Hola!

So, the last time I wrote, I had only experienced one night of El Puerto de Santa Maria Feria. Now, I have attended some more great nights of the festival.

Thursday:On Thursday, Fiona and I went to Feria after work to meet with our friends…Unfortunately, due to lack of credit, dead phone batteries and general confusion; we did not get to meet anyone! However, we still managed to have a great time with some more delicious algodon dulce (I am addicted!), and going on some rides (including the bumper cars where we got trashed by kids). All the rides were half price on this day, so it is a great day to go if you love funfairs!

As for the Flamenco/Sevillans fashion, I did not see as many Flamenco dresses as I had expected for Ladies night. Nonetheless, there were some beautiful dresses to be spotted here and there.
We left Feria at about 2AM.. Exhausted… but with big plans to take a trip to Jerez, in order to find Flamenco dresses.. the following morning.

Friday:5 hours later, we groggily made our way to Jerez with another friend, Annie. When we arrived, we found the 2nd hand flamenco dress shop very easily and were all excited about our excellent navigation skills and indeed, the thoughts of new dresses. This excitement was short-lived as two men outside of the shop politely informed us, that the charity shop would not be open again until Monday “but there are loads of great dresses…!!” he added. Dilemma.
Disappointed and disheartened, we treated ourselves to a massive calorie laden breakfast involving 3 molletes (a tasty type of bread, toasted with olive oil, ham and tomato sauce, ¼ KG of Churros (a fried dough snack that originated in Spain), 2 cups of melted chocolate (to dip the churros in), 3 orange juices and some coffees. Nom.

Flamenco Dresses

We discussed the predicament in question and tried to come up with some ideas…! We headed back to El Puerto with our minds set on: flowers to put in our hair and fans to keep cool with. These two things were the closest we could get to taking part in this cultural Spanish event.
Back at the ranch in El Puerto (aka our apartment), Ky (a new girl from Australia who has recently moved in with us), showed us her options for the evening.. She had 2 skirts and 1 dress.. She chose to wore a black skirt with pink lace trim and she offered Fiona a green polka dot skirt.. There was one dress remaining. Ky thought it was too much/tacky..But, I fell in love with its satiny red, ruffled goodness! I tried it on and

I wanted it. Its safe to say I was delighted when she suggested I wear it! Thanks Ky!
Dressed up to the max we made our way to Feria, where we met with our workmates in one of the “casettas” or marquees. There, we chatted and had some lovely pimientos fritos (fried peppers) and some “rebujitos” (the traditional Feria drink made from Sherry and 7up).
Ky, Maria, Jessica, Inge and I all donned the traditional Feria dress to mark the occasion. After that, we meant with some more people and went for a walk around the different casettas, checking out the fashion, food and sevillanas. The fashion was gorgeous; so extravagant, colourful, bright, and beautiful! Personally, Friday felt far more like Ladies night than Thursday had.
Friday was definitely my favourite night of Feria,( even though I also attended on Saturday and Monday night) as there was a real buzz about the place and I enjoyed feeling part of the Spanish culture

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