Author: Steve

As I’ve mentioned before in past blogs, our street, Calle de San Jacinto, is a very active pedestrian location. A couple Friday’s ago we were heading out the door to catch a bus for a day trip to Jerez and as luck would have it they were putting up a stage in the middle of Calle de San Jacinto for a flamenco show.  We decided to forgo the Jerez trip and do it the next day so we could see the show. One of the main pastry shops was setting up a big table outside to sell some great pastries.  After listening to the flamenco for a while we decided to buy a treat.  I got in the semi-long line and right as I was about to ask for a cookie, a man (I believe he was the owner) comes out with a large pan of, what looked like custard with cookies crumbled on top. The crowd, all with lustful smiles, became slightly aggressive and I was pushed out of the way.  Before the man started to spoon it out a news reporter came up with a cameraman to interview the owner regarding this desert.  Needless to say I was quite curious as to why these people wanted that custard dish so bad.  After doing my best to stand my ground I looked over at Amy and the kids, they were sitting and talking to a grandfather-type gentleman and they were all looking at me (laughing) with a euro in one hand and holding it straight out.  Okay I guess that’s the trick, so I started holding my euro up high to get what I wanted.  I got one for us to share and it was very good. We think it’s a warm flan, which made the dessert the texture of pudding, the gentleman Amy was talking to rubbed his large belly and said with a big smile, “it’s just a lot of sugar and flour”.

Keegan in front of the stage right before the performers came out. It would be hard to count how many times they had a stage on this street while we were there.

This was the first stand they put up . . . oh my gosh how they love their churros!! They even add additional stands throughout the city during the holidays. A favorite treat that we've seen is dipping their churro's in chocolate sauce.

Here's the cameraman and news reporter interviewing the owner with his dessert. I'm in the background after being pushed back. When the dessert was only half gone the owner would just grab a spoon full and eat from the pan, a quadruple dipper - true story.

Got my euro and ready to buy.

Another day we headed out I was very nervous for the safety of my family . . . the last few days prior to this they had been remodeling the facade of a building for a new bank a few doors down. As I walked out the door I looked up and saw 2 snipers on the roof in front of our apartment and there were people blocked off from the bank and that section of the street with police tape. Amy thought immediately that they were probably bringing money to the bank especially with all the police cars everywhere you looked.  I told them to hold still I would go check it out.  As I got to the line I saw a man walking out of the bank with his hands semi-raised and then I saw another man behind him. The man behind him had his jacket open and under his jacket you could clearly see a vest of EXPLOSIVES!  All I’m thinking at this point is these people are crazy and my first thought was to yell to Amy and tell her to run and save the children. But as I looked around everyone was smiling.  Well they were shooting a movie and the guy in front was the Director giving the explosives guy/actor direction.  We stayed and watched for a while since we had never been so close to a filming like this in our lives. We got to see everything it was very interesting.  We always felt we were walking on a movie set as we walked down our street and seems like we were.

Snipers on the roof.

The blocked off street used as a movie set.