This past weekend was Barcelona's annual festival to celebrate the patron saint of the city. The actual holiday was on Friday, so we didn't have class that day! However, the festival was a weekend long, city-wide event. There were so many things going on all over the city, it was impossible to see them all. On Thursday night, we went to see a concert in Plaza Catalunya, then walked through Barrio Gotico. On Friday, many of the museums in the city were free, so I went to meet some girls at the Chocolate museum. However, sadly, we got there 15 minutes after it closed. We had a nice leisurely time walking back to Plaza St. Jaume, where many of the festivities take place during the weekend. We heard a couple concerts and had some great gelato! Later that afternoon, we saw la procesion de gigantes, a parade of all the giants. This was really interesting to see, because each of the paper mache giants were controlled by only one person!!That night, we went to another concert in Plaza Espana. I still am not sure of the name of the girl, but I know that she is very popular here because the plaza was filled with people.
On Saturday, I met some friends at Montjuic, a large park with many attractions overlooking the city. We wanted to visit the "castle," but got very lost trying to find it. We did find some great views of the port, thought. When we did finally find the castle, it turned out to be a fort...not quite as exciting.
On Sunday, I got to see the Castells, or human towers. We learned about these in my Sports and Society class, and it was really exciting to see them competing. In my class, we had to decide whether or not we would consider this a sport. I was skeptical, but they are really fun to watch! When we got there, there was a small pre show onstage, but after that, the competition started between the 3 groups. We also got free hats from the Barcelona tv crews because we were on the front row!
That night, we went to the closing event of La Merce, a fireworks and lights show at Plaza Espana with the magic fountain. The magic fountain was built for the world fair in 1929, and it is rarely turned on, so it was really exciting to see it. Also, the fireworks were amazing! It was definitely the best show that I have seen.
Leaving the show was very interesting, because I'm pretty sure every person that lives in Barcelona was at the plaza....and everyone needed to take the metro or bus back. Here's a look at the crowd on the way out of the plaza:
Also, as part of my food journal, I'm supposed to write about when I try new things. For Sunday dinner, Angeles bought as chirimoyas to try. Chirimoyas are a type of fruit grown in Spain. The spanish-english dictionary calls it a "custard apple," but I'm not sure that's a very good description. They were very good, but very weird to eat. You cut it open and eat it with a spoon, because it does have a consistency like custard. Here's a picture:
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