Today is the Día de San Lorenzo. In case you don’t know, the martyr San Lorenzo was put to a slow and painful death on top of a large gridiron with live coals beneath it and, the legend concludes that, after enduring the pain for a very long time he made his famous cheerful remark, “I’m well done on this side. Turn me over!”.
This is the first time in over five years that I haven’t attended the hectic San Lorenzo Day festivities at the Antigua Abacería de San Lorenzo. Because of Covid, Ramón and Carmen took the decision not to reopen their bar until September. In any case, this celebration is not one that lends itself to social distancing. The place is packed all afternoon long, standing room only, with Ramón passing around platters of grilled flesh (sardines, chicken legs, sausages, etc) with everyone drinking a punch from Huelva called ponche alosnero.
It’s always a crazy time and I miss it. ❤
Every year I write up a list of bars and restaurants in Sevilla that will be open in August. Used to be that almost every place closed, shops too, and Sevilla was quite a ghost town. In some ways I kind of liked that. Broke things up a bit, with a change of rhythm. Everything slowed down appropriately, in terms of The Heat. But the past few years there have been throngs of hapless HOT tourists wandering all over town, tour guides risking heat stroke taking out group after group, all defying the weather. It was getting crazy. It WAS crazy.
