Wet Laundry

Summer's Here

The roasty Andalusian summer that the locals have been warning us about for months is finally upon us. Temps have been in the 90s since last week, and we're bracing ourselves for two months of the same or worse. We're drinking gallons of iced tea—€”I'm off to the  "100 Pesetas" (i.e., 99 Cents) store later today to get some more ice-cube trays—€”and subsisting mainly on salads. I'm also planning to pick up a blender so I can start making gazpacho, which folks in these parts guzzle like lemonade in the summertime, and my new favorite Spanish dish, salmorejo. This delightful chilled soup€—made of pureed tomatoes, garlic, bread and olive oil and topped with chopped boiled egg and serrano ham—is one of the culinary specialties of Córdoba, where we spent a few days last week.

In Granada, Corpus Christi Means Fun! Part 2

The center of the action for Corpus Christi week was at the fairgrounds on the edge of town, and David and I finally ventured out on Saturday night. From the moment we caught the special "autobus ferial" that would take us out to the fairgrounds, I knew we were in for a treat.

Olé, Toro!

I have mixed feelings about bullfights—they involve what anyone but Alberto Gonzales might well deem torture, after all—but curiosity had long overshadowed doubt when the bulls came to town. A few weeks ago, Granada celebrated its crowning festival of Corpus Christi during which the town pulls out the stops, including a ten-day long run of some of the world's best bullfighters taking on the region's best bulls in what usually amounts to a fixed fight. Because Granada doesn't have a regular bullfighting season, this was our only chance to see the spectacle locally, and what a spectacle it was.

In Granada, Corpus Christi Means Fun!

The week before last was the festival of Corpus Christi, which is a big deal in Granada. The holiday, which takes place on the eighth Sunday after Easter, celebrates the manifestation of Jesus' body in the communion wafer. But in Granada, it's a much bigger deal. After the Reconquest in 1492, the Catholic monarchs supposedly turned the holiday into a huge fiesta in an effort to Christianize the population, which had been under Muslim rule for so long. (I guess the logic was "our religion throws better parties"?) So here Corpus is a week-long celebration, with parades, bullfights, concerts, firework displays and a big fair.