For three days only, a Medieval Market is set up on the street behind the church and stretches up to the base of the castle. This is the most beautiful and varied market so far in Guardamar--each booth is so unique! The Moors and Christians festival begins this weekend and this is one of the major events leading up to it. Everyone from town and all the tourists are here--our studio included!
The street that the Medieval Market follows is a residential street. Families open up their garage doors and invite friends to hang out. There's a section at the beginning that looks like it was set up by the locals, for the locals--there's a table with women selling home-baked treats, a table for kids to do arts and crafts, and a longer set of tables where elderly men and women were making lace. Yes, making lace!
We couldn't communicate very well with them, but we found out that it takes a long time to make high quality lace. I believe it. Here are a couple of fans--definitely better than anything you can find at the dollar store! At the top left corner of the photo, you can see a little of the contraption that they use to make lace: wooden dowels with white thread wrapped around them to better control the thread. The thread is woven/knit/wrapped around dozens of pins. How the lace-maker knows what direction to weave the thread--that is a mystery. It looks so unbelievably intricate.
At the start of the market is and hand-cranked flying swing set for the kids. I wanted to ride that so bad.
There was such an eclectic and varied collection of booths! One brewed you a teapot of Moroccan tea and gave you a plate of Moroccan sweets. Many sold beautiful jewelry--woven, gold, silver, stainless steel, pearls, jewels. One sold hand-made shoes in bright, dyed leather. Another sold leather lace-up boots. One had a dazzling array of dried fruits and candies, while another had the freshest goat, sheep, and cow's milk cheese (I even got a sample!). One man wrote your name in Arabic letters. One booth sold miniature books. The most interesting (and tempting) booth was owned by one woman who sold her bakery goods by weight--there were chocolate-glazed donuts bigger than my face! And loaves of bread as large as an XL pizza in America! At the base of the castle there were a multitude of food and drink booths. At the center was a large fire-roaster, with chicken, sausages, pork, and vegetables. There was also a kebab stand (which we tried! It was delicious) and a cocktail booth. Plenty of seating for everyone to sit and eat their food.
My favorite booth was owned by a woman who made glass beads and made beautiful jewelry out of them. She even demonstrated how she made beads with her little fireblower (not a technical term) and her sticks of glass. I ended up buying a beautiful ring from her!
I wish the Medieval Market lasted longer than three days. It's amazing to see the range of artisans and their wares, as well as to walk through slowly with everyone else in town around you.
