Supposedly Spain’s economy is a poor shape, but you couldn’t really tell from the Spanish Christmas season. We arrived about a week before Christmas, and the whole week, if it wasn’t raining, people were shopping. One night out in Madrid we were caught in an absolute crush around 10 at night, it was a great festive crowd of holiday hats and blinking lights all around.
One of the favourite things for which people were shopping were the massively elaborate nativity scenes. You can see a selection of the baby Jesuses from one of the stalls below. There where whole markets of this sort of thing, including little animated statues so you could build a full and lively Bethlehem.
And at just about every turn, someone had made a little nativity scene. Every now and again, they’d made a very large one. The picture below is one of the main squares in Ubeda, which had been transformed into a giant nativity scene, with a petting zoo, mannequin Mary and Joseph, and people cooking over an open fire. Certainly the largest nativity scene I have ever seen.
For out part, we stumbled into a unique and memorable party in the little town ofKudowa-Zdrój, a little old spa and resort town on the Czech border. We went out looking for a good traditional Polish dinner to celebrate the evening. But the only traditional Polish restaurant we could find was packed with close to 100 Polish pensioners having a big evening out. After some sweet talking from my Polish buddies, the owner decided to give us his personal table, so us tourists could have an authentic Polish experience.
We started off the night getting a kick out of watching all the older folks dance. But after we delved into the vodka shots and herring that they had been enjoying for a while before we got there, we got right up and joined them on the dance floor. The music was perfect, two guys on synthesizers playing traditional Polish songs, including one that instructed people to sit down and drink vodka every 15-20 minutes. Amazing.
Alina stole the show, as you can tell from the crowd circling around her, and by the end of the night we were all dancing together with the handful of older folks that stayed out after 22:00.
Video from earlier in the night when we were still a bit timid about getting up and dancing:
I think I had more fun ringing in 2009 than I’ve had for just about any New Year that I can recall. The evening festivities started with a torch-lit descent of some 150 people, many of them skiing in unison with torches and flares which they then piled into the bonfire you see in the picture above. Along with the skiing, there was free hot wine and a drumming group.
It had been snowing lightly since sundown, but as midnight approached the snow picked up. 2009 was welcomed into existence with the return of the drumming group, people partying in the streets, and people breathing fire, as captured in this video, which sadly doesn’t include the look of wonder on my face:
After we’d partied ourselves out, and our ski weary legs wouldn’t let us dance any more, we wandered on home. Normally a couple of drunk kids walking 2 km home in sub-zero temps would draw some serious complaints, but with the foot of fresh snow, we were just loving it. Hope 2009 keeps it up at this pace. Happy New Year everyone!
Unlike Weldon, these holidays have been pretty low key for me as far as adventure goes. I haven’t spent much time with family over the past couple years, so I needed to devote some time bouncing around Illinois and Iowa catching up. Christmas was spent up in the Iowa side of the Quad Cities, then Christmas weekend in central Iowa, a few days back in my hometown in Illinois, and then up to Chicago for New Years.
All of this is in strict contrast to the holidays I had last year. At this time last year, I was busy lying low on the Kenyan coast, trying to avoid any confrontations with loose machetes. I was spending my holidays bouncing around the various Kenyan beaches on the Indian Ocean and had just met up with a friend in the region’s main port city, Mombasa, when the rigged presidential election on December 27 sent the country tailspinning into near-civil-war.
The tension built up over a couple days after the election as the national election commission stalled announcing the tainted tallies. The election was always too close to call; we’ll never know who really won. But what did become apparent was that the incumbent president decided it wasn’t worth the risk to find out. When the illegitimate election results were announced, tribal-based violence sprang up all over the nation.
Leading up to the election, I, like most Kenyans and outside observers, had confidence that election would go relatively smooth and fair. I was not expecting to have to scramble back to my cheap hotel room in Mombasa town (actually an island just off the mainland). My friend and I spent the next few days suffering under the equatorial sun and coastal humidity in the non-air-conditioned hotel, never wandering more than a twenty yards outside the hotel for safety reasons. Luckily, there was a small local restaurant in that radius—however, after a few days, cabbage was the only ingredient left on the menu. The country was on lock down.
For New Years, a group of four of us decided we had earned a little change of scenery. Venturing out for the first time in a few days, we ended up on the empty rooftop of some downtown building. I was bringing in the New Year with a packet of miraa (or khat), the mild stimulant plant popular in East Africa that one chews slowly over the period of a few hours. The four of us just sitting and talking quietly, appreciating our cling on life–it was an eerie beginning to 2008.
Despite the eerie beginning, 2008 ended up all right after all, and we all got out of that mess safe and sound. This 2009 is starting much differently; it will be interesting to see what adventures are in store for this year. Happy New Year all!
I have to admit that in retrospect, I came on this trip ill-prepared for the big holidays that I’m celebrating on it. Thankfully, for Christmas, there were Gareth and Ross, two gents who were exceptionally well prepared to celebrate in style, as you might guess from their costumes in the picture above. But they didn’t just mark the holidays with outlandish outfits. On Christmas day they cruised around the slopes handing out presents from porno magazines to Christmas crackers, which you can see them doing in the picture below.
Everyone who travels during a holiday comments on how they are celebrating on the road. But for my part I think Gareth and Ross have the formula just right: live it up. Dress up and live the spirit of the season since your travels already mean that you won’t be following the traditions. With that in mind, I’ve got a couple of days to plot New Years.
