an afternoon in barcelona

lovely street in barcelona

candy from a stand in an open market

xurros amb xocolata: delicious! 

saturday afternoon i went "into town" to see a friend and make a few more. we meet at four and explored different streets for an hour or so. pretty little streets are my favorite, and there were plenty of those! we also zipped through a great open market. then we went to a café to get a snack. i got xurros amb xocolata and (another) café con leche. xurros are pieces of dough that have been deep-fried, then twisted, then sprinkled with sugar. the "amb xocolata" obviously means chocolate. these are three of the four words i know in catalan. very important ones, too. the other one is sortida, 'exit'. one of the girls' family was in town and the dad was awesome and paid for all of us. then we all hightailed it to a suburb of barcelona to see the castellers of lleida.

and that. was. amazing.

being a casteller in cataluña is kinda like their equivalent of being a ballerina or a gymnast. today i saw participants who ranged from being younger than ten and older than fifty. without anyone being an obvious leader or director, towers would develop every ten minutes or so. the black fabric you see around their waists is similar to a thick scarf that's almost twenty feet long. they wind it around their waists and then tie bandanas around themselves so that the people climbing to higher levels have somewhere to put their feet. it's grand. it's nerve-racking. the people on the second and third levels often look as if they are about to collapse, they warble and shake so.

we took a recess from watching and checked out the stands that were set up nearby. they sold chunks of cheese as large as a watermelon, meat, stuffed animals, etc. but the best one was the one that sold tea.

"to strengthen and prevent the loss of hair; cleans dandruff and prevents it's reproduction; eliminates seborrhoea and hair grease."

that. was. amazing.

there was a large stand that just sold loose leaf teas and herbs. there was rose tea, cherry tea, tea for diabetes, tea for hypertension, tea for sleep of the alhambra, tea for hair, tea to "close the appetite"(can you imagine...? i'm not sure i can). i think that it's common for people here to buy herbs for their specific need, boil them in water, then drink it. wow. i like tea--no, i love tea. but drinking tea to prevent oily hair? i'll shower, thanks anyway :)

somewhere near la plaza cataluña

protestor's tents in la plaza cataluña

la plaza cataluña

after the castellers, we headed back to la plaza cataluña, where i wandered around alone for a bit. i got pictures of the protesters in la plaza this time! then i caught the 8:20 metro back to terrassa. rubén (the husband) made a yummy tortilla española for dinner and i chatted with ximena for a while.

so that was my saturday. i hope yours was swell, too.

sunday in spain

sunday morning at the peña house means getting up and ready, cooking, eating and leaving the house by 9:30am so that we don't miss the bus. if we miss the bus, we miss the train and we arrive at church late. but yesterday, we were fine!

the church is called por gracia (by grace) and is near downtown barcelona. it was wonderful to meet the members and have the Lord's supper with them. the service started around 11:15 and lasted for about an hour and a half. then we talked, had lunch and postres (dessert, pastries). i think they usually have café too, but after postres a friend and i took the metro to la plaza cataluña. She has been living here since january, so she was able to show me around for a few hours. i saw some buildings by gaudí--la casa milá and another whose name i forgot. we also walked around el barro gótico (the gothic neighborhood). it is a really neat section of the city, full of old buildings and cathedrals. then we found a little café and ordered a couple of cups of café con leche, which for any of you coffee nuts is a shot of espresso and steamed milk. it's served in a small cup so that the ratio of coffee and milk is 50/50. for any of you sweet-tooths, we added sugar too. 

(i didn't take my camera sunday. this was taken on the bus from the airport last week)

barcelona is similar to other big cities i've been in. there are the statue people, who get all dressed and painted up, then line the streets as statues. there are the guys who walk around playing annoying "instruments" hoping someone will buy a few. there are also all those people who lay things out to sell in plazas, but have all the goods on a tarp and tied together so that they can run away when the cops show up. 

right now, in la plaza cataluña, there is a protest going on. i think it is against unemployment...or something like that. we saw people in animal cages, with tshirts made to look as if they were torn by whips on the back, a guy in rags pulling nails out of a board, etc. all the statues in the plaza had ropes on them so that they look as if they were oppressed. 

so that was fun. 

on the metro ride home, the track had a section closed for maintenance, so i had to get on a bus for 10 minutes. spain's public transport is so good though. they shuttled all the metro people on buses to the next available station, where we hopped right back on the metro. granted, it took at least 85 minutes to get home, when it usually takes 50 or so. 

(train station. also from last week) 

so that was fun, too.