Spring in Spain: Murcia

Paulina and I left Granada (read about my time in Granada here) at about 7 and got into Murcia at about 10.

 We met up with the family we were visiting, whose daughter stayed with Paulina’s family last summer. It was a sort of exchange that I was lucky enough to be a part of. We dropped our bags off and walked through the remnants of the parade that was still going on and headed to dinner.

We had quite the feast. During the festival that was going on, the Fiesta de Primavera, they had all these outdoor restaurants set up, and they are called huertas, which is also what they call farm houses. I am normally a vegetarian, but I decided if people were going to give me free food and it was going to be a cultural education of sorts to eat whatever people fed me. I tried everything (except for the blood sausage things that I felt were too much), and the food was so good.

After dinner, we thought we would be heading back to go to sleep, but we were mistaken. It was about midnight, but we headed to see an outdoor concert. It was a cover band for a band that was popular in Spain in the 80s, I think. It was pretty fun.

After that, we were allowed to go to sleep. On this leg of the trip I don’t think we went to sleep before 2am once, which is crazy for me, because I am normally asleep before midnight.

The next morning we got a little walking tour of Murcia. 

We saw where the bishop lives and the Cathedral. While we were near the Cathedral, they were having one of the activities related to the festival, which was an olive pit spitting contest. They had distance markers and a guy with a tape measure and everything. The mayor even participated!

We briefly popped into the bishop’s house, which is actually more of a mansion.

Then we visited the Cathedral, which was also massive and ornate.

We also visited the casino, which is the site of a pretentious reading club, but you can get a tour because the building is pretty.

We ate lunch in town, and it goes without saying that it was a massive and delicious meal.

We then got in the car to drive out to the family’s huerta. Like I said, huertas are like farm houses (by that I mean the house on a farm. I’m not sure what they’re called in English).

They have all sorts of food growing there, but primarily oranges. We tried some of the fruits and vegetables that were ripe and we got to pick some oranges to take back with us. I may never shut up about how amazing the food is, so while I’m at it, I will say that the citrus in Spain is great because it’s more local than the stuff I get in the UK, which has obviously been imported.

After walking around the huerta, we went back into town to see the tuna parade. Now, a little lesson in false cognates in Spanish. Tuna (the fish) is atún and in Spanish tuna means either prickly pear or a band of guys dressed in traditional clothing with guitars and other acoustic string instruments that go around serenading people.

While we were at a café waiting for the tunas to start, I went to use the bathroom and there was a line. Some of the people waiting for the bathroom were members of one of the tuna groups, and they started chatting with me. They asked me where I was from and all that and they were being funny and friendly and one of the guys even gave me the two kisses on the cheek, which I got a real kick out of.

We went from the café to find a place to watch the tunas. It was really nice and the music was good. The best part was when the last group came by, which contained the guys I met in the line for the bathroom. The guy who did the two kisses thing spotted me when the group passed by us and he waved at me and said “Hello, my darling” in English, since I told him I was American. Paulina and I were laughing so hard, and I still think it was one of the highlights of the trip.

From that parade, we went to the actual parade, which I was told was small compared to the one that was going to happen the next night. I really would never have described the parade as small. There were tons of people and it lasted for at least an hour. The outfits and floats were very elaborate and sparkly. I was also thoroughly impressed by the women who danced in this parade for miles in high heels and barely any clothing.

After the parade, we went to a bar to get tapas for dinner. Now, I figured that would mean two or three tapas, but I was way off. We ordered at least four tapas per person in the first round and another three in the second round. I was so stuffed afterwards, but the food was too good to complain. I tried a lot of new foods again and was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked everything. I also found that I am a fan of sangria. I’m not a fan of beer or wine, so I’m glad there was one drink I really liked.

After eating all that food, we walked in the direction of where we were staying and I thought we were going to bed, but no. We went to a churros stand just down the street and all shared a massive batch of churros and chocolate. It was so good, but I could barely eat anything because we had just eaten a whole bunch of food!

After that we did go back and go to bed.

The next morning we didn’t leave until noon, because we weren’t doing too much during the day and were preparing for a later night, since it was the last day of the festival. The first thing we did was drive to the University of Murcia, where the daughter of the family studies and she showed us around a bit.

Then we went back into town to see the “tracas,” which was like a fireworks display, but without the visual part. It was really just a bunch of noise, but it was fun.

We wandered through the crowds of people that completely filled the streets. We ended up getting back in the car and going to lunch out of town a bit in an attempt to avoid at least some of the insanity.

After lunch, we had about two hours for resting/siesta (and I took advantage of the siesta opportunity), and then at 8 we headed out for the night.

That night, Saturday, was the day of the big parade and the burning of the sardine. 

The whole point of this festival, I think, is the burning/burial of the sardine. I think it stems from the festival’s following Holy Week and coming at a time when Catholics would have just started to eat meat again after only eating fish during lent. So I guess they burn the sardine because they’re so tired of eating fish.

Anyway, we went to another elaborate and impressive parade that was even longer. The most exciting part of this parade was that at the end all the societies, which are named after Greco-Roman gods, throw out toys for all the kids. We were on the top row of the bleachers, so luckily we weren’t in the mob that was fighting for the toys they were throwing out. Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), by the end, it was mostly parents fighting for the toys for their kids.

After the parade, we went to find a place to watch them burn the sardine. It was quite an impressive fire, which seemed huge even though we were watching it from across the river.

Immediately after the burning of the sardine, they started a 10-minute fireworks display, which was also quite impressive.

This marked the end of the festival and we all went home to go to sleep, because the next morning Paulina and I had to be on a train before noon to go back to Granada, where I would continue on to Málaga.

Click here too see what I got up to next!