Day 117, 7 October 2014, Open Air Flamenco Mass in Plaza de Constitucion (see today's photo of the guest of honour, Virgen del Rosario, patron of Fuengirola - AKA: The Giant Mary), Visit to Feria to see it all again with the fairy lights on. Churros y Chocolate. Massive sugar hit!

What a day! The only thing keeping me going between standing up for an entire mass in Spanish and walking 3 kms in the evening just to get to and from the feria is another Spanish tradition... No - not the churros y chocolate (though that helped)... in fact - SIESTA!!! That's right. Conking out more or less involuntarily at about 2 pm and emerging at about 5 pm. Whatever it takes I reckon. The mass in the morning was pretty cool to go to, easy to follow the rhythm of it even in Spanish. One main difference is that at the part where everyone shakes hands involves double cheek kisses if you know the woman even in the slightest. Communion took forever, even with 4 priests on the go so I went for a stroll around and about and arrived back 15 minutes later in time for the patron of Fuengirola, the Giant Mary, to get underway. Lucky it eventually got going, cos I think the carriers were nigh on falling over in their dark suits. Hugely interesting thing to see and fascinating to hear everyone calling out "Guapa" as she passed on her platform. This is a wonderful Spanish word that covers a multitude of situations and sounds a bit like Whopper! Means "beautiful" (in the Virgin Mary's case), also sexy, comely, attractive etc when whispered as a woman passes a man in the street. Obviously not much of a pick up technique if used on English girls who seriously only (barely) speak English and they probably do think they're being described as whoppers. Moving right along, after very rewarding siesta, hauled sore feets out of bed and trotted off to the Feria again to see the lights - worth every step. Was crazy busy compared to last night. Now that the Mass is over everyone is out and about in their flamenco dresses which was a sight to behold. Especially the Mum & Daughter combos - seriously cute! (see today's album). It was so busy at the fair I actually had to queue up for the anti-crisis burger - secrets get out fast it seems.