Saint James Day Celebration

(A look behind the scenes at Terra Nova) So I received a call on my cell phone from Scott asking me to pick up straws and yogurt for the milkshakes. About three minutes later he called back and asked me to pick up some ice as well. It was about six o’clock, an hour before I was to work at the café on the biggest night of the year in Santiago de Compostela (the city of Saint James). As I left my house and walked down the ancient cobble stone streets, anticipation of the night began to build. It was the Holy Year celebration of St. James day the patron saint of Spain. The road by my house follows the last portion of the Camino of Santiago and as I passed the Porto do Camino (Camino Entrance) I heard the police helicopter fly over had that has been keeping constant watch over the city throughout the week.

The sun was beating down on me and I was willing myself not to sweat too much before I arrived at work. I stopped by the small grocery store/ bar where they sell ice in the old city and picked up five bags. I brought what we affectionately call a “rolley cart” to help me carry the yogurt and bags of ice through the throngs of people in the city. The route I take to work leads me through two of the plazas by the cathedral and though I was walking I started to wonder if I was going to make it on time. There were so many people that it reminded me of trying to drive though traffic after the fair lets out. I heard people speaking languages from all around the world, some which sounded familiar and others which I could not place. Some were dressed up for the night’s festivities and parties and others looked liked they just spent forty days hiking though the wilderness (which they probably had).

When I arrived at Terra Nova, Scott said that they had already been hit by several waves of clients and had already sold through the amount of food and drinks that we would sell by the end of a normal day. There was energy and excitement in the air as we prepared for the night. We began checking all of our stocks of drinks and filled all of the fridges so we would have what we needed throughout the evening. John (our intern) and Stephen (a volunteer for the month) were in the kitchen making preparations for milkshakes, fruit-plates, and sandwiches.

As the time approached when the fireworks were about to start more and more people started coming in. Being a block and a half from the Cathedral our plaza has one of the best views of the face of the cathedral without actually being in the Cathedral plaza. Just as Scott and I began to get overwhelmed with the amount of orders and dishes that were piling up on the bar Victor showed up. He just started working with us on the weekends and was a little bit nervous to be working. I smiled at him and said, “Hey bud, after we make through tonight everything else will be easy.” He looked back at me with a nervous laugh and said, “Yeah, you are probably right.”

There was such a constant stream of people during the next hours that the hours blurred together and we lost all track of time. Finally things started to slow down as the fireworks were about to start. We closed the kitchen and restocked the fridges to the brim.

Then we started to hear explosions and went out into the plaza with our families to enjoy the fireworks. Stephen, who had been in the back looked liked he had walked through a sprinkler because he was drenched in sweat. Around midnight the fireworks started to reach the finale and we made our way back into the café. There was hardly a soul in the café but we could see thousands of people outside who were watching the fireworks. One of our regulars was looking across the bar at me and he said, “Matthew, this is the calm before the second rush of buffalos.” Boy was he right!

Within ten seconds the café went from being relatively empty to having a wall of people at the counter shouting orders across to Scott, Victor and I. Troy came in also to give us a hand because of the insanity. There was a line to the women’s’ bathroom that snaked through the café. We began to serve tag-team style with Scott and Victor braving their way to the tables and then calling out the orders to Troy and I. Troy and I did our best to keep up with the constant flow of dirty dishes and the orders that we received from the people at the bar.

Stephen tried to relieve us in the front as much as possible by taking empty coke bottles to the back and washing dishes in the kitchen. This kept up for quite a while and at one point I started to wonder how long this intensity would last ( and how long we would last, and how long the drinks and ice would last). Finally between 2:30 or 3 things started to slow down to what we are used to during normal working hours. We started to regain control of the café and catch up with dishes. We cleaned what we could and at 4:30 we closed our doors to go home. I remember walking home with Nathan and he said to me, “I am so glad that I was here tonight. This was definitely a highlight experience during my time in Spain.” This was definitely a night to remember.