I'll stick with the whole pigs and not-piss beer, but I hate this fucking city so maybe I'm biased...
Long live cheap shit no one needs and gross inedible food!!
Socks for everyone!
U-S-A!
U-S-A!!
U-S-A!!!
Later, suckers...
n*
