New Year's Eve in Spain

So today I am finally getting around to finishing up talking about our trip to Spain.  Our last night there was New Year's Eve.  All week we had been seeing a big tent being set up around the main round about in town (causing some interesting rerouting to get from point A to point B!), and we figured it meant there would be a  town party, though it seems everyone else just knew what to expect; there were no signs, nothing on the town website, etc.

As you may recall, Rio had developed a fever earlier in the day.  He is my party kid, but he was in no condition to go out.  His temp was high enough that I didn't even want to leave him alone, but Marika is NOT a party kid and had no intention of leaving the house on NYE for any reason.  She was happy to stay with him, and the tent was only about a 5 minute walk from our rental, so we figured we could be back quickly if he got sick enough to need to be taken somewhere.

So, we wandered over around 11:30.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that there was no fee at all to get in, and the drink prices were quite low.  We spent a Euro fifty each on a plastic champagne glass filled with 12 grapes, wandered through the tent to check it out (there were big screen TVs up, showing the festivities in Puerta del Sol--sort of like the Times Square of Madrid, a DJ, lights, etc).

Do you see the balloons shaped like bunches of grapes?  Are you noticing a theme yet (with our champagne flutes and the balloons?).  I knew from the year I lived in Spain as a teen, that it is a Spanish tradition to eat one grape with each strike of the clock in the Puerta del Sol on New Year's Eve.  There is even a Mecano song about it (which I HAD to play a few times that day!):

Here I am with my grapes, back out in front of the tents:

Shortly before midnight, we crowded into the tent with a good number of others--ranging in age from toddlers up to elderly older men and women pushing walkers.  We ALL had our grapes and everyone counted down the clock striking, as we watched it on TV--and then we all stuffed grapes in our mouths!  It is hard to chew that fast, especially because the grapes have seeds.  On 12 the balloons and confetti fell, the DJ started up and bubbly flowed---all the glasses (those 1.50 ones, with grapes) were filled up at no extra charge.  

We only stayed for 4-5 songs before heading home by 12:30.  With a sick kid and a long drive ahead of us the next day a night of partying was not the thing for us.  We were leaving along with parents with toddlers--and as many teens were just beginning to arrive (I wonder where they were for the countdown ).  

And, so, ended our time in Spain, for that trip at least.  It was truly a nice place and we are very much considering going back next Christmas.

I hope you all had equally interesting New Years,

Hadley