Daddy goes to Arik and Nora's wedding in Mexico City

In July, Daddy went to Mexico for a week to see a great friend, Arik Staropolsky, get married to his magnificent 'missus', Nora.
I first met Arik fully 12 years ago, in Bolivia during the Copa America tournament, which I attended between my exams and my dissertation on my MSc (missed out on a distinction by 3%, too; still, a small price to pay for seeing Ronaldo's winner against the hosts in the final...)

It was a fantastic week. The wedding itself took place in a local synagogue and was followed by a tremendous evening of food, wonderful Flor de Cana Nicaraguan rum and a quite extraordinary dance enacted by the bride and groom and their family and friends...

For anyone who has never been to a Jewish wedding - neither had I until this one - it appears there is a tradition for a dance involving the bride and groom that goes on for about 25 minutes, and it is a truly epic spectacle. I decided to try and film sections of it, although my camera's batteries were precariously low, so by necessity the films are about a minute or so long, enough to be downloadable, to keep, if you have RealPlayer.

Set to the splendid music of Klezmerson (an excellent band - mostly klezmer [Jewish folk music] but with a little Cuban son thrown in; check out the four tunes on their website here), it began with everyone dancing together in a general spirit of celebratory merriment...

Arik and Nora wedding dance 1.

But at some point the dance split - the women on one side of the room, the lads on the other - and, shorn of the civilising influence of the womenfolk (!), the male side started to get a little edgier - as boys tend to do after a few drinks, and when there is both loud music playing and lots of girls looking on!

Arik and Nora wedding dance 2

Arik and Nora wedding dance 3

The obligation for the groom is clear: submit to your fate with dignity! Arik was wheeled all over the place by whomsoever fancied a pop at him. It quickly came to resemble moshing at a ceilidh. I'd not seen anything like it outside a Pogues gig. One highlight was the "ally-ally-oop!" moment below (may take a while to 'buffer' up). Arik threw himself into the arms of his brethren who then tossed him heavenward - a long way up for one of the throws! Light fittings could have been damaged, let alone heads!

Arik and Nora wedding dance 4 (Arik's "ally-ally-oop" moment!)

I particularly like the bottles of water being handed to the main players at strategically selected moments...!

Arik and Nora wedding dance 5 (The Dads with Arik)

The loveliest moment is when the chaps seat the groom on a chair, and the girls do likewise for the bride, and the chairs are hoist into the air, and brought together for a kiss. (I only got a couple of seconds of it - batteries definitely wheezing at the gate of their imminent demise - but here it is...)

Arik and Nora wedding dance 6 (The Kiss).

Luke and I had a great time walking around Mexico City itself, with its enormous cathedral, the palace of fine arts and several fabulous, ornately tiled buildings in the city centre.

Periodically, we retired to a local hostelry to "go native" (i.e. sample the local beers). I think the general consensus is that the darker ones are best (Negra Modelo; Leon). Top travel tip, eh?

We of course had to go and see the Teotihuacan ruins, a couple of hours outside the city, and here we are in front of the Pyramid of the Sun, an enormous solid structure built between 1-250AD - although their spectacle was considerably lessened this time round (I'd seen 'em in 1996) on learning that what you can now see is effectively a replica ordered by a nationalist-minded Mexican government in 1906. And they got it wrong, apparently; it has too many layers... Still, it's a hell of a sight.