On Thursday - the actual day of Mercè - one of the biggest attractions to be seen are the castellers, which are literal human towers. In the Plaça de Jaume, trained troops stand 5-people tall and walk around to the delight of hoards of spectators. It took my best shoving skills to make it through even part of the crowd, which you can see in this picture:
Here's a picture of one of the towers. For purposes of perspective, the little kid on top of the tower is in line with the fifth or sixth window on the building.
After viewing the castellers, we checked out MACBA (the modern museum of art) and the Picasso Museum, since everything was free for the holiday.
On Thursday night, we headed down to the beach for the giant fireworks show. As I previously documented, the Spanish love their pyrotechnics — and this was no exception. Once again, the city squares were filled with live music late into the night, so we bounced from neighborhood
to neighborhood, checking out the local scene.
On Friday, a couple of us took time off from the craziness of Mercè and explored Sitges, a beautiful beach town 30 minutes south of Barcelona. The town of pristine sand, clear water and old castles is known to be an international gay destination, but in my opinion, it had nothing on Providence.
Today we explored the Mercè in our own backyard. We're fortunate enough to live just blocks away from the Parc de la Ciutadella, one of Barcelona's prettier parks. Today it was filled with children on go-karts, a band on a bicycle and an Asian food festival.
Now we're off to one of the crown jewels of the Mercè festival — the correfoc — which literally translates into "fire run." We're not entirely sure what to expect, but were told to wear jeans, long sleeve shirts and scarves. This should be quite the adventure.
As a side note, I have been perfecting the art of the tortilla española. I hope to be an expert by the time I return stateside, so I can bring my new culinary skill back to school with me...
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