Wednesday, January 28, 2009

ROCIO

So Coop and I woke up early Sunday morning to walk 45 minutes to the bus station. Yes, we really are that cheap. Got tickets (two for 10 euro, pretty good!) and sat down for some coffee while we waited for the bus to arrived. At first, I was a little annoyed with myself for not checking the bus schedule because we got there at 9:30 and it wasn´t leaving until 11. However, two events occurred that caused a little worry. First off, I´m just going to say do not use a bathroom in Spain without thoroughly checking for all necessities including t.p. I´m still not sure how the bathrooms worked but there was definitely not even toilet paper holders so I don´t think its customary for them to provide toilet paper. There was some sort of contraption on the door to put quarters in but I´m not sure what it was for. Very awkward situation. ANYHOW...after that experience, I decided to go see if our bus was there. Similar to the RENFE train situation, I´m still not sure how we found the right bus as neither our tickets nor the bus labels indicated anything to do with Rocio. Coop is just saying to go with flow at 10:55 and I´m like WHERE IS THE BUS???!!! And then we found it and everything was fine. But there was definitely a 5-15 minute freak out period. Once we got there, it was alll mud. There´s like one street in the town and the rest is mud. Apparently a bunch of families and friends rent out houses in Rocio to see all the horses there and pretty much to drink, dance and party. Which they do very well. You can fit about 35 people in these houses because there are BUNK BEDS. Therefore, around 6 people at least to a room. We got there on Sunday at around 12:30 and for the next 5 hours meeting Paloma and Luisi´s friends, eating paella, drinking coffee, drinking caramelo shots and watching other people dance sevillana. One old man continuously tried to get me to dance sevillana in front of 35 spaniards. I politely declined as I neither have rhythm nor a desire to embarrass myself in public. I was doing my best to stay awake but around 6 I was falling asleep on a couch. So the men in the family just decided to pick up the whole couch and bring it over to the fire to do some more singing and dancing. That was pretty hilarious and awesome. Then most of the people left to go home but those who stayed went to the shops. Paloma, a true shopper, tried to help Coop find a stylish hat (they have certain hats that people where in Rocio). Unfortunately his head was too big. We also visited a cathedral with a big gold virgin mary (**a man was selling lottery tickets outside and theres a gift shop....). Then Paloma bought Coop and I virgin mary pins. I think it´s because she found out we are protestants. Afterwards we spent the rest of the time eating, drinking and dancing more and listening to Spanish gossip. Finally I went to sleep in my bunk bed and it definitely felt like camp with Ali Crocco. :)

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