Huelva goes back in time

I forgot to post this when I wrote it…oops.  So this happened about three weeks ago now, but it was still really interesting!

So this past weekend (a couple weeks ago now) I noticed an article posted by the University of Huelva here about a medieval festival that was taking place just 5 minutes away from where I live.  I noticed on my walk to school on Wednesday and Thursday morning that there were strange tents set up and flags hanging from the light posts and buildings.  I was really confused and didn’t understand, thought that maybe it had something to do with a kids festival or so, and just kind of kept walking.  Then, as more started to be put up I got more excited, and finally I saw an article titled “Huelva regresa al medievo” yay!! You can imagine how excited I was.  I mean, I only read about a thousand books about chivalry and knights in shining armor, and although I might not profess my love as strongly as some others, I still really enjoy traveling through time at a medieval event.  I mean come one, they’re the best!  So I promptly found some friends to head to the festival with me on Friday evening and spent the whole night at the fair looking at all the chachki’s they had to sell, yummy meat, bread, and sweets.  I even had some sweets with a friend.  The big candy here is a gummy type of candy in all different flavors.  They’re kind of like gummies, but more sugary and less chewy, and there’s a lot more flavors. 

 

We walked around the area that was in Plaza something that starts with a P and saw the shoddy looking rides for the kids (2euro for a ride on a stupid little pirate ship!?) and admired the jewlery that was all around me.  I’ve kind of turned into a jewlery junkie since I got out of school, I love earrings and bracelets now, it’s kind of a problem.  :P  I fully expect that by the time I leave Spain I will not have to buy jewlery ever again, or will at least be able to retire anything from the U.S. :P  So did some shopping and I bought myself a bracelet.  It was originally going to be for a friend, but then I thought..naw, why should I when I like it!? haha.  I also got a brujita de suerte!! (goodluck witch) and mine was of happiness, which is supposed to bring happiness to my friendships, life, and love.  :)  So cute, no?

At around 9:30 or so there was a cool “espectáculo” where people dressed up in weird outfits and played with fire.  The kids really liked it, and it was interesting to see what Spainards think is fun and is a fireworks show.  For a bit we were worried about the safety of ourselves, others and of the city itself, given that they were performing on the street with fire and there were trees around.  But as is many things in Spain, health and safety don’t really exist like they do in the States.  You wanna let your kids slide down a slope towards a metal barrier on a piece of cardboard? (see picture on the right) Sure.  You wanna do a fireworks show in the middle of the street? Why not?  Such is life in Spain…

So Camille, her friend Javi, and I all went around town together for the night and explored everything.  We watched the show, looked at the “exotic” birds that they had for show.  Really, they had a Bald Eagle, a couple owls and some other animals.  You also had to pay like 5 euro or something ridiculous like that to get a picture with a bird or snake.  Lots of parents were doing it for their kids, but I suppose around here they don’t see these animals in the wild like we can.  I’m not sure, but it was funny, and I loved watching one kid get really scared as they guy put the Bald Eagle on his shoulder.  The Eagle is so big, I would be scared too.  We then spent the rest of the night out in the back party of Casa Colon, which is a plaza area where they had set up brain teaser puzzle games outside for people to play.  It was really fun, and we definietly spent a lot of time on those.  I’d played a few of them before, but they were all really hard, and the directions were in Spanish, of course.  Sometimes they just didn’t have directions at all….which made it even harder to figure out! haha

It was a great weekend, and apparently Huelva has fairs like this pretty often, to help generate money for the city.  Fairs are really good at generating money because it gets people out on the streets, visiting the restaurants and spending money.  Camille told me about a really big medieval fair that happens in a town a little farther north so I’m excited to go to that one.  They have a castle!

Till my next post, I promise it will be a bit more on time. :) Love you all!