Snapshots of the Hogueras festival 2014

The night of the 24th of June marked the end of the Hogueras de San Juan festival in Alicante with the huge palmera firework lighting up the sky at midnight from the Santa Barbara castle indicating the start of the lighting of the more than 180 bonfires around the city streets.

So as not to bore you with an explination of the events and activities during the annual Hogueras festival, I will just post some photos of from this year.  

The winner of the best bonfire (hoguera) this year went to...

PAN'S LABYRINTH BONFIRE

The Pan's Labyrinth Hoguera won in it's category.  It was so amazing to see in real life and a shame that burned to the ground like all the rest.

Here are just a few of the other large bonfires:

on the Rambla

in the Plaza de la Montañeta

the official bonfire in front of the town hall

These are the 2014 'Bellesas del Foc' with one part of the flower offering in front of the co-cathedral St. Nicholas.

Here are some photos taken from the Castillo San Fernando in Alicante at about 2am during the fiestas where you can see the city lit up by the various barracas.  It's a shame there is no sound with these photos because its quite bonkers... you can hear the different music from the dozens of party zones and the general fiesta ambience which goes on until 4.30am.  After that time the party does continue for some people but the music has to officially stop at this hour.

And finally a couple of photos taken from the other side of the San Fernando castle at 2pm during the Mascletà...

I hope you enjoyed the fiesta!

The Hogueras de San Juan de Alicante 2014

So once again the fiesta is in full swing! The fiesta Hogueras de San Juan has engulfed the city and the barracas and hogueras are set in place.  Right now as I type the 2pm Mascletà is lighting the sky and tapping on peoples eardrums with the mega loud fireworks and firecrackers.  They were being set up this morning when I was on my way to open my shop...

You can see the Plaza de los Luceros in the background.  The Mascletà event was supposed to be held in another place in the city because the vibrations and gunpowder damage the fountain and statue.  But people complained for different reasons so it's still held in the plaza.

You can see my blog entries from last years fiesta for more information about the events.

Restaurant Revolution!

There are so many food and drink-related businesses in Alicante right now and more opening up each week. Just a year or so ago you would walk around the streets of Alicante and lose count of the closed-down businesses within the first 100 metres. The crisis really took its toll on small businesses.
But now its like another world! The town hall has had a hand in the improvements from decorating certain streets, renovating parks and public spaces to allowing cafes to operate in public squares (this can be debated whether is beneficial to everyone...). I don't know if the licensing process has been relaxed to allow businesses to open, especially catering businesses? 

I have been to two new restaurants just this week. One is a casual burger bar which I will highlight in a future post, and the other is a restaurant with a varied mediterranean menu.
On Monday I went to this place...

La Mary is a franchise with a great value quality-price range, good selection of dishes, considered presentation and nice decoration. I really cannot speak highly enough of it. It only opened 3 weeks ago so maybe they are taking extra care. I'm not the only one who likes it - every time I pass the restaurant it's full!
They also do a lunch time set menu with a fantastic pricetag, if you can get in, that is.

 

Images courtesy of La Mary Alicante.

You can find their details on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/lamaryalicante/timeline

The offering of restaurants and bars has improved so much in Alicante that the old-fashioned, manky places are going to have to keep up and improve. I went to one of 'those' last week and it was a terrible experience - bad decoration, dirty tables, disappointing food and unrealistic prices. No, I wont name and shame. Sorry.

What is your current favourite restaurant in Alicante?