Festes de la Mercè

Coffee and "Coca de Vidre"

Having just finished my second week of university and finally sorted out my classes, I feel I'm beginning to get into the routine of things here in Barcelona. Three of my favourite additions to my daily routine are: firstly the obligatory consumption of breakfasts: one before class, the other around 11am - In fact, my Catalan class my teacher told us we weren't allowed to come to his class without having breakfasted. Secondly, the imperative migdiada - or siesta as the Spaniards would say. And thirdly berenar, the afternoon snack. 

The bakery across the road from our flat has become a frequent provider of said berenar, and to some extent my second home here. Given the lack of internet in our flat over the last few weeks, the temptation of the freshly baked treats and the free wifi offered at the bakery have not only succeeded in transforming my flatmates and me into loyal regulars, but also led me to taste the majority of the traditional Catalan baked specialities they have to offer...

Íngrid, Maite, Esther and I have called our flat the PisTanaga. In Catalan, pis means 'flat' and pastanaga means 'carrot'. There is no intellectual reasoning behind this naming: it was a mere silly suggestion that has stuck. We recently realised that you can see the Gaudi's Sagrada Família from our flat, and that we happen to live on the same road! This discovery led Maite and me into a spontaneous hike home from the cathedral a few days later, and subsequently into a mutual recognition that we would not be repeating this trek on a regular basis as, despite being on the same road it is quite a few kilometres away.

Our first PisTanaga dinner party!

Last weekend the Festes de La Mercè - the town parties of Barcelona which are named after its patron saint 'La Mercè' - were celebrated over a long weekend! There was a plump program of activities happening all over the city, ranging from the traditional Catalan events such as castellers and correfocs, to general activities such as concerts and circuses. The front of the Sagrada Família was illuminated numerous times each day in a beautiful display of colours, lights and accompanying music, and at night the Parc de la Ciutadella was transformed into a forest of bright colours and entertainment at night, including a life-size tetris game, live music, robots dancing, and amazing juggling shows.

Correfoc 

Having already been introduced to numerous Catalan customs, such as Castellers - the human towers - and the Gegants - town giants -, the part of the weekend that most caught my attention was the correfocs. This Catalan tradition consists of people dressing up as devils and running along the streets lined with expectant crowds with fire and fireworks and accompanied by drumming and more fireworks. Given my choice of clothes for the event (i.e., short sleeves and open shoes), as the fire got closer I recoiled into the nearest bar to watch from behind the glass so as not to get burnt...

The closing fireworks of the Mercè - a.k.a the "piromusical" - were amazing - maybe the best fireworks I've ever seen! The location for them was superb: mountain of Montjuïc and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya positioned as a beaming backdrop, and the magical fountains lighting up the foreground with of the show at ground level metres of drizzling colours acted as a perfect complement to the fireworks. As the name piromusical suggests, these fireworks were accompanied by music blasting out of the many loudspeakers. :)  

Fireworks at the Mercè

This weekend has been quite busy too: on Thursday I ventured up a mountain on a dog walk with my friend Andrea who I met last year at Leeds when she was doing Erasmus. It was lovely to catch up, and the walk was so worth it as from the top of the mountain the views were absolutely stunning! You could see the whole of Barcelona, the airport and the surroundings too, and since we arrived as it was getting dark we watched all the lights as they began to be switched on!

Then on Sunday I tried out a church which was exciting because I hadn't been able to attend church for a few weeks. The worship was a mix of Spanish and English songs and then there were baptisms after the sermon! In the afternoon a group of us caught the Ferrocarril de Catalunya out to the countryside in the outskirts of the city for a welcome BBQ at the church offices! The surrounding countryside was beautiful and it was such a lovely opportunity to meet people from all over the world and to get to know each other a bit! 

Back in Barcelona, I headed out to a Medieval Market with my flatmates Esther and Íngrid in the evening. The market was set up near Plaça Espanya along a whole road which was filled with colourful stalls selling all sorts of things, from homemade honeys, wines and food to purses, jewellery and more. I think it was my first time at a medieval market, but here they seem to be quite regular so I'm sure I'll end up going to another one soon!

Íngrid and Me in Plaça Espanya!

One of the beaches in Barcelona where Maite and I had a picnic :)

...And to end the post, I saw these notebooks in a stationer's near uni, so here's a thought for the day in photo form:

"Each language is a different vision of the world"