The next morning, I woke up incredibly excited! I packed up the few things I had used for the
night and went to meet Samantha and Nicole, two of my best friends from NYC,
whom I formerly worked with at Mount Sinai Hospital. Yes there were tears. Sam had arranged a swanky Airbnb for us, so
we piled inside with all of our stuff and unpacked a bit. There was a washer and dryer, so I
immediately started hogging that. A few
hours later, we headed off to meet our other friend from Mount Sinai, Bita, and
her future husband Chris. Their wedding
was in Spain, partially because Chris had lived there for years, and because they
had actually met when Bita took a little vacation to Spain. Chris knew all the ins-and-outs of the city,
so he had arranged a small food tour, where he took us all to some of his
favorite eateries. We showed up a bit
early, so we grabbed a nice glass of cava each, before some familiar and not-so-familiar
faces started trickling in. Our meeting
spot was a great ice cream shop, so we grabbed an ice cream and coffee and
waited for the rest of the group to show.
Spain has what we endearingly like to call “Spanish time”, which means
that when someone is told a time to meet, they actually show up about 45
minutes after said time. So, right on
“Spanish time” schedule most of the people whom had flown in arrived and, we
all started our walk. Chris took us all around
some of the major neighborhoods and into a few eateries, notably the jamon
serrano shop where people stocked up on jamon to smuggle back to the US, and we
got to have some cava and samples of the meat, yum, and lastly a small café in
the old town district, lined by small streets that brave drivers attempt to
maneuver around pedestrians who rule those alleys, where we munched on some
traditional Spanish tapas. By that time,
it was early evening and Sam and Nicole’s jetlag started setting in, so we made
the walk back to our place for a quick siesta before that evening’s event…the
bachelorette party!
After a quick cat nap, and some much needed coffee, we
beautified, and I put one of the few dresses that Nicole has received from my
mother so I didn’t look so much like a backpacker, but more like a well put
together adult. Sam had arranged
everything for the evening, and we started out at a fantastic Spanish
restaurant called Arcano Restaurante in a private, cavernous room. We actually lost count of the different
appetizers, or tapas, all of which were amazing, from a crostini with whipped
blue cheese, to marinated green little peppers (be careful, one in every 10 or
so [I think] is incredibly hot), to pan tomaca, Spanish meatballs, queso
fundido, patatas bravas, croquettas, and so many more!!! And that wasn’t even the end of it!! Throw in the main course of fish or meat,
unlimited bottles of wine and then dessert and you basically had to roll us out
of the restaurant. The dinner, of
course, included great conversation, meet and greets, and little bridal games,
but suffice to say, apparently, the nurses may be a bad influence. There was a particular story from the bride,
regarding her first meeting of the groom’s mother, and going out with the
nurses afterward, ending in a lot of apartment toilet time with thin NYC walls,
and morning pain killers; apparently, the groom had said the night before
something along the lines of, “please, do go out with the nurses, you know what
happens…my mother is here!” It was
clearly just a boyfriend-fulfilled prophecy.
Anyway, after dinner, we were supposed to meet up with the groom’s
bachelor party and all go out together.
We were in the old part of town again, with the small alleyway streets,
so we meandered through the streets sniffing out the men’s party, stopping in
along the way at suspected bachelor party locations; we knew we were close on
their tail when are barman said, “they were just here”, and pointed in the
direction of where to find them. After a
bit, we finally joined them, and the rest of the night was full of shots,
general debauchery, and possibly (I’m not saying it definitely happened, just
that it possibly happened) a sweet and slightly awkward pole dance show FROM
the groom and bride. The end of the
night came around 3am I think, at which time, we all piled into our respective
cabs and made our way home. The next morning, we woke up shockingly well humored and hydrated. We met up with the bride-to-be for a little brunch. After filling up on good food and coffee, we made our way back to our place, where Sam hung around and napped, and Nicole and I packed up a bag for the beach! We didn’t have much time to play at the beach, so we just hopped in a cab, and said “a la playa, por favor”, to which he replied, “which playa?”, and we both looked at each other unknowingly. He took matters into his own hands, and we ended up at a great beach a bit away from the touristy hubbub. After a few hours sunning and swimming, we set off back to our place to shower and get ready. That evening we again got ourselves looking nice and made our way over to the rehearsal dinner, at El Velodromo, which was less of a rehearsal and more of a people-who-have-flown-in dinner. We again had mountains of great food, an unaccountable number of tapas and bottles and some great toasts from the groom-to-be’s family, counting in at a total of six hours. We needed to be up early in the morning to help attend to some last minute wedding issues, so instead of going out that night, we made a small house party with a few of the NYC wedding guests whom we knew from back home. I guess it would be considered a bit of an early night, but around 1:30am we made it to bed.
The next morning was the wedding day! We got up and made our way to meet up with the groom’s sister who took us to all of the flower shops on the Rambla de Flores (Flower Street) where the flowers had been pre-ordered for pick up that day. Looking like beauty queen rejects, with our mountains of flowers and sunglasses to hide our faces, we piled into a cab and headed to the wedding/reception venue, which was a gorgeous old Spanish-style building, the Casa Cortada. There we met up with the other NYC girls who had been commissioned to complete the setup of the venue. Once our duty was completed, Sam, Nicole, and I made our way back to our place, squeezed in a quick preparatory nap and started getting ready. Bita wanted us to help her get ready, which I always find to be such an honor, so we packed up a few things and walked over to Bita’s swanky hotel. When we walked in Bita had just finished getting her hair and makeup done and pulling on her gown. She looked just stunning; radiant as a bride so often does. She then took off the gown to be more comfortable. We ordered a bottle of cava, which the nice young gentlemen very much seemed to enjoy delivering to a room full of beautified girls giggling and listening to music. Bita then happened to mention that she and Chris had decided to recite their vows “on the fly”, to which we all concurred that it was a terrible idea, despite the fact that she reassured us Chris was not preparing his. We grabbed a sticky note and got down to thinking about what a girl does (and does not) commit to in a marriage…it was slow work. When the bottle was done, and few profound and not-so-profound ideas jotted down, Bita put her wedding gown back on, we made a few makeup touchups and headed out to meet our BMW chauffer. Bita was so excited, as were we all, as the minutes went by…and by…and by. Where was the chauffer, we asked? THIS IS A WEDDING!! Turns out, the car was late, because it had gotten into a crash on the way to pick us up. Luckily, we were all savvy NYC women, so we hiked up the bride’s wedding dress and made our way to the corner to flag the first van taxi we could find. Quick and easy, we made our way toward Casa Cortada…until the cab driver drove us to the wrong location. He did not in fact know exactly where he was going…and decided to stop and give a man directions…and then ask a woman for directions. We ladies finally figured out where we, and all started yelling and pointing and directing until, elated, we found the building. Once all that was over, we calmed the trying-to-stay-calm bride, and escorted her into her bridal salon. A few quick photos, a few oohs and aahs from the family, and she was ready to go. The ceremony was beautiful, small, and Persian, which I had never seen before, so that was neat. The two mother’s officiated the ceremony, and the vows went off without a hitch, by the way, the groom whipped out his own little cheat sheet on that one, so we were happy we had prepped. I also got a shout-out for being the guest who traveled the farthest; woohoo, wedding shotout! At the end of the ceremony, we started the party! Can you guess? Yes, massive amounts of amazing food, wine, and a bottle of whisky per table (which all shockingly disappeared [were drunk] over the course of the night). The end of dinner segued into dancing, with some Persian songs in there and some Spanish hits. Suffice to say, we are all Persian pop stars now. At the end of the night, we grabbed a cab and headed back to our place. Oh God, no that’s not what happened! Haha We went out! Yes, we hopped in cabs and went out to a club. Some of us lasted many more hours (one person straggled home at 7:30am), and some less hours (me and Nicole). THEN we headed home!
Nicole had booked her flight home for that morning…early. So on about two and a half hours sleep, I got a knock on the door to say goodbye to my bestie L, and then passed out again. Later that morning, Sam and I woke up, and made our way to lunch with some of the wedding guest and the Mr. and Mrs! We met up, Spanish time style, at a large café, pumped ourselves with coffee, and made the world’s slowest walk to a paella restaurant along the water; some people would stop and look into shops, and want to grab this and that, which by the end, with about 10 hungry, hungover adults, made for a cranky walk, with some serious no-more-shopping rules being laid down. Lunch was pretty hysterical, in a not-that-hysterical-at-the-time kind of way, in that the waiters were completely overwhelmed when our large group walked in. We couldn’t arrange the tables together; then we did, but one table only had three legs (??), the drinks didn’t come for ages; the food orders confused them. By then end, yes we were stuffed with some preetttyyy awesome paella, but we were also completely ready to leave the restaurant. I think everyone there mentioned a desire to nap, but instead we walked along the beach for several hours before making our way back to respective apartments. As we said our good byes, we all arranged to Whatsapp, Viber, call, message etc to arrange dinner and going out that night…that did not happen. I think everyone was sufficiently beat, and just wanted a low key night.
The next morning, Sam and I were pretty much the last two people standing in Spain as everyone else had, you know, jobs (Sam just finished her midwifery program in California and committed a bit of extra time to travel with me). We spent the day leisurely with Chris and Bita, until that evening when they headed off to pick up a rental car and make their honeymoon in Menorca. Sam and I had a nice dinner at home that night watching tv and playing on the internet, before calling it a night.
The next day, Sam and I had a nice easy morning and packed up for our romantic getaway to…Paris!
No comments:
Post a Comment