Issue #18

Viva La Roja!


Yesterday was a red letter day in Spain. La Roja, the Red, as España is fondly known, was in the finals for the World Cup for the very first time and against Holland who was hoping to be 'third time lucky' after having lost the World Cup final twice before.

I watched my first ever World Cup match at La Alegria Bar in Benalmadena Pueblo. In spite of the visible and vociferous support for Spain, they lost to Switzerland.

The next match I watched was in in the home of my Spanish friends. I cheered when David Villa scored the winning goal against Portugal.

In the words of Paul Breen-Turner, "The truth is that the Spanish team are a bit tasty, with quality all the way through the side. They work together for one another and there are no 'prima donnas'!"

The headlines trumpeted 'La Roja beat Germany in Wednesday's semi-final thanks to a goal from Payol', a match that I watched at Mesón Miuria.

The Spanish TV news stated that 60,000 Dutch people live in Spain but not an orange jersey was in sight last night as I returned to La Algeria to watch the final. My superstitious nature was on high alert because I had watched Spain lose in this bar so I ameliorated the bad luck by wearing a red soccer shirt emblazoned with "Villa" and "7" on the back and Spain's crest on the front.

The strain of watching both teams playing their hearts out to the end of the ninety minutes with no goals took its toll and the noise level in the bar elevated. At two minutes before the end of extra time, Andres Iniesta, a Spanish player described by England's Wayne Rooney as "the best player in the world" scored. The sea of red in La Algeria erupted!

In overtime, ice hockey games are settled by 'sudden death' but in soccer, extra time is thirty minutes, full stop. This meant that Holland had approximately two minutes in which to redeem themselves. The tension was such that I thought my head might blow-up and the 120 or so seconds until Spain was declared the winners of the World Cup seemed to last much longer than a mere two minutes.

Pandemonium ensued and even people who are not veteran futbol fans celebrated throughout the night.


This is the last of the Correo Costa del Sol.  Please read The AFB, my newsletter from Singapore.

Issue #17‏

La Noche de San Juan


Andrea MacLean wrote in the June 16th edition of The News, "Andalucians love a good party and there are plenty of opportunities to celebrate with over 3,000 festivals every year...one of the most remarkable is Noche de San Juan." La Noche de San Juan on June 23rd is another example of a pagan celebration being co-opted by the Christians. In this case it is the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year.

It is St.Jean de Baptiste Day in Quebec, Canada and the Saint Jonas Festival in Lithuania but here in Spain it is the biggest party of the year! Thousands of families, mainly Spanish but also some foreigners (yours truly included) celebrated Noche de San Juan with barbecues and bonfires on the beaches of the Costa del Sol.

Traditionally, Spanish people used this fiesta to perform rituals to affect weather, purify their bodies, attract love and scare away evil spirits. There are even rituals thought to prevent woollen winter clothes from being devoured by moths over the summer.

Júas or effigies are burned along the coasts or on riverbanks to mark the arrival of summer and superstitious people take a dip at midnight or leap over the fires to garner good luck. At 1 a.m. the sky over the Benalmadena harbour exploded with light and colour. The fireworks ended the festivities with a flourish but some hardy revellers stayed the entire night.

In Arroyo de la Miel, Noche de San Juan is the beginning of six days of celebration. The Feria de San Juan includes a procession of the town´s patron saint through the streets and ending at the fairgrounds next to Paloma Park. Located here were scores of rides, side shows, attractions and stalls.

Temporary bars called casetas and stages were set up on the streets of the town so that the fiesta atmosphere was not isolated in one area and daytime events brought music, dancing and paella to the streets of Arroyo.