Hi,
This weekend was very special. We all celebrated my friend Antonio's stag party, and for such an important day we organized a series of events for the groom.
The pre event
As any event that involves organizing more than three people, today it was necessary to make a WhatsApp group where we were all the friends of the groom and also his brother. The choice of the date, as you can imagine, was a problem from the beginning due to the work activities of some of the members and also due to marital commitments. But finally we had a quorum to fix the farewell on the 6th of July.
July 6th?
That's one day before San Fermín. One of those iconic fiestas of the Spanish locos where the young men run with a red scarf around their necks in front of a herd of bulls in Pamplona.
With the date set for the 6th of July, I, being a bit of a bastard with my friends, posed the situation where we could dress up our friend as a bull, and we could dress up in a red scarf and white t-shirt. And pulling from Amazon, I decided to buy scarves and the costume.
The day has arrived
A drink beforehand and the costume handover
As I mentioned before, in order to have a good day with our friends, we all dressed up in red scarves and white t-shirts.
We met up with the groom in a well-known bar in Tapia de Casariego, close to each of our homes, and there we had the first of the shots and gave the groom the bull costume as a present. Although he doesn't look very happy about having to endure the slight humiliation of being in costume and even more so in the heat of the day.
Karts
Very close to Tapia de Casariego, about 2 kilometers away, we had booked for 16:30 h the possibility of closing a karting circuit for us.
After registering, declaring in writing that we were of legal age and that in case of an accident we would be totally responsible, we were given helmets and the 9 friends got on the karts.
For 10 minutes we drove around the circuit, which had points where it was necessary to have a skill that I have never had in order to get the best lap time and with a view to getting a better position on the starting grid. As you can see in the results table, I didn't even come close to the time of my friends.
After this qualifying session, we were given a 10-minute break, and we took the opportunity to retrieve our mobile phones and take some photos outside the track in the podium area.
After the break, it was time for the big 10-lap race. In which I felt much more comfortable until the middle of the race, where I made a small spin and I moved away from those who were fighting for the podium.
At the same time, on the last lap I had a big spin where I got completely turned around at the exit of the corner where I saw two of my friends dodge me when they were fighting for second and third.
In the end, I didn't adulterate the classification, with Eduardo clearly in first position accompanied by Javier and Gustavo as you can see on the podium.
Having the pleasant surprise of some gifts in the form of caps and t-shirts for the members of the podium.
Being the most beautiful moment of all when we all got on the podium next to the bull to immortalize the moment.
An afternoon of beers, snacks and football
After leaving the karting competition, there were three people who had something to celebrate and the rest of us, especially me, had something to regret. And for that they say that alcohol is an ally both for celebrations and to drown one's sorrows.
We went to several open-air terraces in Tapia and also in the neighbouring town of Ribadeo.
In one of them the waitress was exquisite, as she also gave us a small portion of salad to each of us.
And she offered to take some group photos of us in the bar.
And as it turned out there was one more bull. The bastard of my friend Javi was giving me the horns in the photo. What a bastard. Hehehehe
In one of the bars we enjoyed the last part of the England-Switzerland football match. Since we are all hoping to reach the final with our Spanish National team, it is not a bad thing to watch the matches of possible opponents.
Maybe it was just me watching for the TV, though.
After several rounds of beers, wines and also some soft drinks because we are no longer 20 years old, we decided to go to a restaurant where we had reserved a small space with some privacy for the celebration.
A Galician and Asturian Dinner with many stories from Gustavo.
As good Asturian's and some of us living in Galicia we went for dinner in one of the fashionable restaurants in Ribadeo for its high quality gastronomy with specialities of Galician and Asturian dishes.
We had a excellent dinner, but alcohol in the form of wine and beer was still running down our throats.
But the dinner was great for us, as it was a real salvation to put some tasty and well-prepared food into a partially punished stomach.
We had baby squid and octopus first.
And some good cachopos (steaks stuffed with cheese and ham) to finish off the meal.
Along with some desserts, coffees and as a final digestive liqueur.
During the dinner we had moments of infinite laughter with my friend Gustavo, telling us such surreal experiences as when he was about 12 years old he played the accident victim near the road that passes in front of his house and the neighbour ran over him with his motocross bike without noticing it and some other additional surreal experiences.
End of the party as far as we can tell
Like every bachelor party there was then partying in different pubs and discotheques until almost the next morning.
I can only show a couple of pictures of what happened.
There are parts of this story that due to the high voltage of the pictures should not be shown.
And with the alcohol fog in my mind, I am not entirely clear about what happened afterward, but let's hope we didn't reach the level of Alan Garner in the movie Hangover.
Sunday
Obviously, sleeping and resting, because at 41 years of age, the body can't take it like it did a decade ago.
And a strong coffee to clear my head.
