It is a beautiful warm night in late-summer Barcelona and the Festa Major de Gracia is on. I don't think I could have had a more Barcelona experience than I have had this first night in this cheery city.
1. I rode into town on the back of a motor scooter.
2. I saw a parade. It had drummers and sparkler-like fireworks spewing with loud bangs from huge twirling contraptions. It was like a movie parade.
3. I wandered the alley-like streets of the Gracia neighbourhood, ambling in street-filling crowds under the colourful canopies of a neighbourhood festival.
4. I ate tapas.
5. I drank cheap glasses of beer mixed with lemonade while standing in the streets listening to Spanish music that made me want to jump up and down with dancing pleasure.
The draw of the Gracia festival is the street-decorating competition, whereby residents use recycled materials to deck out their streets according to theme. One street - the one that usually wins, R tells me - created a medieval mead hall, complete with a 'stone' castle entrance made from newspaper-stuffed frames, walls lined with various coats of arms, and wonderful paper chandeliers emanating plastic-gel flames.
One street was themed Japanese, with paper and foam cherry blossom trees, a sand garden and a colourful canopy of dangling origami dragons and plastic lotus flowers. Another street had plastic disks hanging from the canopy, first in shades of peaches and pinks, then blues and purples, greens and yellows. It was simple and very beautiful.
Two streets had autumn/Halloween/Carnivale themes, with orange leaves and black bats, while another canopied its blocks with papie-mache autumn branches, another simple and effective design. There was also a woodland sprite street, complete with a large papier-mache fairy statue kneeling above a fountain.
These streets, mind you are packed. You slither through the bodies of people that cover entire streets, inching your way from one block to another.
With R, I ate tapas (in Spain!), sitting at the bar/counter. We had potato in a garlicky mayonnaise and mushrooms coated with garlic, oil and parsley. Delicious.
Later in the evening I couldn't resist dancing to the strains of a Carribean-inflected band at the end of a street. The street wasn't so crowded, the night, I suppose, being still very young. I found myself dancing alone next to a purple-spectacled girl with short curly hair and a pink sundress. I was drawn to her, also dancing alone, and we shared smiles. I wanted to know her and finally talked to me. She spoke English. I'm sure we would have been great friends!
Barcelona is full of a diversity of people decked out in a variety of styles. Everyone (young people) looks great, be they hippy, funky, professional or street.
I would have liked to dance longer - and if I was here with MS or S we'd be dancing all night, I'm sure - but R was hot and not into dancing, so I only danced for 15 minutes or so.
Wonderful!
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