| Erin's Alhaurin El Grande Journals 6-8-02 Today we were leaving Sevilla for Malaga, where we'd meet Glenn's 6th cousin, once removed, George. We had never heard of George before a couple of weeks prior, but Glenn's mom had done geneology work and contacted him previously, and they'd traded contact info with the open invitation on visits on either side. So we contacted him via email and received the same generous offer, and were pleased to have a 'local' to show us 'the real Spain,' as he put it. We checked out and grabbed a taxi to the train station, as it was quite a walk and the buses were a pain in the butt. (We'd already had 2 bad experiences with the buses in Sevilla, didn't need another!) We got to the train station early, settled in, and enjoyed the 3 hour ride in peace. Glenn did journals while I read, and we passed through some beautiful mountainous countryside before arriving in Malaga. We'd arranged to meet George near the train station's info stand, so we went and found that, but nobody flagged us down. We sat for no more than 5 minutes before a man walked up and asked if we were Glenn & Erin. George had a cardboard sign all ready with our names on it, but picked us out pretty easily instead. We shook hands and loaded into his Explorer for the ride to Alhaurin El Grande, a small town 20 km inland from Malaga. He'd done his grocery shopping for the month while waiting for us, and I was a little shamed that his bunch of goods took up less space than some of the shopping I've done for just a couple of weeks! But he lives a very simple life and eats just what he wants. He gets fresh bread, meat & cheese, and fruits & veggies locally, and once a month gets staples like milk (boxed and shelf-stored till opened), tp, rice, etc. What a life! We arrived in Alhaurin and unpacked our stuff. George was kind enough to give us our own room, show us around, and give us free rein of all kitchen materials right off the bat! Then he shared the secret of red wine & gaseosa (a sort of carbonated lemonade), which was a great cool-down beverage for couchside chats, as we then indulged in. We also looked over his geneology charts and traced the families back to his connection with Glenn's family. Neat stuff! That afternoon, we mostly rested and chatted, but we did take a moment to walk down and see if the eyeglass place was open, as my glasses had sprung a screw the night before and I am pretty much blind at night without them. It wasn't, and would be closed the next day (Sunday), so we noted where it was, and then proceeded to get the walking tour of the town. One of the local churches was having a religious festival/parade that weekend, so the bands were warming up and streets were draped in purple in preparation, as well as firecrackers going off all day & night. We toured till we f ound ice cream, then grabbed some and walked back to relax till dinner. We also got to watch some news & catch up a little on world events, as George had satellite tv of English channels. Around 9:30pm we went to George's favorite authentic Spanish restaurant, and he ordered us a fish salad (much better than I'd thought) and a mixed plate of grilled meats. The meal was excellent & very filling. After that, we walked up to the parade route - it was scheduled to start at 11pm, but didn't get under way till almost midnight. Then the parade itself took forever. The paraders (which included kids of about 4 years of age) would solemnly and slowly march about 20 feet, then stop for 5 minutes, then got another 20 feet, then stop for 5 more. We were near the beginning of the route and didn't see the end of the parade till after 2am! And in all, there were only about 5 bands and several groups of draped & shrouded walkers holding religious items! The main thing was the shrine, which was huge and took about 100 men to hold up, and they still all looked like they were about to die from the strain of it! How they planned to get it around a 1 mile parade track by the end of the night, I don't know. We called it a night, though! I was pooped by then! |
| The Churches in Alhaurin El Grande are beautiful and well-attended. This one hosted the parades throughout the weekend we were there. |
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