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Benidorm sits on Spain's eastern Mediterranean coast. It's a popular tourist destination especially for British seeking blue sky and warmer weathers. The pub culture has crawled its way right up to the city's beachfront. On one stretch of the beach you could only see Britons having a good old yarn with a pint of beer in their hand.
In November there is a two week long period of festivity. We were extremely fortunate enough to be here during it. For two weeks straight the city of Benidorm becomes a big street party, fireworks set off every minute and children allowed to stay up way past their bed time. The street noise becomes so disruptive that local residents would actually leave their home to go somewhere quieter.
Thankfully our host Alberto and Ana whom we met in Tajikistan lived a fare distance away from downtown so we didn't hear any sound. We met them while descending the highest pass on the Pamir highway, although a brief meeting on the road, we connected easily and have been looking forward to see them again in Spain.
Las Penyas
The Penyas are social groups that come together each year and celebrate together during this festival. Each penya would fund raise for the entire year for this two week celebration. The money would be used to decorate an entire restaurant and parts of the street, party food and meals served at the restaurant and various other miscellaneous (one penya hired a DJ!)
Each penya would wear costumes following their unique theme. There were quite a variety of themes that we saw. Some were quite creative. During the meals, a member or two would go visit another penyas and join them for a meal. It is customary to accept guests even if they aren't from another penyas (such as us because we weren't affiliated with any penya). Alberto and Ana had a family who was a member of a penya so we joined them for dinner.
Alberto and Ana are very fun hosts
La Despertà
The brass band goes around the streets of Benidorm entertaining everyone with their lively music. They could be a penya themselves! While we were sightseeing on our bikes we heard the band playing and noticed a crowd following them. We weren't sure where they were going, but it was attracting a huge crowd. We followed.
La Mascletà
We arrived to a square that had been fenced off. It was a wide road with four to six lanes. People are standing as close to the fence as they can, peering into the empty cordoned off part of the street. What they are waiting for is called the Mascleta. It's an explosion of coordinated firecracker and fireworks displays in bright daylight. All sensories are activated during this 10 minutes or so explosion. Bang, thud, smoke and flashes. It's common that some nearby building's windows break!
While everyone was enjoying the explosion, we covered our ears. It was very loud and damaging to our ears. The Valencian people are used to this level of volume. We still enjoyed ourselves though.
Call it a day
After such an eventful day we cycled back to our friends home. It had been a very nice stay with them, we had a great time learning about their travel experience, while sharing ours. We had a shared dinner on the last night with some delicious Spanish omelette and our famous on-the-road brownies.
Spain's famous Potato Omelette
Our famous choc brownies
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