Halloween in Santander

How time flies? It doesn´t feel that long ago that I first arrived here in Santander, but now* it´s the 31^st of October: Halloween. I think it would have completely passed me by if not for my friend, Arina. Arina loves Halloween and it was decided some time ago that we would definitely go out for it, with hopefully some dressing up as well. But like I said, time is flying by and when it finally came round to it, I realised that I did not have one thing suitable for a good Halloween costume, and what´s more I had no time to even buy/invent something.  

Arina and I had discussed as going as sexy ghosts, considering that ‘sexy’ anything tends to be Halloween norm these days but we decided that it wasn’t really for us and endeavoured to find other costumes.

Well, I thought it was funny

In a spare two minutes that I had, I went to a corner store and bought a witch’s hat, and thought that would be enough for a night out. Arina, on the other hand, made a pretty good effort. Along with her flatmate, she dressed up as a masked robber, complete with plastic knife and swag bag. Another language assistant even dressed up as a typical American tourist, wearing socks with sandals and smothering his face in sun cream.

As for the locals, I would say it was about half and half. That is, half were in costumes celebrating Halloween and the other half not. Halloween isn’t particularly special or important event here so there weren’t too many people out and about for the specific purpose of enjoying All Hallows Eve. Those who did participate however, tended to be dressed up as some sort of cool/sexy zombie or corpse bride. And some, I must admit, had the most amazing makeup. Their face paint was on point, with all sorts of different and somewhat gothic patterns. Was very cool.

Most of evening was spent just hanging out in Plaza Canadio. Sitting on the steps of the square, we just shared a few drinks and chatted, getting to know other people who had come along that night but didn’t know beforehand. We, of course, also made our way to el Rio de la Pilar and I enjoyed a tortilla bocadillo. There is a small shop along this road, which personally does the best tortilla bocadillos: they are extremely tasty and very warm. I can’t help but buy one whenever I pass this shop. Arina and I suggested that they offer a reward system in a similar way to Café Nero: you get a stamp every time you buy a sandwich and then, you get your 10^th for free! I wish they would introduce something of the sort because I would have built up a good amount by now.

Whilst eating the sandwiches, we were able to watch a small band making its way up and down the street. 10-ish people dressed in very creepy masks played music as part of a band, whilst puppets of 10ft or more danced frightening some of the kids out trick or treating. It was enjoyable to watch though and made for a good night.

And that was Halloween, here’s to the next back in Norwich.

Hasta luego.

*I wrote this a few days ago, but have only just got around to posting it.