A week at home. It was a four-day week, since Friday was Labour Day. I used it to visit the central neighbourhood called Santa Cruz where a flower festival was taking place. In reality it was less about flowers and more about a fiesta, as is the case with most events here in Spain.
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As I sometimes do, I stopped by 100 Montaditos on the beach on my way home from work Monday afternoon. The pigeons were there too:
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My morning walks with Mochi continued to provide me with nice photo opportunities:
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The Magic Cactus that bloomed so gloriously last week was beginning to wilt by Tuesday morning:
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As usual, we had the “Tuesday market” at the office. I bought some good bread from these ladies:
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Another sunrise walk, on Thursday morning. These two young women were doing a photo session on the beach:
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Stuff washed up onto the beach:
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A “found” image. When I see something like this, I wonder what happened. Did the runner decide that the shoes were bad and chose to run home barefoot?:
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Another walk, Friday morning. We are being watched:
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Later on Friday, I went to the centre to visit a residential area in the barrio called Santa Cruz. It is a traditional neighbourhood with narrow, steep streets, recently infested by AirBnBs and their ilk, but still retaining a special atmosphere. My daughter told me that there was some kind of flower festival, so I went to have a look. While walking from the parking garage to Santa Cruz, I took a few photos, starting with this quintessential scene which I have experienced many times during my 43 years of married life:
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This is the season for stag and hen parties. I ran into these guys. The future groom is wearing a sign asking for female volunteers for one last “mission” in freedom:
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A bar door in the centre:
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As I entered Santa Cruz, I noticed this sign on a balcony, saying “we want to sleep”. Santa Cruz has many bars and clubs and the place gets noisy on Friday and Saturday nights:
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Santa Cruz was crowded:
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A memorial plaque to a local artist, thanking her for making this corner of Alicante full of colour:
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I finally reached the upper part of Santa Cruz, where the festival was on. A cross of flowers:
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But it was not just flowers, there were a lot of fanciful decorations in front of houses, including this Mexican-themed one:
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An altar:
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A flying rainbow dog:
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This image shows how steep the streets are:
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Giant flowers and butterflies:
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Unidentified flying object:
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Miraculously, I found a bar with a free table outside to have a beer while looking at the passers-by. On the way back to the car, I photographed another sign reflecting life in the barrio. It says “do not pee here, this is the door to my house”:
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A bar table in the barrio:
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A photo session on Calle de las Setas:
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I finish with some more photos of my walks with Mochi. A cloudy morning on the beach, with the drummer guy out there, playing to the rising sun. I have seen him there on other occasions:
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An alarm system:
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Poking through the fence:
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Our Saturday evening walks often end like this:
