The Next Weekend-Friday

Wow, you must really actually care if you've read the other posts and are still reading. I'm sorry to throw so much on the blog at once-- there was just so much going on this month. The next weekend, the 21-24 September, was the Festival de la Merce, Barcelona's biggest festival of the year which made the other celebrations we'd seen look pretty paltry.

The festival has something to do with Barcelona's patron saint, Merce, saving the city from some form of devastation. In gratitude, the city spends four or five days doing everything it can to party non-stop. I don't think the natives actually even know why the festival is held other than because you need to do something fun at the end of summer.

There were thirteen large stages set up throughout the city center with concerts going until about 1am every night. If you ventured out to the Forum, a little outside of the city center, there were three or four more stages with concerts going from 8pm to 5am every night. In addition to the concerts other events throughout the city included circus acts, wine tasting, carnival rides, boat rides, parades, dance performances, and free open museums. And that's not any of the really cool stuff.

Every night at the marina they had fireworks shows done by groups from different countries. We caught France's show on Friday night. Fireworks here are much better than in the States because they don't worry so much about things like safety. There were times that the firework sparks were going off right down to the ground. But as it turned out Friday's fireworks were nothing in comparison to Monday's. More on that later.

The rest of the night we wandered from concert to concert. One thing I've noticed around here (for those of you who want to know what the culture is like) is that people don't let things like having children stop them from partying. There were people out with their strollers until we went home around 1am. I'm just so used to people being anxious to put their children on a schedule and not disrupt it but I can't see how that would even be possible in some places here with so much going on outside. It's hard enough for Andrew and I to gind a regular s leep schedule.

And then on Thursday

So that last post describes Tuesday of a few weeks ago. The following Thursday we began hearing a lot of construction outside our apartment during the day. Towards the afternoon I began hearing some very loud music coming from outside or windows. And then that night when we went for our evening walk we discovered that a stage had been built in the walkway outside our apartment and some type of music festival was being held there.

The party never stops here in the Born, our neighborhood. There were concerts Thursday through Sunday nights. Fortunately they realized that some people needed to work on Friday so they stopped the Thursday concert at about midnight. Of course on Friday they kept it going until about 1.30am. We figured there was just no chance of getting sleep so we decided to party like the natives. It's easy enough to do here. You eat dinner around 9 or 10pm (that's actually a little early by native standards). Then you grab your gelato or gofre (a belgian waffle with whatever topping you want) and walk for a few hours before heading to a bar to hang out with friends. At least that's our version of partying like the natives. We plan on going clubbing this weekend to find out how it's really done.

The nice thing is that one of Andrew's friends from work, Lizzie, and her partner, Rafa, own a small neighborhood bar and there's always someone we know there after midnight. Rafa is the gentleman in the middle. On the left are Mushtaq, who works with Andrew, and his girlfriend Justine. We won't be telling Mushtaq that we put this photo up since it's not his best work. The bar is like our very own Cheers. Dad, don't worry, we're not drinking and everyone knows it. Bars are just where you go when you want to be with friends and we still make it to church on time the next day. We haven't been late yet (I'll pause for stunned sighs from anyone who knows me). Of course it doesn't hurt that we don't have to be there until about 1pm.

The Inspiration

This is what made me think that a blog might be a good idea. Andrew and I were sitting down to dinner one quiet evening when we heard some rather loud chanting and drum beating. We looked out our balcony to find a mob marching down the street past our apartment. Yes, those are torches in their hands. Having no idea what they were saying, we tried to listen closely for anything that sounded like, "Kill the Americans." Thankfully it was just a pre-holiday party for the next day, Catalonia Day.

A little background might be helpful. Catalunya is the region of Spain that we live in. From what we've heard, Catalunyans have a strong independent streak in them and there are more than a few of them who believe they should form their own nation. They have their own language, catalan, which is not to be confused with spanish, or castillan. Most people here grow up learning both languages so you can hardly blame them for not wanting to learn English like the rest of Europe. Of course it makes it very difficult to learn Spanish (castillan) when you're never sure if what you're hearing or reading is castillan or catalan. The flag the torch mob is carrying in the picture is Catalunya's flag. We probably should have bought one to hang on our balcony so that we could feel a little safer that night. Fortunately the mob was more concerned with getting drunk than with defending Catalunya from invading foreigners.

The next day, 11 September, we took a walk after dinner to see if we could find where the party was at. It turned out to be about a five minute walk from our apartment. There was a huge stage set up on which a very loud band was playing. We left there about midnight and they were still going. I think I jinxed us when I said something about feeling sorry for the people whose apartments bordered the street where the stage was set up because the party moved to our street a few nights later.

Let's start at the very beginning...

... a very good place to start. That there is Greenland and surrounding ice. Because we flew direct from San Francisco to Amsterdam, we got to fly over some pretty desolate but beautiful areas of Canada and Greenland.

And here is our dining table and air conditioner. A lot of people have been asking about our place and so here it is. Hopefully, if you click here you can see more pictures of the apartment including one view off our balcony. Our kitchen is pretty small, but that doesn't stop it from needing three doorways into it. Maybe some day when we actually have a little furniture in here we'll take some more pictures and have a real unveiling of the apartment.

Unfortunately the building next to us is covered in scaffolding which blocks our view of Santa Maria del Mar. Our apartment is at the very tip of a block shaped like a V that ends on a popular walkway, Passeig del Born. The walkway is pretty short and ends at the cathedral Santa Maria del Mar. It's a beautiful area. Slightly younger, hipper, and less touristy than the Gothic area we were going to live in. However, part of being a "young" and "hip" area is being a loud area. We are right at the convergence of three very popular bars that are open very late. And for those who want to carry on the party after 3am when the bars close, there are some wide steps right outside our bedroom window that are perfect for gathering on and singing drunken songs or having a drunken argument. But really, everyone should come visit (the guest bedroom borders our quiet street).