Friday 19th October
Hi,
Today is the first day of the San Pedro Feria. Each town has its own feria of which it is very proud. Bigger towns like Marbella, Fuengirola and Estepona have their ferias earlier (in the summertime.) and San Pedro being a rather small town is one of the last Ferias to be held on the Costa del Sol or for that matter in Andalusia.
This morning my son was on holiday from school, so I suggested that it would be a good idea to go out to a bar for breakfast. We wanted to sit on the terrace of Bar El Mastren or Bar Ricardo, in order to soak up some of the colourful atmosphere of the Feria, but we had doubts about being able to find a parking space near enough to either of our favourite bars, as I have to take my bedchair. We decided that we’d go into San Pedro and if it was all jammed up with traffic, we would then continue on and find a bar in Marbella.
We arrived in San Pedro at around 11am and it was surprisingly quiet. We were able to use the invalid space right outside Bar El Mastren, so things couldn’t have been better. The bar was pretty busy, but the streets and pavements were fairly quiet. We concluded that most of the population had had a late night last night and were consequently still preparing themselves for this mornings official start to the Feria.
Antonio the owner of the bar came out to greet us and said that he had had an enquiry for our bar lease for sale, so that was nice of him. We had just ordered when an old man arrive with what looked like a typewriter in a case on a shopping bag trolley. It wasn’t long before we realized that in fact it was a piano accordion. He whipped the instrument out of its case, slung it around his body and went straight into a rendition of, “Viva España, it was note perfect but lacked a little ”Allegro or gusto”. After he’d worked the El Mastren terrace, he went round with a hat and collected I guess around 25€. Not bad for 5 min work. We gave him 60c and I asked him to show me how to play a chord on the instrument with his left hand. He dismissed my request and disappeared as smartly as he had arrived towing the shopping bag trolley behind him, heading off for his next bar or restaurant. I guess that just served as a reminder of how money driven the Feria has become.
From our safe haven of the bar terrace we were able to watch the rich gentry/land owners riding past in majestic style on their beautifully groomed charges, making sure to show off their dressage skills at each bar or restaurant they passed. Hundreds of women from little girls to grand mothers passed us on heir way to San Pedro Church Square, dressed in traditional flamenco dresses in a myriad of different colours and styles. There were even small children mounted on miniature ponies, which were particularly sweet.
Victor and I took a quick walk around the square which was packed but even so a beautiful scene and as soon as we realised that we were soon to be trapped in our place for an half an hour by the marching band we went back to the bar for another coffee before returning to see Olivia in our bar restaurant to let her know that we had definitely caught the flavour of the San Pedro Feria.
>>Click Here! Bar Restaurant for Rent, Sale, Costa del Sol, Spain<<
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