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!

Catalan Pyrenees

When Diana told me that her cousin Carol, who's also originally from Bogota, and her husband (from Spain) invited us to go with them to their mountain house in the Pyrenees, I couldn't wait. The two weeks seemed to take forever but the big Friday evening came and we made the two-plus-hour drive from Barcelona with them up towards the intersection of the French, Spanish, and Andorran border. If you're familiar with the southern California mountains, think of a drive like going to Baldy and not like Summit (in other words, nice and easy!).

We got there about 9pm, which was just in time for a finger-lickin'-good dinner over at their friends' place. I have more than a few stand-out memories from dinner that night (amazing food, cool folks, the husband used to live near Washington, DC) but what I probably will remember for a long time was...the water.

Yes, the water. 

I asked for a glass of water and they told me "to try the tap water". Let me just say that, after living in Germany, the tap water's got to be pretty damn good if it's gonna' compete. Well, the water that flowed out of the golden goose faucet was the best damn water I've ever had even when compared to the best bottled waters. They told me that it comes almost straight from the mountain behind the house, but it wasn't until the next morning when I woke up and saw this amazing scene from our friends' place that I understood:

Carol and Juan's place is located in a large valley area called the Cerdanya that's ringed by Spain, France, and Andorra. Their scenic little village sits down on the valley floor with snow-covered mountain peaks staring down.

(Um, can I just mention how f'n lucky I am to get to do some of this stuff? Look at these photos!)

Anyway, we went for a walk around the 'hood in the morning and I saw this guy turning the soil in front of his house. He must have been like 80 years old but he was workin' it. The scene with the old house, the old guy, the small farm, the valley out below, and the snowy peaks up above was amazing.

Like I said, the valley is shared mostly between France and Spain but a part of it touches the small country of Andorra. Although there's three different countries, you'd never know it as all you see is Catalan flags flying everywhere. Even when we went into Font Romeu, France, to do some food shopping (it's the closest town), there were 99% Catalan flags flying and almost no French flags. You can sort of see one at the left end of the building below (of course there was no wind when I was taking the photos):

The Catalan Pyrenees really comes alive during the winter, from what I've been told, as folks from the three countries go skiing on the weekends. During the summer, it's fairly quiet and kinda' nice to be able to explore a bunch of old and new tiny villages. On Saturday afternoon, we visited Bellver, which is on the Spanish side, and walked up and down the cobble streets and ate some of the best and cheapest ice cream that I've ever had while in Spain.

Note the Catalan-independence flag hanging off the third level of this building in the town of Bellver, Spain:

After another amazing dinner and wine-drinking session, we woke up Sunday morning and went to Puigcerda (pooj-sair-DA), which is also in Spain and is build up around a large lake in its center. Amazing view of the mountains beyond the lake and some of the town of Puigcerda:

On Sundays the town has a farmers market where there's all kinds of food, beverages, and "stuff" to buy. I like these types of things because it's a great place to people watch and I loved how there were the sounds of French, Spanish, and Catalan everywhere. (Yeah, that's another snowy mountain past the end of the street.)

The highlight of the market (for me) was this woman who was selling homemade vermouth. I got hooked on vermouth by our good friend Vladimir who used to take us to a local Poble Sec place for Sunday-morning vermouth drinking. Juan buying a couple of plastic jugs of homemade vermouth:

Probably the only disappointment of the whole trip, if you can call it that, was that we didn't have time to go to Andorra for a quick visit. It would have been another country for me to add to my growing travel map but, oh well, there's always next time!

A big-ole' thank you and hugs to Carol, Juan, Ana Maria, and Juan Camillo for taking us for an amazing Catalan Pyrenees adventure and opening their home to us (and a nice family shot):

I can't wait to go back up to that area again, hopefully next time for some snowboarding at the close-enough-to-throw-a-rock-at El Molino resort! Another reason to get that driver's license!