The evening before Three Kings Day there is a large parade, La Cabalgata. It had been horribly rainy all day and they weren't sure if the parade was going to occur, but it held off just long enough for us to enjoy the parade. The parade is your basic parade with floats, dancers, and candy, except at the end The Three Kings arrive and the kids yell out to them what they want to receive. I asked Balthazar for a pink Vespa with a matching helmet. Balthazar was the last King in the procession and I thought he would appreciate my patience. All of the floats are loaded with kids throwing hard candy at the crowd. Unfortunately, nobody properly schooled them in how to appropriately throw candy at the crowds. So basically we had floats full of 10 year old boys, whipping hard candy at us. Basically, I'm lucky that I wasn't concussed. Jonathan started taking pictures of the parade, but eventually put away his camera because he was afraid that it would be damaged by hard candy. He told me that this is what it must feel like to be stoned to death. The parade was pretty, but we spent most of it in the back, ducking. haha.
Before we got the the parade Jonathan was being grumpy and I told him that I wouldn't forgive him until he bought be a balloon at the parade (I know what you're thinking - most mature couple ever). Here is a picture of me with my Zebra balloon:
Not only am I super pumped in this photo because I have a zebra balloon, but also because my darling and I had made up. Things were good. :) So I spent an hour protecting my balloon from the hard candies during the parade and as we began our walk to Rosie's house for dinner I was excited to hold that bad boy with pride!! As we are walking, Jonathan jokingly shouts "I'm going to kill your zebra" and pokes it with the umbrella. He CLAIMS that it wasn't his actual intent and was only trying to be silly (though I really know the truth - he was jealous of all of the attention I was paying to it). But he popped it. He popped my balloon! I was so upset!!!! Mario, our 4 year old cousin was also very upset with Jonathan. He told Jonathan that he was stupid and that Jonathan wasn't allowed at his house anymore (I, of course, thought that this was amazing). Eventually Mario forgave Jonathan, after Jonathan pleaded with him, reminding him repeatedly that they were cousins.
We then went to Rosie's house for dinner. Jonathan made everyone his delicious homemade pizza, which I profess is the best I've ever eaten. A month or two prior we had dinner at Rosie and Jorge's with a few of their friends. They ordered Domino's for dinner. As expected, it was horrible. But more interestingly, the toppings were so strange (kernels or corn and BBQ sauce?). So we told them that Jonathan would make pizza for them and show them how it should taste. Jonathan made pizza while Tina made a few traditional Gallego tapas (shellfish, tortilla). Everyone really liked Jonathan's pizzas :). For desert on Three Kings Day we were served a ring shaped anise cake with candied fruit on top. In the center of the ring is a paper crown (just like at Burger King). Baked inside the cake is a bean and a small plastic figurine of one of the Three Kings. So everyone is allowed to cut into the cake, and if their piece has the bean, then they are supposed to pay for the cake. If you get the king figurine, you get to wear the paper crown. This was super fun. Whenever anyone cut a piece everyone would drum their hands on the table and howl with excitement. Jonathan won and was really excited to wear the paper crown. We then spent the next few hours talking and having some drinks. I taught them all how to play Kings Cup. They had the most fun when someone drew a card and they were required to put their thumb on the table or their hand in the air. haha.
The next day we all went over to Vicente's parents home for lunch. It was really nice, but we were all really tired. We went back to Tina's house, where we stay whenever we go to Vigo. Tina went to bed to take a nap. Jonathan and I watched a video and then decided to go out for a walk. We went for a really nice long walk throughout the entire city and stopped to get a drink together. And then we hopped on a bus the next day and headed back to Raxo; our visit was short but sweet :)
I would be mad too if my zebra balloon was popped...that thing was awesome....Just saying :)
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