Barcelona, Spain

DAY 1: So, it's been getting colder and wetter here in Würzburg for the past month or so. We weren't ready for summer to be over, so Colin, Evan and I took a long weekend and headed to Spain for 4 days. The destination was Barcelona, and to get there we flew Ryanair, one of the cheap European airlines. Sadly, Ryanair does not take convenience into account. Getting to Barcelona involved (1) waking up at 3:30am (2) taking a night train to Frankfurt (3) taking a 'luxury motor coach' (a bus) to Frankfurt-Hahn, which isn't a misnomer so much as an outright lie. Frankfurt-Hahn is nowhere near Frankfurt, I think it's closer to Luxembourg. Anyways, (4) flying 2 hours south, (5) taking another bus from Reus airport into Barcelona. After all that, it was only about 3:30pm in Barcelona... only 12 hours of travelling, not so bad! We spent the afternoon wandering down La Rambla, Barcelona's main pedestrian street, and went up the Monument a Colom (Columbus Monument).

When we were planning this trip, we decided to come for this specific weekend, since it was the "Festes de la Mercè," Barcelona's annual (and biggest) festival. It's a huge celebration, with cultural events, concerts, fireworks, street performers, and all other sorts of activities, designed to honor the city's patron saint, la Mercè. The entire city just went crazy. Public events back home in Canada don't even come close to this. I'm really glad that we came when we did; seeing all the Spanish people out celebrating like this added a whole extra dimension beyond just sightseeing. The weather was nice, too (not too hot or cold, 25 degrees and sunny), and the city was not crowded with tourists at all.

Anyways, that night was the "Cavalcada de la Mercè," "a big traditional parade that included a hundred groups coming from all over Catalonia." The theme of the parade this year was Salvador Dali (born 100 years ago), and it involved marching bands, crazy floats, and giant 4-metre tall human figures. The parade lasted almost 2 hours! They handed out bags of confetti and streamers to everyone on the street, which added to the atmosphere. As the tail end of the parade went by, people started to join in, so we said why not, and followed a truck blaring music down the parade route, waving to all the people.

DAY 2: Next day was a bit of sightseeing. We saw the Cathedral, which was actually pretty cool looking, and then went on to the Mercat de la Boqueria (market), where all sorts of fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, candy, and all other things were sold.

Stocked up on food, we moved on to La Sagrada Familia, an unbelievable church designed by Gaudi, Barcelona's famous architecht. They began construction in 1882 and are still not finished! 8 of the 12 towers are done, and you can go up and inside the church, but it's still a construction zone with scaffolding and planks. They hope to finish work by 2026. The church itself is really unique, like none I've ever seen before. Gaudi put a lot of thought into his design. For example, he wanted the church to reflect nature, so he made all the pillars look like tree trunks. And the church is huge; it towers above anything else in Barcelona. After the church we wandered over to Montjuic, the hill where a lot of the Olympic venues were, and saw the stadium. We also saw the outside of the Palau Nacional.

That night was "Correfoc," another parade, and probably the coolest thing we saw. It involved people dressing up as demons, running through the parade route, and spraying everyone with fireworks. Kids would dress up in long pants and hoodies, cover their face with a bandana, and go run in front of the demons. I guess the game was to see how long you could last without getting burnt, and to prove that you're not afraid of the demons. And of course, if demons aren't enough, there were also dragons and monsters on wheels that were packed with fireworks. They rang a bell whenever they were about to light it, and if you didn't get out of the way then you were getting hit!

I went in a few times with just my t-shirt for protection, it hurt when you got hit by the fire but not too badly. The worst was when one dropped into your hair. I ruined the t-shirt... by the time the parade was over, there were a good number of burn holes in the back. Evan and Colin followed the demons more than I did and got a couple of good burns on their skin. A good time was had by all! The parade ended in a big square where they lit of all their fireworks at once, the entire square was lit up with fire, just unbelievable. The rest of the night was wandering around seeing more performances. I think we got to bed around 3:30am.

DAY 3: Well by now we were getting exhausted, so we had a slower day. We saw a few events for the Festival (folk dancers, juggling), and made our way down to La Barceloneta, the beach. This is where we spent most of the day. We had a lot of fun with the surf - it was pretty strong, so you could ride it in and get twisted around and crushed. And the water was warm - it was warmer in the sea than in the sun! We ate dinner at on beach patio, which was surprisingly cheap, and had an unbeatable view. After dinner, we wandered over to Placa Reial, where my Uncle lived for 6 months back before Barcelona had the Olympics. Apparently back then it was really seedy, but it's completely cleaned up now. We also saw the bar where he used to hang out - Glaciar. We came back to the beach for the closing fireworks for La Mercè. These were easily the best fireworks I've ever seen. They were colourful, didn't repeat, and there were lots of them. We did some more wandering around the city and eventually made it back to the hostel around 3:45am.

DAY 4: Phew, so after 3 days what was left to see? Lots! We barely scratched the surface, I will be coming back here for sure someday. We saw Parc Güell in the morning, which was another Gaudi creation. It was just strange but cool landscaping in a huge public park. One example was a big 'wave' made out of rock (see photo). We spent some more time on La Rambla, and then went to see Barcelona's Aquarium, supposedly one of the best in the world. I don't know if it matches Vancouver, but it was still pretty cool. They had all sorts of crazy tropical fish, including lots of sharks and rays. I haven't been to an aquarium since I was a kid, and now that I'm not running around tapping the glass and yelling like an idiot, I can actually appreciate how intricate some of the fish are.

So, we got back on the (1) bus, (2) plane, (3) bus, (4) train, (5) cab to Würzburg, and got in around 4:30am! Hooray! Up bright and early for work at 10am. Ah well, it was worth it. Awesome trip.