Feria-Barcelona Style

Giant PAELLA!!

Feria is a festival that takes place in Southern Spain. Seville is the best know location for Feria and it normally two weeks after the Semana Santa. At Barcelona's Caxia Forum, they had people from Southern Spain putting on their own "Feria" with tons of paella, candy, carnival games and rides, Seville bands and Sevillana dancers fully dressed in their ruffle dresses and tap shoes. It was so much fun but I'm sure the real one is way better.

A silly fun house with "Hollywood" celebrities



Candy!

This guy kills me, who is making this poor Slipknot fan sell these terrible dolls?
I think some one who doesn't want to sell any

Barcelona Bike Show

Bike Show BCN had all the biking you could imagine from dirt track racing and BMX Freestyling, to one-wheeled monocycles and four-wheeled cyclekarts. We went to Barcelona's Parc del Fòrum for one day of the two day of competitions, exhibitions and shows.

Bikers patiently waiting for...

THIS!
It was pretty long and more impressive than it looks. Some crazy bikers were doing back flips here!

A few from the Forum

Castellers

Castellers, or castle builders, are very popular in the summer through out Spain. Here in Barcelona each neighborhood has their own team. Its really great to see but very scary. The people are all shaking and the people that climb to the top are children!!! The scene is, there is one guy yelling and directing the Castellers, a band playing, and a mound of people pushing in at the base taking the weight off the people in the middle. The very top child has to wear a helmet, regulation after a child fell to their death...yikes!

More Festivals!

Every weekend there is festival somewhere in Barcelona. Most of the time it is in the Park Citadella. This festival had booths with vendors selling food, clothing, really anything you could think of from the Arc de Triumf and into the Park Citadella! Lots of samples and live music!

Huge cakes

Cheeeeseee!

Sant Jordi

Sant Jordi is a Spanish holiday similar to St. Valentine's Day. Men give women roses and women give men books. You can buy roses on every corner and ever person walking down the street has a rose in hand. No joke. By the end of the day, some four million roses and 800,000 books have been sold!

Books

I bought myself one of these cute mini books

Ninos Mutantes
A band we saw play later that night!

Un Dia per a l'Esperança

Today I was running through the Parque de la Ciutadella and found this great event. So I ran home and changed so I could get back and enjoy it! Courtney and I headed there and every thing was in Catalan so it was more difficult to understand, but from what we could make out, it pretty much translates to, "A Day of Hope." It was an event aimed to help the poor. Most events were aimed at kids. Kids could make t shirts, play games and even spray paint their name with graffiti artists. There was music and dance performances too. After the kids had graffiti-ed their names on the wall, real graffiti artists went over it and did their own. It was pretty awesome watching them. After we went to the last day of a film festival here in Barcelona. We got to see six films which were all pretty awesome. I wish we would have went to the first days. There were around 400 films shown from many different countries. Here is the link if anyone is interested!! http://eng.mecalbcn.org/

Courtney and the wall

Bolivan dancers

Outfit change

And apparently mimes can talk/sing

Sardana Dance!

So I keep running into people doing this dance on the streets. Normally they are all pretty old, but that does not keep them from bouncing around doing this Catalonia circle dance. It is adorable. A band plays and anyone can just join or start their own circle. Courtney and I are going to learn it so hopefully I can get a video of that on here!

This old gentleman in the purple shirt and brown sweater was the best dancer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY5GfREz1Jg

Tarragona, Spain

According to our guide...."The most famous part of Tarragona!"

I went with the IEP group to Tarragona today, just south of Barcelona. We took the train from Sants Estacion and arrived in Tarragona, Spain. In Roman times, it was named Tarraco when it was the capital of the Roman Colony the province of Hispania Tarraconesis. There are huge ruins for travelers to explore. There is an amphitheater where people fought to death with each other or animals like Lions brought from all over the globe. Its a beautiful town with an awesome beach. Too bad it wasn't beach weather, but we had a tour and lunch for our day trip!

Pretty fountain with Hippopotamuses

Cute flower shop

Roman Ruins

Fight to the death! Colosseum. In the center a church was built to commemorate a bishop killed there after the Romans had left. In the 1920's it was a prison!

First picture of me on the blog! That is Bethany from Boston!

Castle building monument

Some nice Andy Warhol street art

The Cathedral

Barca vs. Deportivo "Més que un club!"

Of course Barca wins!!! My friend and I decided to head to Camp Nou for a game! We went to a game that wasn't very important because tickets are can get very expensive. Barca is number one in Spain and Deportivo is pretty far down the list. Futbol is very serious here and it was really fun to experience. The songs and the chants are all in Catalan but really its the same sort of cheering and enthusiasm we have in the US. Lots of fun! I watch most of the games at bars but you have to even get to bars early for a good seat.

Flag/Band Section

The guys all lined up

Messi!!! Best player, waiting for action

Celebration! 3-0 victory!