As soon as I got to the Via Laetana and towards the Old City I heard the bassy undertones of drums, a racket of noise coming from St Jaume - in English, St. James Square. Well I went down the alley towards the Square, and along the way was a group of 15 or so drummers, hammering out some powerful rhythms. Everyone nearby was watching with, iPhones handy, filming the proceedings. Well I carried on to the sqaure, where there was a procession of giants walking around. They weren't real, they were giant plastic figures with people inside, walking them about.
I met Jose the teacher, my personal tutor and friend. He was with his brother Pedro, who also spoke English but didn't feel the need to shout it in quite the manner Jose does. I've heard Jose speak in Spanish and he doesn't shout or talk nearly as loudly as he does in English, and I've come to the conclusion he talks that loudly because when he's teaching English in class he always has to talk that loudly so the kids understand. Its pavlovian I guess. Some of the other teachers have called him on it, so it is quite funny.
Anyway, next were the Falcons - a group of 20-30 highly trained individuals who build human pyramids and that kind of thing- the photos/vids will explain better. One of them is Manel, a teacher at the school. There's also Jordi, who is an ex-student that plays football with us on Thursdays. There were also two kids who go to our school. Oh yeh, that's what I forgot to mention... the ones at the top of the pyramid, yep, they're kids and they're literally like 8! Well they were pretty amazing. After this a giant king and queen, followed by a lion appeared in the square. They danced about, whilst traditional Catalan music played - all flutes and lutes, violins and those old guitars whatever they're called.... - and then came a giant eagle, who also danced about with everyone having to make a circle around him. It was busy, it was good.
I then took a stroll, Jose had left because his daughter had fallen asleep. I went down the thin european alleys, so european, so old and beautiful. There´s some lovely bars and restaurants down there. I followed it all the way down and out I popped in Barceloneta. I walked over to the harbour, with the lights shimmering on the water and the rows of boats drifting there like silent dogs at sea; it was romantic, you couldn't escape it. I just yearned for a certain someone to be there with me.
I walked back up the alleys, caught a bit of the Barcelona game at a bar - they went 1-0 down, and had some calamari. After this, I headed back to the square, caught the end of the light show - they do the projected images onto the local mayor's building - like what London did with the Houses of Parliament come the Jubilee & Olympics - which was quite cool, and then I ambled on back to the train station. All in all a lovely evening Here's the media, see you folks,
Right, should have fixed dropbox, so here's the photos and then at the end I've added some videos so you can really witness the Catalan atmosphere.
This is Santi, Laura's father. He's a really nice guy and has been very friendly to me since day 1. He likes to teach me the names in Catalan for different parts of the body because he's a doctor. He's 64 now, we celebrated his birthday a couple of weekends back, but he's still as sharp as ever. He works on problems of the blood and he's currently writing an interactive, digital book for iPads and such, with his daughter whose doing the images as she is a graphic designer. His mother is 95 and also still sharp, she reads the paper every day and is in incredible health all round.
I made him that pancake.
Here I'm at Placa St Jaume - St. James Square. The activities were just beginning. I met Jose and his brother here.
On the way to St. Jaume's Square I saw a group of these Catalan drummers. They really were thunderingly loud, they made quite a racket - but a good racket. The acoustics bouncing off the ancient walls of the Old City really added to the grandeur.
The stage was set.
There was some sort of costume drama going on when I arrived. Next the imminent announcement of the Falcons; these lot - this is how they entered!
As you can see kids at the top.
They then moved to the stage and did about three different formations.
You can just about make out the giant eagle who arrived after the Falcons finished.
The giant King and Queen.
The local ministerial building, with the Mayor watching the festivities.
A giant Lion had come to join.
The beauty at night of Barceloneta. Its even more beautiful around by the beach where there's no construction cranes or anything.
I loved some of these beer's at the bar I stopped at to catch the Barcelona game. So they´re basically beer - Cerveza - mixed with spirits. I especially like the green Beer Garden and the Cervodka, I'll have to try these.
The rule of thumb at this pub, which may be applicable to all bars in Barca or at least most, was that actually, the draft was cheaper than the bottles. Estrella on draft was 2 euros, whereas most bottles were at least 3. However saying that I found a proper dive near my work where you could get a 1 euro bottle of San Miguel - so depends I guess.
I caught a few projections on my way back.
La Laia is the patron saint they were celebrating.
And on my way back I stopped to catch this eery picture of one of the churches that leads the way to the Gothic center. With the moon and the light, it looks like something out of a Edgar Allen Poe story!
Anyway, till tom'rrow, Adeu!!
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