pre-semana santa

Spain doesn't always do everything right. If you've been reading my blog long enough, you are perfectly aware of this. Let's face it reading about what they do wrong (many things) is a whole hell of a lot more interesting to read, especially from a cynical person such as myself. 

So let's focus on something that Spain is really, really good at:

Throwing a party. 

Fiestas are an incredibly important part of life here. My fellow coworkers who have a solid 30 years on me have told me about family birthday parties lasting til 3-4am. (Hey mis padres- can you make it to the end of the 7pm news?) Every city has a fería, which is a weeklong party and if there's a holidy on Tuesday, might as well take off Monday too. Make it a puente (bridge). 

Here's some pictures of the Malaga Semana Santa preparations:

Someone (someones?) spent hours of their lives taping those red sheets over the balconies. Beautiful.

This isn't even the biggest Semana Santa celebration in Spain. 

Where do all the chairs come from? 

More importantly, where do they go for the other 51 weeks of the year when it is not Easter?

Some pretty serious bleachers. My powers of observation have picked up on a red theme. 

Also, I'm pretty sure that either the Pope or Antonio Banderas sits in that box thing at the top. 

Whoever's the most important to the malaguenos. 

But I think Tony is pretty much in the clear re: sex scandals, so maybe its his seat.