Fiesta de San Medir, Gracia

This is a festival that happened a few weeks ago in my neighborhood of Grácia. We were shook awake by what we thought were gunshots at 8am -- these turned out to be firecrackers being shot from plaza Rius i Taulet, signaling the start of an all-day fiesta. Streaming through the streets are parades of colles, which are different groups of people in open trucks which represent various groups in this part of the city. In the end, they all have one thing in common -- throw as much hard boiled sweets as you can to the people in the street. I've read two versions of why this festival goes on, but the common answer is: the parade originated in the 16th century as a pilgrimage in honor of Sant Medir, the patron saint of broad beans. What?? Ok! Street party all day til midnight!

Plaça Rius i Taulet, with its regular patrons on the benches

Entering the plaza

The local government building

Very Catalan

Kind of like birds in a nest!

Definitely the momma bird

Street cleaners came by 3 times that day.

Shoulda stayed on the ground!

I told you this was an old festival right? Everyone takes advantage of the candy!

Every 20 minutes a new band would come by.

In between the bands, horses!

Day trips from Barcelona by train: Vilanova i la Geltru and Castelldefels

Two Catalan towns within a short and cheap train ride from Barcelona south are Vilanova i la Geltru and Castelldefels. Both round trip train tickets from Barcelona cost less than 5 euros, and I think it would be easy to see both towns in one day.

First: Vilanova i la Geltru.
A very very quiet town, at least it was when we went in late February. There's not a whole lot to do and I think it's probably a better town to visit if you have a boat, want to stop off at the marina outside of Barcelona city and have a seafood dinner. Other than that, there are some nice old buildings to look at and not a whole lot more that we could find. We happened to come at carnaval weekend, so during the day there were some kind of parades by the schoolchildren. It was more of a kids' protest, though... we'll get to that.

A banner for carnaval hangs from a balcony.

When I look at this picture, I only remember that the old men behind me were having a conversation about the dog, and that it had been running around there for 3 days. They'll probably talk about it tomorrow, and next week, too..

Typical street in old parts of Spain.

Cool tile street signs.

This is a kind of scarf that you can find in every tourist store in Barcelona, but never never have I seen it in use outside of a flamenco show. In this town, these scarves were draped out of almost every balcony - I assume for carnaval.

tiny door

church window

Church belltower

My favorite picture from that day - there is a stone dog resting on the balcony.


Protesting?

I've noticed that, from an American perspective, Catalans protest A LOT. There is always some injustice that they feel the need to retaliate against. How many times have I gone to Plaza Cataluña, only to see it is shut off from cars and filled with hundreds of people waving banners and yelling? Honestly I have no idea why these kids are dressed as business-people, but there were different "companies" and "industries" represented. These kids pictured seemed to be the desk-job protesters. Apparently for carnaval they also throw boiled sweets at eachother, but we found the ground covered in rotten eggs instead. Maybe one type of food for each day?

Castelldefels
A small town almost immediately to the south of Barcelona. It offers many things that Barcelona has eradicated: a wide, natural beach, cheap seaside bars and restaurants, and real feeling of a seaside city. It was a quiet kind of a place, a nice break from the crowded alleys of the big city.

Carlos and Alejandro

Proof that it's not Barcelona!

I think behind that hill on the left is Sitges, a town of which I have a blog post about (last year).