Wow – the last two days have been busy and tons of fun. After seeing three parades in the past 24 hours, I figured something must be going on here. It turns out it is the Santa Eulàlia festival – a festival for children. Santa Eulalia is the co-patron saint of Barcelona, and she was a 13 year old girl who died a martyr. Her remains are in the Cathedral of Barcelona and the plaza in front of the Cathedral is where most of the celebrations have taken place.
Kids celebrating the Santa Eulalia festival
Yesterday (Saturday) I started the day at the La Rambla and saw a parade of kids with instruments and costumes – I didn’t know about the festival at this point so I just took a few pictures and went on my way.
I then went to the Sagrada Familia – the most famous site in Barcelona. It is a large Roman Catholic Church that was designed by Antoni Gaudi and is still under construction. It was started in 1882 and Gaudi died in 1926. Its scheduled completion date is 2026 – 100 years after his death. It’s a bizarre looking building and the pictures don’t do it justice. It’s enormous and looks different from different angles. Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account that it was Saturday and the line to enter was at least a 2 hr wait. I’m going to go back during the week when the line will hopefully be shorter.
Sagrada Familia
After that, I went to Park Guell. A park designed by Barcelona’s favorite architect, Antoni Gaudi. I went to the park thinking it would be a relaxing afternoon, but I ended up having to practically hike up a mountain (in non-hiking shoes) to get to the entrance. I was exhausted by the time I finally made it there but it was worth it. It’s a very elaborate park that has great views overlooking Barcelona. It was intended to be a housing development but only two houses were ever built there.
After that, Michelle and I met up and went for dinner in the El Born neighborhood. It’s a funky, trendy, artistic neighborhood and we were excited to get out of the touristy areas of Barcelona. On the way to dinner, a “parade” of about 25 people passed us. I asked a lady what was going on and from what I could understand it was some of the Uraguay population of Barcelona starting the Carnival celebration. It was really random – kind of like a marching band coming out of nowhere and passing you on the street. We found a tapas place we’d heard about but it didn’t open until 7pm. We got there at 7:10 and got the last table. By 7:20, there wasn’t even standing room available.
Today (Sunday), I went to the Cathedral of Barcelona around noon because I wanted to see the dancing of the Sardana. Every Sunday people gather outside the Cathedral and do a circle dance called Sardana. It’s a dance of Catalonia, and it’s a way for people to continue their Catalonian culture. Just a few steps away was a parade similar to the one I saw on Saturday but much bigger. That’s when I knew something was going on. I came back to the hotel and did a little research and found out it was the Santa Eulalia festival. I found a schedule of events and in the afternoon they were doing something called Human Tower Building. Sounded like something not to be missed so I went back to the Cathedral to try to find it. I saw other activities but no human tower building – I was so bummed! Then, right before I went to get on the metro, I saw a crowd of people. . . human tower building! I’ve got video of the tower building as well as the dancing of the Sardana but I can’t figure out how to post it right now. I’ll work on that later.
Dancing the Sardana
Human Tower Building
Tonight Michelle and I went back to the Born neighborhood to eat. We tried to go to a cool-looking place but they were only serving pinchos and we are pincho’d out – we are ready for a real meal and not just tapas! We ended up eating outside at a restaurant called “CheeseMe”. Strange name but it was good – she got some kind of stuffed chicken and I got goat cheese cannelloni with pine nuts and applesause.
On the way back to the hotel, we were on the metro and the train stopped at our stop. There was a group of people in front of us on the train speaking Spanish but just looking at the door on the train. I somewhat yelled out “open the door” and then they realized that they needed to pull a lever to open the door on the train ( that way on all the metro trains here). I felt like somewhat of a metro-pro telling a Spanish speaking person what to do!
Tomorrow I’m going to get up early and take the train to Montserrat. It’s a monastery in the mountains about an hour outside of Barcelona. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon so I’m looking forward to getting back, taking it easy and making some progress in the book I brought.
It’s been a great trip so far – Barcelona is definitely shaping up to be one of my favorite cities!
sallysuesees.com 
February 13, 2011 at 7:18 pm
I can hear the excitement in your writing! What a fabulous opportunity–I love you so much!!
February 13, 2011 at 7:19 pm
Your trip sounds wonderful! I am jealous! I hope the rest of the trip continues to go this well.
February 13, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Sounds like ya’ll are having so much fun!! How nice of Barcelona to have all those parades for you! Keep the pictures coming. We love seeing them.
February 16, 2011 at 10:47 am
Looks like the perfect time to be there! As for videos, you can upload it to youtube and then just put the link in your post!
February 16, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Thanks! I think I’m going to have to wait until I get a faster connection – the videos are taking forever to upload.