So, this festival thing...

[the_ninth_bow]

Saint Anthony's festival is in full swing here in North End.  Last night we walked the streets and attended the opening ceremony.  The streets are lined with booths, mostly for food but also for some stands selling jewelry, t-shirts, and a few games here and there.  Everything is sooo expensive, but I did get a few things :oP  Zeppolis were the first purchase of the evening, and they were pretty good.  Loads of powdered sugar, which is scrumptious.  Then later I got an ice cream cannoli, which was awesome.  I'm not a huge fan of cannoli's but this was pretty good.  The ice cream was kinda whipped, so it was really light, but still cold, and the pastry shell had little chocolate chips in it or something.  Soo good.

But the streets are all decorated with lights and these banner things, and during the opening ceremony after a quick mass and some words from the franciscans running everything, the crowd shouted "Viva Santa Antonio!  Viva!" over and over again in their Italian accents.  Hilarious, but cool just the same :oP  Then lots of confetti was shot into the air from three confetti canons, and people on the roofs threw down more confetti/strips of paper.  So pretty good and awesome in general.

So after about an hour, an hour and a half of walking around (and trying not to spend too much money) it was time to head home... it was drizzling/raining by that point, and has been raining ever since (today was a lazy saturday in which I spent my time crafting and organizing :oP)

So here's a preview of the pics I'll post here to show you guys what the festival looked like (also a glimpse of North End ;o)