This week has been the Festival of San Jorge, Caceres' patron saint, so there have been music concerts and processions all week. On Monday we went to a traditional folk music concert which I thought was really good. Tuesday there was a procession similar to the ones I saw in Sevilla where they brought a statuette down from the mountain of the Virgin. This went along Calle Caleros right below our balcony so Sara and I watched it from there. Last night was by far the coolest though, there was a parade of 'Christians' and 'Muslims' followed by a dragon.

We went to Monica and Michelle's apartment to watch the beginning, then we went to the Plaza Mayor to watch it come in. The story of San Jorge is that he heard there was a dragon terrorizing the population of Caceres, so he captured it and brought it to the city, he told them that if they all converted from Muslims to Christians he would slay the dragon. 15,000 men converted so he slayed the dragon and Caceres lived in peace.

There's another legend that intermingles this one, where a Muslim princess falls in love with a Christian man. She gives him the key to the city so he can come visit her, which he does for a while. Then he decides to give the key to the leader of the Christian army, a fight ensues and the Christians take the city. The Muslim king supposedly locked her in a chamber in the royal palace where she can't leave until the city is reconquered by the Muslims. Some how she turned into a Chicken too, I'll look into that and get back to you.

Whatever the story, after the parade reached the Plaza Mayor the princess came out onto a balcony and told the story, which I couldn't understand too well, then a knight fought another soldier on a rooftop after the princess climbed down from the tower on a cloth doing acrobatic stunts. Then San Jorge rode into the plaza with a flaming spear and stabbed the dragon until it burst into flames. After the dragon burned out there was an awesome fireworks show right above us.