Castro Marim Craft Fair

We went to Castro Marim craft fair over by the Spanish border - expecting it to be a small affair as it's not all that big a place. How wrong we were! It was a large, well-organised fair crammed with traditional crafts and produce as well as 2 big stages with free entertainment. Entry was free as were the stalls for stallholders. It was a really good fair with a wide range of things to see as well as a funfair for kids, food stalls - not that I'm interested being a vegetarian but the hot food stalls were catered by the local hunting clubs and apparently the meat was delicious! I went mad and had a glass of wine (not supposed to drink it) and when I asked the guy what he had he said "fresca ou natural". Basically rough red wine and either out of the fridge or not :-) It tickled me because that's such a typical reaction, accompanied by the obligatory backwards shoulder shrug which can mean '' Take it or leave it', 'I don't know' or 'Yes' or 'No, and I'm not bothered' etc.

I found this link to Castro Marim which gives some good info - I really should read it myself and maybe do a bit more exploring of the area next time we go!

You can just about see the castle in the background on this one, where they hold medieval fairs, which I'd love to go to.

These ladies were making traditional lace and when I asked the one on the right if I could take a picture, the others shuffled along so they could get in on the act :-)

You can't really see it but these 2 were making traditional chair seats and made it look very easy

This lovely lady was working at a huge loom making small rugs. I asked her how old the loom was and she said she didn't know but she'd bought it second-hand over 50 years ago. I then got a tour of which bits she'd had repaired, which bits she'd bought off a gypsy etc. I struggled a bit to understand her as she had a very thick accent and spoke very fast, not helped by her only having about 3 teeth, but I did my best and she thanked me for stopping to ask about what she was doing. She was so sweet.

To start off the entertainment, there was a traditional dance group (I think they were from a small place called Luz de Tavira a few kilometres away). They were really good but how on earth they danced about at that speed in the heat still baffles me. There were a lot of purple faces when they finished!

This singer is Romana who as far as I can find out was one of Portugal's finalists for 2009's Eurovision. She has an amazingly powerful voice and a really strong stage presence. I hope she does well - she deserves it! She seemed quite popular and alot of the audience were singing along so maybe it's just me and I've been unaware of her before.

And, for me, here's the star of the fair. This lovely little lady (she was even shorter than me and I'm only about 5'5") had her homemade cakes set out on a very low little table. They looked delicious and she'd made pure carob cake; chocolate cake; carrot cake (she very proudly informed me that just as the fair opened at 7pm, she sold 3 WHOLE carrot cakes to a Spanish family and had had to send her hubby home to get some more); apple cake and one made with black plums from her own garden. She'd made 6 cakes that day and when the fair finished at midnight she was going home to make another 6 for the following day. When I went back to buy 2 enormous slices from her she was chattering away and wouldn't let me go without giving her "beijos" (pronounced bay-zhoosh) which is a kiss on both cheeks. When I went back again to tell her her cakes were delicious and asked if I could take her picture she blushed. Awww, I could have brought her home - she was one of the loveliest people I've met in a very long time.