Carnival festivities in Galicia

(Written a couple of weeks back, yet only just received photographic evidence.)

Stepping a little out of my comfort zone is one of my new millennial resolutions that I'm attempting to stick to as much as possible. As a naturally rather shy person this tends to be generally daunting yet rewarding.

Anyway, when asked two weeks ago if I'd like to take part in a competition in a carnival I was hesitant, yet came to the conclusion that this was not the sort of chance that came along very often and I ought to go for it. I had few details about the competition apart from the fact that it was an annual event and we would be performing a short sketch in front of a large crowd as part of the local carnival celebrations.

My single chance for a practice came last weekend when I arrived at the sportshall of a nearby village to find a group of around 20 kids, along with miscellaneous parents and neighbours, all preparing frantically for the big event. The theme for our short sketch was the Olympics, in particular Chariots of Fire, the music thereof being our soundtrack. Somehow I was given a rather prominent role, for which little preparation was possible, but much could go wrong.

So, Sunday I arrived in Brion in the early afternoon, the smell of freshly prepared paella greeting me, and the current sunshine warming the patio on which we stood looking over the nearby hills. After a relaxed lunch we went to the back garden where a rabble of kids and adults were dressed up in an array of 1920s sport clothing, handlebar moustaches and greased-back hair being the order of the day for the men, the women wearing white dresses and bonnets.

Suitably made-up and dressed, we made our way to the top of the village to start the procession through the winding streets to the hall, a few hundred meters down the road. I was placed at the head of the procession, Olympic torch in hand, to lead our team to the sports hall at the end of the road. After half an hour of walking we arrived at the hall and had another half an hour of waiting nervously for our turn, the kids getting ever more excited and restless.

As our turn arrived we came in through the back of the hall to see a crowd of some five hundred onlookers crowded into the seats and flowing out onto the courts to watch us. As people took their places I stood back, and with the fire crew looking on with equal measures of concern and confusion I took out a bottle of lighter fluid, doused the Olympic torch and lit it.

As the music started, the atmosphere grew and our group came on. I ran in from the back, flame held aloft jogging around the hall, attempting not to light myself, or the paper banners hanging above me. Having successfully made it round the hall without undue fire damage I arrived at the pepetero (the Olympic flame) and on the first boom of the music I lit it, as in perfect synchrony the rest of the group started to make their balletic performances in slow motion around the hall. We had synchronised swimmers, half submerged in a sheet of blue cloth, held aloft by mustachioed gentlemen, javelin throwers and archers, rowers and tennis players, plus an entire gymnastics team, judges and runners.

Having already done my part at the beginning I was the one lucky enough to watch on as the team performed, and it was really quite a spectacle. Not that I didn't have faith, but somehow with the music playing at full volume and the onlookers silenced by the vision in front of them, the effect was far more than I had imagined.

I still haven't tracked down many photos of me in full regalia, so for now my photo of these chaps will have to do...taken after the event:

A video taken by cellphone from somebody in the crowd has been found though clearly it doesn't do the atmosphere justice (I can be seen running past in the first ten seconds - just watch for the fire). It may, however be enough to put pay to any chance of me being taken seriously ever again!

Excursive

I'm currently gathering together a few photos from the weekend which I'll put up soon. In the mean time I got a few shots from a day trip I took with a couple of friends yesterday.

Yesterday was carnival day in Santiago, and having seen it last year I fancied taking the opportunity to escape and see a little more of the Galician coastline.

We drove down towards Pontevedra, stopping along the way at spots to explore, hike a little and get some local food, including some of the best bream I've tried around here. We started off at a local monastery, complete with a truly hideous alterpiece, gold dripping from the ceilings and plump cherubs rosy cheeked. Anyway, although I couldn't bring myself to take a full-on photo of the garishness in the chapel, the courtyard gave the chance to take an architectural panorama and so I pieced this together.

The last shot is looking directly up and taking in the wall behind.

From there we headed to the hills and got a wonderful view over the ocean. Though I was on the lookout, there were no exciting atmospheric optics to be seen, but at least the light on the surrounding countryside was rather glorious:

Click here for huge!

We drove on a little more and finally made our way to a little village having its own carnival celebrations. At the top of the village was a hill with a celtic settlement where we sat down to watch the sun set over the Atlantic. On the lookout for the Green flash I set up my camera on a flat piece of rock, attached the camera release and tried my best not to get blinded. Although I missed the Green flash, I did get a few setting sun photos before it disappeared.

It may be cliched, but as the sun was just setting a flock of birds flew in just the right plane to get the perfect 'birds beneath the setting sun' shot, a must for all wannabe photographers:

Again, click for larger.

At the end of the day we headed to Cangas, where the local bars were so full that we had to try the completely empty Chinese restaurant. Chatting with the owners for a while they seemed so surprised that I could talk with them reasonably comfortably that they gave me a wonderful doggy bag full of huajiao, sichuan pepper, on the way out.

Anyway, There are plenty more shots to process, but time doesn't allow right now. Keep an eye on my flickr account and the odd one or two may appear in the next week.

Santiago de Compostela Carnival

There is a patron saint for every day of the year and it seems that there's one holiday for every patron saint. It seems we have nominal holidays here at least every couple of weeks, where many things close, including the department. That said, most of us are still in the office working but today things really came to a halt.

Today, being Shrove Tuesday is big business in this predominantly catholic country and I got my first taste of a real Spanish carnival. Things kicked off at about six in the evening as the streets, lined with people readied themselves for the party. People had been mulling about in costume for at least the previous hour, dancing, and singing to keep themselves warm.

I had expected a couple of rickety old floats with people waving and was stunned by the costumes and energy which went into the whole thing. Despite the rain which towards the end fell hard. Everyone seemed to have a great time as the carnival wound its way up from the station to the cathedral square.

You could spot me a mile away (not just because I was the tallest around by almost a head) but because I was the only person completely unprepared, with no umbrella, and I was also one of the few people with a camera. In China I became used to the idea that the smallest of events was enough to start snapping pictures, and people in all parts of China that I visited liked to invest in very expensive equipment.

In Spain it appears to be the polar opposite and I guess there must have been one camera for every few hundred people - anyway, just a slightly strange cultural anomaly I hadn't expected. There are plenty more photos from the day on my Flickr site but here are a few for the blog:

Tomorrow I'm flying to Barcelona early in the morning and then taking a car to Sitges where I'm attending a three day conference. I will be giving a talk on Friday to a pretty distinguished audience and though I'm feeling a little intimidated, I am looking forward to it. I'll report from the conference if there's both wifi and time.