So, there's a bit to
catch you up on! We've been pretty tired the last two days so I haven't had a
proper chance to write it all down.
Two days ago was
Granada Pride Day! And we actually found other gays. There were lots of them.
It didn't start that way though- when we got to the march starting place at
6pm, there were just a couple of other groups hanging around with rainbow items
to tell us we were in the right spot. As the hour went on, more gays arrived,
until there was a nice big crowd. We found our friend Nancy from the other day
with the cancelled drag queen event (I had to ask her name again, turns out I
had remembered it correctly!). At some point a lesbian drummer group showed up,
and someone brought out two giant long flags (one gay one trans). We decided to
help hold the rainbow flag cause they needed more people. The crowd was getting
bigger and louder by the minute, but we weren't sure exactly what was meant to
happen next. When were we going to start walking? Were there any floats in this
parade or was it more of protest march?
If it was a protest, why were the police so clearly involved in clearing the
streets for the march?
Eventually we
started walking- for maybe two minutes. Then we stopped again, for no reason we
could see. We'd start and stop in this excruciating way for maybe 20 minutes,
which is when Rachel and I decided to abandon ship and go see what was
happening at the front. We left our flag-carrying positions and walked to the
front, where we noticed that the all-lesbian samba band group stopped every few
minutes to do a choreographed routine, which was slowing down the whole
procession. We weren't sure if this was a weird thing or if this was normal??
No one else seemed bothered by the very very slow pace.
We couldn't wait for
the slow march, and we were getting overheated and hungry, so we walked a
couple blocks away to Plaza Nueva and ate our snacks. When we came back about
an hour later, the procession hadn't even made it to the turn off to city
hall!!
We walked to the
plaza the parade would end at and decided to meet it there. It arrived about 40
minutes later, all swarming into the concrete space in front of a large stage.
Right, we thought, now it'll be interesting and fun. But actually people just started
reading speeches in Spanish. Which might have been good had either one of us
understood Spanish, but as it was we were hanging out in a very crowded square,
being very tired, with nowhere to sit except the ground. There weren't even any
food trucks or anything, the one thing that was there was a beer booth. So we
were a bit confused- it seems like this pride march is frustratingly stuck
between protest and festival? At least in Victoria it's clear it's a festival,
and they provide resources as such.
Anyway we hung on
for maybe 45 minutes, but we couldn't stay past then. We stumbled over to La
Buena Vida, our favourite tapas bar, and got food. It kinda saved the day
because we were so pooped. We got ice cream after and ate it at the viewpoint
near our house. We could hear the tell-tale booming of a concert happening back
at the square we came from.
But we were tired,
so we headed home.
Thus we experienced
Orgullo Granada, Granada Pride. It was neat to see all they gays in this city,
but also it was kinda exhausting.
Food that saved the day:
---
Yesterday was a
chill day - we wandered around in the morning, saw some parts of town we hadn't
seen before. I found a studio ghibli t-shirt that I bought, Rachel found a good
one-piece swimsuit. We are feeling ready to move on to the next leg of our journey,
I think we're exhausting what this city has to offer for being a tourist here
for two weeks. Paris should be good, also because it has an actual kitchen we
can use which will help with meals.
Anyway we were
looking for a queer bookshop-café in the hipster part of town, which didn't
seem to exist so we went to a different place and got tapas for lunch.
After a long
afternoon nap, we headed out around 11pm to try our luck at finding a lesbian
club. Turns out we were still too early (there were like three people at the
bar), so we hung out at La Buena Vida again. We got a daiquiri and a Shirley
temple- neither of which were great, but together they were awesome. So we
drank both through two separate straws in our mouths. And then dumped one into
the other when we could.
After that we headed
to the small nightclub. Most nightclubs are cozy affairs here- you walk in and
you're just in it- one room, a bar on one side, and a raised section at the
back. No bigger than living room size. We danced like dorks, interspersing swing,
fortnite moves, cheesy finger guns, and disco moves. We stayed for about an
hour before heading home.
It was fun, but if
there's anything we learned today, it's that we are absolute goofs in both the
mixed drinks department and the clubbing department. And I wouldn't have it any
other way :)
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