Featured in SWISS AIR Magazine!!!

I was recently contacted by people at SWISS AIR Magazine who were arranging a city report for their online magazine about Alicante.  They wanted to do a little spot on the blog and also my shop.  What an honour!

I have just received a copy of the magazine and the report they did on Alicante is really good.  Here is the front cover:

They highlight some really interesting things and places to go and the photos are fantastic (apart from my mug shot on the highlight about my blog ... sad face.).  This is the page dedicated to my blog (left):

My shop, Read & Sixty, is also featured on the SHOPPING page along with a photo that the photographer took here the day they came to interview me (right):


Im very pleased that my rantings about Alicante can be interesting and maybe even useful to people.  Let me know if you want to see any posts about certain things and I will try to make it happen!

Easter: Resurrection elsewhere

Although it's not Alicante, I thought it might be interesting to show you an insight into one of the ceremonies performed during Easter in Spain.  This weekend I was in the south of Spain in a small village and thought I'd go to see how they celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I am not a religious person myself but I always like to witness ceremonies of the Catholic church in Spain that have formed the country where I'm living.  It helps me to understand the people and culture a little better.

I don't think it is necessary for me to explain what the Resurrection is all about so I will only describe the basic activities of the ceremony that they celebrate in this particular church in Andalusia.  Every church has its own way of celebrating.  (I will apologise for the quality of the following photos in advance... they looked alright when I took them on my mobile phone at night, but now I look back at them in daylight they are not what I was expecting.. sorry).

Firstly, at about 11.30pm a bonfire is lit outside the doors of the church.  This is a blessed flame representing the light of God and is what is used to light a huge candle that, after the ceremony, sits in the church at the alter, lit during the whole year until next Easter.  This huge pillar candle is about 1.20mt tall and as the church representative holds it at the entrance to the church everyone lights their own personal small candle from it as they enter the church.  The lights are off in the church at this point.  Its all dark except for the candles each person holds:

Entering the church with the year-long candle

The congregation by candlelight

Then, many psalms are read from the Old testament, after which, being well after midnight, Jesus is resurrected represented by the main lights in the church being lit progressively and the congregation blowing out their small candles whilst the church bells ring.  Its a small but well-maintained church inside which you can also see from these photos:

Lights lit progressively...

Lights on.

Then after some more passages read from the bible the ceremony continues outside:

The front door of the church

A representation of the Virgin being carried

Firstly a statue of the Virgin is carried outside atop a wooden float loaded with flowers on the shoulders of designated people.
It's carried down the steps and turned around to face the doors of the church again.
 
The wafers representing the Body of Christ (taken during Holy Communions) are placed inside a staff or long cross and carried outside underneath a textile cover (here it's yellow) to protect it.  It is taken down the steps to the square in front of the church where the statue of the Virgin is then carried towards it and is made to bow before it 3 times approaching and 3 times going backwards.  This all takes place in complete silence apart from some small children who ring tiny bells to signify the various stages.  Its very respectful.  Then, they all walk around the town square and back into the church to return the wafers to the holy box at the alter.  People say their goodbyes and wish each other well and go home:

It's the end of the Easter celebration in Andalusia and they don't have Easter Monday as a holiday like they do in many other communities in Spain.  Instead, there are processions during the whole week representing different situations at Easter and they have holiday days when shops and businesses are shut on the Thursday and the Friday before.

Have you seen any 'Semana Santa' (week of Saints) processions in Spain?  

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.

Alicante Timelapse

I would really like to share with you a time-lapse video for Alicante Turismo done by the very talented photographer Javier Guijarro.  Below, I will tell you about the places featured.



Video turismo Alicante Timelapse from Javier Guijarro on Vimeo.

-Firstly, Javier shows us a sunrise starting over the Cabo de la Huerta and then the swimming pool of one of the hotels in the port area with stunning views of the Mediterranean Sea.

-The high-speed train service called the AVE (Alta Velocidad) now arrives at Alicante from the capital Madrid and the station has been enlarged to accommodate it.

-Alicante receives many visitors from the cruise ships on the Mediterranean Sea who arrive at its special dock and ferry terminal.

-The new airport terminal on the outskirts of Alicante (about 15 minutes from the centre of the city by car) was completed a couple of years ago and is a light and airy glass structure, pleasant to arrive to and depart from.

-The part-underground, part-overground tram service connects the very centre of Alicante from the stations Luceros and Mercado with many neighbourhoods in Alicante and beyond like the University town of San Vicente del Raspeig, running along the huge Playa de San Juan and further afar like El Campello.  The connections go through Benidorm and all the way up to Denia.

-The port area is a great place to stroll along and the new development now holds the Volvo Ocean Race, its offices and its own museum.  The space also regularly holds concerts and markets.

-The beach in Alicante is called the Playa de Postiguet.  It has a nice promenade with cafes along it open all year round.  It's very close to the centre, meaning it's a popular beach in the summer or whenever the sun shines!

-The beach of San Juan is 7km of uninterrupted sunbathing space with chiringuitos (small beach bars) set up on the sand in the summer, restaurants and bars on the promenade, beach volleyball courts all year round and fantastic views always.

-The famous wavy 3-coloured marble esplanade next to the port is always a pleasant stroll, whatever time of year lined with cafeterias, restaurants and market stalls.

-Next we see Javier taking a boat trip to the small island of Tabarca a few kilometres off the coast of Alicante.  The waters around are a natural marine reserve and you can go snorkeling or diving to appreciate the sea life or go for a day trip to bathe in the rocky waters.  Lots of people go to sample a local paella made from locally-caught fresh sea fish.

-The castle in Alicante, Castillo de Santa Bárbara, is the most dominant feature of Alicante sitting on top of the huge hill next to the sea.  The views from up there are stunning.

-The town hall (ayuntamiento) building is a beautiful baroque palace which was started in 1699 and finished some 80 years later.  The bicycle that the woman is riding in the images is one that you can rent from the special roadside bicycle stands with the system Alabici.

-The auditorium is a relatively new building that holds regular events, concerts, plays and is situated right next to the bullring.

-The 5-star hotel Amerigo is featured, which is just along from the town hall, and another local hotel's accommodation.

-Local wines and paellas demonstrate the wonderful local gastronomy, but there is a lot more to try.

-The area is excellent for cycling with many bicycle lanes through the city and special routes beyond.  Outdoor sports in general are possible all year round with this climate and sports in general are very popular, especially water sports, beach volleyball, golf, tennis, football... well just about everything!

-The fiestas are great here, especially the Hogueras de San Juan that I wrote many posts on last year.  The flower offering during this fiesta is shown in the plaza in front of the Cathedral... and my friend's bar and restaurant Piazza is on the right hand side.

-The theatre is shown which is near the Rambla, and then the contemporary art museum which is near the beautiful Basílica de Santa María.  The archaeological museum is shown outside and in which has a very interesting permanent exhibition of artifacts and descriptions of Alicante through the ages.  It won and award for the best European museum a few years back and is well worth a visit.  There are also temporary exhibitions of a variety of subjects.

-The year-round outdoor lifestyle of Alicante is second to none with the possibility of eating and drinking outside day or night.

-The huge pirate ship (I call it a pirate ship but its not really) is a museum and cafe and is permanently (for the moment anyway) in the port.  It's great to look at and fun to be on.

-The video closes with some views of Alicante from some of the few tall buildings in Alicante.  (There are not many thank goodness and the ones that were constructed are from the 1960s or 1970s).

I hope that you enjoyed the video.  It's a good summary of what Alicante has to offer... but I do hope that you still keep reading the blog for my personal insight into this enjoyable city.  See you soon!

Summer moon over Alicante castle

It is a relatively fresh night here in Alicante giving us respite from the long, hot days.  So we just went out for a ride on the motorbike and ended up at the castle overlooking Alicante city.  The sky was cloudy for once and looked quite moody so I got my camera out.  Is it a full moon tonight?  It looked quite 'round' to me.

The castle in Alicante (Castillo Santa Barbara) is free to get in and there is parking at the top so if you fancy just heading up there to sit at the bar and check out the views, then it's a great thing to do.  If you don't have transport then there is an elevator that takes you right to the top but you have to pay for the service.  You can also walk up but it's a very steep climb and certainly not recommended in the midday sun!

I will post more about the castle, its history and what you can do there another day but for now I will just leave you with some photos I took from the castle this evening.

The Spanish tradition of bullfighting

I am not going to go into details about bullfighting.  Nor am I going to defend it or trash it.  I don't have the right to do so and will not use this blog to debate it - although I know that everyone has their opinion as it's a very polemic subject.  So if you prefer not to read this post then that's fine with me... but I hope that it doesn't put you off the blog about Alicante life!

I took my nephew and auntie who were visiting from the UK as they were interested in the experience, otherwise I wouldn't have gone.  That's what happens frequently - lots of people are curious about it and the only way to decide if it's something that they want to appreciate is to go and see one.  Final outcome for the bull aside, would you know that you liked football if you had never seen a match?  In this post I would just like to give you some extra information about what goes on (not about the fight itself) if one day you are over here and want to go.

Ticket prices, seating and attire

Tickets for bullfights in Alicante can be bought directly at the ticket office in the bullring from a few weeks before the event or up to a few minutes before it if there are any spaces.  The prices of the seats depend upon the distance from the centre circle and if it is within the shady side (sombra) or the sunny side (sol) of the ring.  My seat cost 23€ and it was 15 rows back on the sunny side.  Tickets in the shady side are a lot more as the heat can be very uncomfortable in the sunny side and there is a premium for this.  However, as the event starts at 7pm the sun starts to set and no too long after (depending how high up you are sat) you could find yourself in the shade.  If you do sit in the sunny side be sure to take a hat, sunglasses and a fan with you though!

This photo above was taken about an hour and a half into the bullfight and you can see the shade creeping up the rows.  Usually at the 7pm start exactly half of the bullring is in the sun and half in the shade.  By the end, most or all of the seats are in the shade.  However, some people manage not to pay for the entrance fee but have to put up with the sun...

The rows are very close to each other and your knees are usually touching the back of the person sitting in front of you in the Alicante ring.  It's quite difficult to get to your seat, which is actually a bench, and you have to step on the rows of benches to get up or down to your numbered space from the entrance stairway into the ring (tendero).  As its also quite hot here in June I would recommend comfortable clothing and nothing that you mind getting messy as anything can happen from people spilling their beer to spectators getting excited and throwing their sandwiches in the air (yes, one landed on a lady in front of me at this one).

Some people hire white seat cushions at about 2€ each if they want to be more comfortable but I have never needed one.  These cushions get thrown onto the sand in the central ring after the event is over so that they can be collected easily but be careful - some people cannot throw straight and they end up falling quite hard on the people in the rows below! 

The Manzanares effect

Normal bullfights consist of 3 matadors (bullfighters) and 6 toros (bulls) from the same ganadero (ranch) and is organised like this:

Bull 1 - Bullfighter 1

Bull 2 - Bullfighter 2

Bull 3 - Bullfighter 3

Bull 4 - Bullfighter 1

Bull 5 - Bullfighter 2

Bull 6 - Bullfighter 3

The event that I went to was a mixed bullfight (corrida de toros mixta) with one of the bullfighters on horseback (rejoneo) and the other two as normal, and the bulls were from different ranches.  What was also special about this particular event was that two of the bullfighters were brothers and from Alicante itself.  The bullring was packed and I don't think that there was a seat left!

The two brothers are quite young and good-looking and are especially popular amongst fellow Alicantinos.  Manuel Manzanares was the bullfighter mounted on horseback and José María Manzanares fighting on foot.  The other bullfighter in this event was Enrique Ponce and is a very famous and experienced bullfighter.

I have to say that the three or so different horses that Manuel Manzanares used in his fight were all absolutely beautiful.  This is a special breed of horse kind of like the Spanish Lipizzaners, and they danced so elegantly and he managed them very well.  He carried out his task and it was very nice to see it done a different way.

Interesting information

As the bull comes out of the gate and into the ring, a board displays the origin of the bull, its ranch and its weight.  They are usually around 450kg to 520kg, which is a lot of bull!

The luck of the montera

A bullfighter's hat is called a montera.  One of the traditions that a bullfighter does when he is starting his fight is to take off his hat and throw it up in the air behind him.  If it lands the right way up then the bullfighter will have a 'luck'.  If it lands the wrong way up then maybe the fight will not have a good outcome for the matador.

The social occasion

I, like many others, find the atmosphere of a corrida de toros the most enjoyable thing about the event.  There are lots of excited people shouting olé, you can hear the various bands playing their trumpets and banging drums, and most of all you can take your own food and drink!  The friends who I go with usually take a cool box full of beers, french bread sandwiches (bocadillos) and bags of crisps and seeds (pipas) to snack on.  It is way after lunch time and before the Spanish evening meal time but just about everybody takes something along to consume.  The bullfights are about 2 and a half hours long and there is a break between the 3rd and 4th bull so naturally to the Spanish food and drink just accompany the social occasion.

Some people take a bota which is a bag made of leather to carry wine or drinks that a long time ago workers who were outside all day used to carry with them.

None, one or two - squeamish ones don't read this section please!

The quality of the fight is judged by an official group sitting in the balcony on the shady side with the red fabric cover.  They make their judgement but also spectators try to influence their decision by waving white handkerchiefs at them.  If the president thinks that the fight was very well done then he will quickly drape his long white handkerchief over the balcony.  If it was OK then he doesn't respond.  If it was an exceptional fight then he will drape this same white cloth twice.

This corresponds into the number of bulls ears that the bullfighter is awarded as a token.  They are cut off the the bull when he is dead in the ring (sorry!) and given to the bullfighter to take on his lap of honour.  The worst thing is that the bullfighter usually throws them into the crowd as a gift!  Yuk!!!

Lap of honour

The bullfighters do a lap of honour after each fight accompanied by their team and their fans throw them bunches of flowers and other gifts.  Sometimes, if hats or other personal items are thrown to the bullfighter, he picks it up and throws it back to the person, all as a sign of mutual respect.

Here is Manuel Manzanares doing his lap of honour in his rejoneo costume, not the typical traje de luces (suit of lights) that bullfighters wear because he worked on horseback.

Then as I mentioned before, at the end of the whole event, some people who hired a seat cushion throw it into the centre circle to be collected.  Watch your heads!

At the end of this bullfight (above), a small child ran into the ring and started to display his bullfighting skills!  I don't know how that went down with José María Manzanares as he was still doing his lap of honour on his team's shoulders.


So my nephew stuck it out until the end but my auntie left after the 3rd bull.  I totally understand but if you are curious then you might as well go and see one bullfight to be able to decide.  If you go, keep an open mind and also look at it as a traditional form of art and display bravery for the macho Spanish.

The history of the Hogueras de San Juan festival

Las Hogueras de San Juan (the bonfires of St. John)

The origins of this festival started many many centuries ago when Spanish towns and villages celebrated the Summer Solstice with purifying bonfires. In the Alicante area, the agricultural workers celebrated the longest day of the year for harvesting and the shortest night that bad spirits that could possibly come and harm them.  In time, the town joined in the celebrations but in the early 19th Century the local council prohibited fireworks, rockets or bonfires in the streets.

In 1881, the local council forgot to publish the warning that usually carried a fine for anyone disobeying these rules, and the neighbourhoods came together to take advantage by holding street parties.  They constructed bonfires but instead of the normal stack of wood and leftovers, they made grotesque figures of people that the neighbours criticised during that year.  However, after that year, many wealthy locals didnt want these celebrations to continue  because they thought that it projected a bad image of Alicante and once again the festivities were not allowed to take place.

An associacion called Alicante Atracción was created in 1928 to try to boost tourism in the town, and being inspired by las Fallas that are celebrated in Valencia on 19th March each year, they wanted to modify the Hogueras (bonfires) festival to make it offical and an important attraction for the town.  The proposition was accepted and it was reported that more than 100,000 people watched the bonfires burn that first 'offical' year.

The Valencians criticised the Alicantinos for 'copying' their festival, however this just spurred the locals on to make the Hogueras festival bigger and better every year.  A few years later the first Belleza del Fuego (beauty queen of the fire) contest was introduced so that the festival had a representative and a focal figure.  The participating neighbourhoods select a woman and a girl to put forward to compete for this prestigious title and they head up the various processions and events that happen during this fiesta.  They wear a traditional costume of agricultural origins from the 19th Century and very little has changed during these years keeping them as original as possible.

There are many events taking place during these fiestas that run from 20th til 24th of June each year (regardless of the day of the week) like bullfights and flower offerings to the Virgin Mary, and there are also many things happening before and after these dates.  The bonfires are lit at midnight on 24th June and signify the end of the show!

I will post more information about the various events as I just wanted to give a little run down of the history of the festivity for your information first.  I hope that you are able to come and enjoy the festival one day that is declared to be of International Turistic Interest and, of course, the Offical Festival of the City of Alicante.