A medieval love affair

Every day, for four days, I wake up to the sounds of donkeys braying, geese honking, birds of prey squawking, bells ringing and horns tooting, and (this is my favourite part!) to the sweet, sweet smell of meat grilling and it makes me SO HAPPY! It’s a medieval love affair of sorts…

The love story began over ten years ago, when I first opened my front door (I’ve always lived inside the walls of Dalt Vila, for those who aren’t regular readers of my blog) to discover the cobbled streets of my beloved home had been taken over by market stalls, food stands and exhibitions. I fell in love at first sight – the carnivore in me was completely taken by the enormous circular barbecues in the Baluard de Santa Lucia, serving up enormous portions of ribs, steak, chops, chorizo, salchicha and more. I was seriously torn between kebabs – pork, chicken or mixta? One of each please! And maybe a falafel thrown in for good measure. All washed down by a sweet cup of Moroccan tea overlooking the Med.

The shopaholic in me fell in love with the Medieval-themed markets. While some of it was the same stuff you can get in Las Dalias and others offer tat, there are other choice stands that offer truly unique finds (I like all of the above). Over the years I’ve come home with fairy figurines, rosary beads, mala beads, palo santo, a voodoo rose of Jericho, cool macramé plant hangers, feather earrings, jewellery, a bag handmade by prisoners in the local jail, crystals, religious icon magnets, scarves, a basket… so much STUFF! Whether it is Medieval or not is questionable, but hey… I’m not arguing.

This year, my Medieval love affair took an interesting turn. You could even call it the love story between a girl and her pig. Except, instead of a cool, Charlotte’s Web kind of story (‘Some pig’), except unlike Wilbur and his miraculous escape from slaughter, the pig in question was definitely my food (sorry vegans!). In 2018, I think I have eaten entire my body weight in pork products. Throughout the four days of the festival, I ate on average two (but sometimes three!) meals a day in the enormous open air ‘food court and let’s just say, I never met a pig I didn’t like. On the very last night, when I did a panic dash at 11pm to get some food to stock up for the next day, I made a beeline for the stall of croquettes, thinking I really had eaten too much pork. But what flavour did I automatically order? Jamon, of course.

While my waistline, and quite possibly my cholesterol levels, are kind of happy the Medieval festival has rolled out of town, I’m already counting down the months until the next edition. I implore you. You MUST come to Eivissa Medieval 2019! Put the second weekend in May in your diaries now so you don’t forget. Book those pre-season flights. Trust me. You won’t regret it.