Weekend with friends: Picnic and party - What more could we ask for to have a good time?

For the past 5 years, on the second or third weekend of July, my friends and I have been getting together for a picnic. In the last 2 years, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have not been able to hold this gathering of friends. Therefore, this past weekend's gathering was special for all of us.

In this year, the organisers of the logistics, of the choice of the recreational area and of cooking or ordering the food have been my friend Miguel and me. Due to the extreme temperature situation, the initial plan to have a barbecue in the recreational area of As Pedreiras (Valdepares-Asturias-Spain) had to be changed.

However, the group of friends was eager for the menu to be based on pork ribs and grilled sausages. So I went on Saturday morning to a restaurant located 2 kilometres from the recreation area that allows you to order grilled meat (Restaurante el Hórreo).

The food finally ordered was grilled pork ribs, grilled chicken, chorizos criollos, chorizos rojos, black pudding, veal ribs, veal fillets stuffed with cheese and ham and chips. Once I had ordered the food, I went to the nearest supermarket to the recreational area of As Pedrerías in the village of La Caridad. There, I bought red wine, white wine, water, beer and soft drinks. One of my friends, because he works as a fisherman and has access to ice for free, was in charge of carrying the ice to be able to refrigerate the drinks. On the other hand, my friend Javier was in charge of bringing enough cutlery for everyone, bottle openers, tablecloths and also the glasses and plates that were left over from the last edition of our meeting in 2019.

Afterwards, all the friends gathered in the bar located in the recreational area to drink a vermouth while the rest of the friends arrived.

Once all the friends arrived, around 3pm, I went to pick up the trays of food that we had booked and the food was very good and we got a very good price.

Of all the meats we had booked, the black pudding and the pork ribs were the products we liked the most. Although, for me, the grilled chicken is the one I would give a rating of 10 out of 10.

Once we had finished eating, we collected all our belongings and took the rubbish to the recycling bins. Since we had not brought any dessert or coffee, we revisited the bar in the recreation area. As the coffee machine was out of order, we all opted for a glass of our favourite spirits.

At 7pm, as it was getting cooler and other friends had trips scheduled to go on holiday, we closed this activity which I hope we will be able to repeat for many years to come.

Since my friend Eduardo and I still wanted to party, once we had showered and rested for a while, we went to the town of Tapia de Casariego. This town celebrates the festivities in honour of the Virgen del Carmen. It is a night party with live music, where the orchestra Trébol de Galicia performed and where we were able to enjoy good music.

At 12 o'clock at night, in the port of this town, organised by the town council and the festival committee, fireworks were launched for 25 minutes in a multitude of shapes and colours.

Finally, at 2 o'clock in the morning we all went home and on Sunday, due to the accumulated tiredness of Saturday, it was a day to stay quietly at home.

Best regards

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).

All images are my own taken with my smartphones.