Thursday, April 26, 2012

NIOSA

Last night Matt and I went to one of the big Fiesta celebrations called NIOSA which is “Night in Old San Antonio.”  Basically it is a big carnival of food and outrageous hats.  Tickets to get in are $12 per person, but Matt received complimentary tickets this year.  Once in, you buy tickets that you use to redeem for food.  Most items are from 5 to 10 tickets which means it’s $2.50 to $5.00.  It is an international food extravaganza with much of it Mexican food of course.  The first stop was for anticuchos which are steak kabobs with peppers and onions.  They were by far the best.  Next was a hot freshly made corn tortilla with butter, cheese, and salsa.  There were about half a dozen ladies standing on a platform above patting out the tortillas and cooking them.  We also ate puffy tacos and chicken on a stick.  Matt enjoyed sausage on a stick and I had a French cream puff cupcake for dessert. 

Aside from all the food, NIOSA is just a big party where people come to show off their medals and creative hats.  Different events at Fiesta produce medals and people collect them over the years and then wear them out at events.  The other big thing is outrageous hats that people wear.  I’m not sure if there is a contest or something, but there were a lot of people that took pictures with people and their crazy hats. 

It started to get pretty crowded around 8:00 where you can barely get anywhere and you just have to move with the crowd.  The best way to enjoy it is to get there early and leave by 7:30.  I was dead tired by the time we walked back to Matt’s apartment which is about a mile from the event. 

In other news, my cold isn’t really getting better it seems.  Today I was coughing quite a bit and constantly sniffling.  I also felt pretty drained all day.  I stopped at the store after work and picked up some cold medicine, but it hasn’t helped so far.  I stayed home instead of going to Scrabble which was probably smart, but I wish that I would get over this cold soon.  At least there’s no school tomorrow so I will get to sleep in and rest. 

Well, I’m going to try more medicine and see if it helps.  Here are pictures as requested by Leann.

The ladies making tortillas:tortilla 

Crazy Hats
hat2 hats
Matt’s sausage on a stick:
mattsausage
The crowds at NIOSA
crowd

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just a thought for next year: every penny at NIOSA goes to the SA Conservation Society, and it is 100% run by volunteers, so it really has a great cause behind all the good food and music.

Andrew said...

There seems to be so much more to do in larger cities. I need to pack up the Model T and move to Atlanta. I've had a day I want to be done soon. I am fixing to curl up in front of the Television with Maggie and veg out before bed if the Computers's snare doesn't catch me.