2013 Barça La Liga Champions Parade

This year hasn't been a particularly good one for Barça. They recently got their asses handed to them by lost to Munich dropping them from Champions' League competition. But it hasn't all been doom and gloom over at Camp Nou. Barça still managed to win (at least) one championship trophy, in this case in La Liga competition. La Liga is Spain's top soccer league, comparable to the NBA or other national sports league in the United States. To celebrate the victory, Barcelona held a parade last week.

The parade route near Carrer de Arago and La Rambla Catalunya:

Diana and I walked down to the parade route with Gema's dog Linda and met up with Pau and his cousin. It was kinda fun to be out with everyone waiting for the team bus to pass by. I spotted Barça's number one fan while we were waiting:

We only had to wait about 20 minutes or so for the bus to go by. It's funny but, as it approached, the bus seemed to be going verrrrry slowly but when I tried to take photos, it seems to have sped up to light speed or something. Oh, and folks waving their damn flags caused some problems too! La Liga trophy and Shakira's husband:

I only really got two half-way decent photos of the team while they passed by. In this one, Messi was kind enough to stand just above his large photo so he could be more easily identified:

I think the highlight of the parade is when a woman was walking by with a hand full of Barça flags and Diana asked her where she got them. She responded something like they were giving them out and then she handed us one. Woohoo! My first Barça-branded item! Pau and I representin':

And how could I not post a photo of Diana and I with lovely Linda? She's (Linda) is a bit of a scaredy cat dog so getting her to pose with us was somewhat of a challenge.

On a side note...I've never been much of a fan of pro sports but it's relatively easy to get sucked in to being a Barça fan as pretty much everyone and their mom's one. Anyway...I'd like to wish Barça better luck next year. You won't be able to keep up your reputation if you're only bringing home one championship per year!

Diada De Sant Jordi 2013

I wrote a couple of years ago about Barcelona's Saint George day, or as it's called here, Diada de Sant Jordi. If you don't remember, it's sort of like Catalunya's Valentine's day where guys buy their girls roses and, in a vain effort to make their men a little smarter, the girls buy their guys books.

A stand covering their bases selling both books and roses on La Rambla in Barcelona this year:

The short version of the tradition says that there once was a dragon that was eating the village's children (doesn't sound too tasty to me but then again, have you seen dogs go crazy for canned dog food?). George, being a studly chap, took charge and killed (or slayed) the dragon freeing the village from the austerity measures being imposed by the evil ECB Germans dragon.

Sant Jordi is honored as the patron saint of both Barcelona and of Catalyuna. He's so popular now that, in addition to having lots of images and statues of himself all over Europe AND getting a day named after him, he's also got a bread named in his honor. Pa de Sant Jordi (Saint George bread) is a very-slightly-sweet roll with the four bars of the flag of Catalunya on it. These were in a bakery where Diana and I had coffee that morning:

I had forgotten about how pretty much every organization in town sets up a table to sell roses to raise money for something or other. These are just two of the stands that are at the end of the street where we're living:

Diana and I met up with Carol and Juan to walk down La Rambla and check out this year's festivities along with probably all 1.6 million residents of Barcelona:

It really does seem like the whole city is out and about during the day. Everywhere is packed with folks out walking, looking at books, and checking out the crowds. Juan, Diana, Carol, and everyone from Barcelona just down from Plaza Catalunya and the Portal de l'Angel:

The four of us walked down La Rambla and through the Gothic area of the city before grabbing lunch together on the roof deck of the Hotel Espana. Me taking a photo of Diana taking a photo of Juan and Carol at one of the day's special events:

I wasn't a very good guy because I hadn't bought Diana any roses yet so I picked up these on La Rambla during our trip home. Diana's a good sport and pretended that it was sufficient for her. Thanks Diana!

Happy Diada Sant Jordi! May all your dragons be slayed, your roses fresh, and your books...hmmmm...!

Castellers At The Sagrada Familia

Now that we're back in Spain, I've started going to castellers again. If you don't remember, castellers are teams that build human towers. I've often said that being a casteller is when you're both the monkey and the monkey bars. It's a lot of fun to be part of a group that's so tight knit even if I do have a pretty severe language barrier (I don't speak Catalan). But, regardless, I go to practice every Tuesday and Friday night and often on Sundays we have exhibitions somewhere in the city.

This past Sunday we had an exhibition in front of the Sagrada Familia church. It was part of the neighborhood around the church's neighborhood celebration. These neighborhood festivals (or, "diadas" in Catalan) are common in Spain and they often involve music, food, booths set up to sell stuff, and, in the case of Catalunya, castellers exhibits.

The Castellers del Poble Sec in front of the Sagrada Familia during the Diada de la Sagrada Familia:

I really can't think of anything that's more "Catalan" than the castellers and probably no other structure that represents Barcelona more than the Sagrada Familia. I got goose bumps watching the other groups of castellers building towers in such an amazing location.

Super-good artsy photo taken by Diana (all the photos except the last one were taken by her - Thanks Diana!) of the Castellers del Poble Sec in front of the Sagrada Familia's Nativity Facade:

In this photo, you can see a Chinese couple that must have gotten married earlier in the day out taking photos. They had some damn good luck (just like Diana and I did) to have wedding photos like these:

And, yes, a final photo of the girl from Chiquinquira and the casteller from Philadelphia in front of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia:

If you haven't been to Barcelona and you ever get a chance to come, try to find a castellers' exhibition to check out. It's pretty amazing to watch and a definite cultural must-see/do. Many of the groups have at least a couple of practices during the week that you can go to (all welcome visitors) and on many Sundays at noon, there are exhibitions in plazas all over the area. And the best thing, it's all free!