Showing posts with label Events. Show all posts

Everyone has his or her own idea of the perfect vacation. Whether it includes sun tanning on beautiful beaches, hiking, exploring caves, swimming, snorkeling, windsurfing, water parks, getting up close and personal with wildlife, delicious food, clubbing, local culture, or possibly learning a new language… Tenerife offers all this and more!
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Thank you to Jack and Andy of Tenerife Magazine for all of your help and for letting us share our experience with your readers.
Xo,
K & M

Last Tuesday was the Festival of the Embarkation of the Virgen del Carmen, part of the Fiestas de Julio. Here in Puerto Cruz they have a whole month dedicated to celebrating life, and happiness by the sea! If you’ve been following for awhile you may remember Megan mentioning this as one of the major things she wanted to experience...(Why Tenerife) glad to say neither or us were let down!

During the Fiestas de Julio the city gets crazy in the days leading up the Tuesday Embarkation. There are celebrations, parades, and a sardine festival in the town square, all to honor the Virgen del Carmen, the Patron Saint of fishermen and the sea. People stayed up and partying until five in the morning the weekend before Tuesday's Embarkation. It is common to hear fireworks going off all night long – and sometimes, even during the day. Every evening we were treated to multiple firework displays set off near the town square. There was a show every hour from dusk until one or two in the morning. We happily watched from our seventh story balcony, pleased to be having July 7 - 10 fireworks to make up for missing our own tradition of July 4th.

We've both read and heard from the locals that the Embarkation Festival is a day that shouldn’t be missed. Tuesday morning we woke up extra early and went to the local cafe for coffee and Internet access. By 10am the street outside the cafe and neighboring Supermercado were packed with teenagers in their swimsuits! We witnessed kids - who couldn't have been over sixteen years old mixing rum and Coca Cola into emptied six-liter water jugs. People were walking in droves towards the marina, so we quickly changed into our bathing suits and followed in their footsteps.

Walking through the town square to the marina was easier said than done. It is estimated that each year over 35,000 people cram into the areas surrounding the marina to take part in the festival. Everywhere we looked people had on t-shirts with images depicting the Virgen, which we found out were being sold nearby - so we splurged €3 apiece and each bought one! One of the best parts of the festival was the traditional Canarian food and drink that was being sold by the street vendors. For just a few Euros we got fresh fish and shrimp on a skewer, a loaf of crusty bread, potatoes con mojo and a Mocaña (traditional Canarian cocktail made with sugarcane juice).

After we indulged in our lunch we grabbed a seat on the stone wall surrounding the marina. With our legs dangling over the water, we proceeded to watch the "spectacle" take place around us. This included a collection of Zodiac boats floating in the water with drunken Canarios dancing and swimming around, young kids leaping, fully clothed, off the pier and into the water, and drunken teenagers stumbling around and laughing. We heard that the image of the Virgen typically "embarks" to sea around 6pm, and is accompanied by some of the town’s sailors. Unfortunately the ocean breeze was very cold that day, and the Virgen didn't appear until after 8 - but as she did the atmosphere at the marina changed dramatically. The masses of people began singing in unison; imagine 35,000 people crowded around a traditional Canarian boat singing! Many tears were shed as the throne of the Virgen was placed on the boat and led out to sea.

Experiencing a traditional, and very emotional ceremony in another country is enlightening. The festival showcases the Canarian dedication to Spain and their devotion to the Catholic religion. We're both very pleased that we got to witness and in our own way, be a part of such an amazing day.

Xo,
M&K

Nearly two weeks in and it finally feels like life as usual here in the UK. We have a group of friends we see on a regular basis, an agenda of events to attend, and finally a system of spending worked out -- and it is AWESOME!... We've even caught ourselves talking in slight British accents so we don't come off as SO American ;)

Kyle has been good friends with a guy named Sei since first coming to London in 2009, Sei is a club promoter here in London. Two years ago he took us to Jalouse for a night of crazy fun, and last night he invited us to Maddox for dinner and clubbing. Going out with Sei is so intense, they roll out the red carpet, models galore, beautiful people, celebrities, free drinks - the funny thing is though, whether we party in New York, Los Angles, Scottsdale or London it is the same drinks, same music and same crowds of people!

Today we watched the UEFA Euro Cup matches at Sei's new flat, in the Shoreditch area, near the Liverpool street tube station. He had about fifteen people over to watch Denmark v. Netherlands and Germany v. Portugal. Here girls know so much about Football (Soccer), in the states you rarely find a girl who knows all the games, stats, players, rules, etc. We had about five bags of crisps (potato chips) and a spread of different beers to share. Sei let his two ferrets run about the living room as we snacked. It was rather difficult watching the matches, while simultaneously keeping the nosey little critters out of the food and away from our beer.





Needless to say, the Euro Cup is a huge deal here in the UK! Two matches a day for the next month, and a hodgepodge of people to watch them... everyone in London is an immigrant which makes every match that much more entertaining to watch. Tomorrows Euro matches are Spain v. Italy and Ireland v. Croatia. We have plans to watch Spain v. Italy at an Italian restaraunt called Arancina in Notting Hill with Yara whose Italian friends have booked a table... it's going to be especially intense considering that Kyle will be cheering for Spain.

Xo,
M&K