The first official event of the weekend was on Friday evening. Joined by Eva, Julian and Claudia we headed out at around 9pm to Puerto de Cuba for drinks with the bride and groom, meeting a number of Danish friends of Henrik and Elena's two brothers. We were still a bit wrecked from the sleepless Thursday night so we took the opportunity that Elena was leaving (to get her beauty sleep for the big day) and concluded the night at "José Luis", for some delicious tapas, setting the theme for the weekend.
The next morning the girls went for hair & nail beauty appointments, whilst the boys slept in and did some shopping. In the end we were all united for lunch together with Borja - fashionably taken at ~3pm. After a few wardrobe issues on the male side (wrong suit jacket, missing tie), we were all off to the ceremony. The moment had arrived: Elena entering the church led by her father, walking towards Henrik. We actually could not see her at first as the photographer and video guy were blocking our view, but once we did, we saw how beautiful she looked in her long embroidered dress. The ceremony was in Spanish with the sermon translated into English, and a few prayers in Danish too.
We were then off to the Hacienda to start a full 10 hours of eating and dancing. Besides the bride and groom, the other star of the evening became the Jamon Serrano, which we were strategically standing by during most of the reception. After substantial appetizers we moved on to the main reception room for dinner, but thankfully this was paced, as per good Danish tradition, there were speeches throughout the meal. They were a mix of heartfelt funny and loving words for Elena and Henrik, again in Spanish, Danish and English. Another cute tradition we all followed was that when the bride left the room, all the ladies in the room ran towards the groom to kiss him, and the same was done to Elena by the guys when Henrik left the room. The night then included the cutting of the cake, the first dance, Elena singing "Don't Stop me now" by Queen and dancing until 5am. All in all, a really good evening to celebrate a great ocassion!
Day 3 and 4 were necessary to recover, relax and realize that we are not just on a long weekend away, but actually on a 100 day mega-trip. Following the wedding day we met the newlyweds, friends and family for some more amazing Andalucian food. The trouble with tapas-style is that you don't realize how much you eat - but hey, we're on holidays and are meant to be enjoying these kind of things. On Monday we went with Claudia to Cadiz to enjoy the beach and... you guessed it, more great food! We also visted Arcos de la Frontera, a typical white-painted town on a hill common to Andalucia, with small winding roads and a great view of the country side. More food awaited us in Seville on return (at 11pm), followed by late drinks with Henrik and Elena to see them once again before they headed off to their honeymoon. Besides the clear focus on food we have had in the first days of this trip, one other thing must be said about southern Spain: Everything seems to happen 3 hours later. Breakfast leisurely at 11am, lunch around 3 or even 4pm, dinner at 11pm and off to bed at 3am on a normal Monday night...TGIM!
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