When San Fermin ended, our friend Sara told us we had to come to her neighborhood in Barcelona for the fiestas they put on each year. She came to visit us during the party and wanted to return the favor. We were a little skeptical. I mean, Inaki told me the other night that the order of festivals world-wide goes: Carnival in Brazil, San Fermin in Pamplona and Mardi Gras in the States. It's up for debate and Inaki is now filling my ear with why San Fermin should be known as the best. Anyhow, those are the top 3.
So, on the 7th of September, when we started the 4.5 hour road trip to San Adria de Besos, we thought it would be a nice break from the hum-drum. That wasn't the case at all. It was a break, but a rip-roarin' rager from the moment we entered Catalunya.
We started with some road sodas. Inaki and I were in the back seat and open containers are not illegal in Spain, yeeee-yahh!
Inaki and I also snapped a few good shots from the car. One of the bull that seems to be perched on the high hills overlooking most Spanish cities and another of Montserrat.
We picked up our friend Ester in her hood and she lead us over to Sara's house. Inaki and I stayed at her parent's house and Irene stayed at Sara's place. They were the best hosts ever! Sara's mom helped us with everything and always made sure we had enough food, water, showers, whatever, amazing!
No time was wasted and we dropped our bags and headed out for a huge meal of pintxos and Barcelona Sidra, which is much more similar to actual sparkling cider in the States. Here you'll see the rock star croquettes we had, some cheese on the left, which came along with some fantastic jamon, and a bit of the rest, mostly empty plates because it was so good.
It was Irene's b-day the night before and this restaurant actually brought out a little cake for her and all. Unfortunately, they didn't have a "0" candle and just shoved the "9" candle deep into the cake. Irene was not amused.
We finished off our mammoth meal with coffees and 3 types of orujo - coffee flavored, herb flavored or straight up white lightening. I went with herb and it was delicious, but I was so freaking full! They just left the bottles at the table and we could take as many shots as we wanted. Cheers!
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I thought, stupidly, that we'd go home from there. Oh no. There was a night out ahead of us. Sara lead us over to the main square and the party had begun without us. A few booths with drinks and snacks were open to the left and a huge stage was set up in the middle. We grabbed some drinks and dove into the fray.
At one point, I'd guess around 1am, I glanced up at a balcony that looked over the square to see a couple of little old ladies in their robes checking out the scene. This is a dark and blurry pic, but I can't get enough of little old lady pictures.
The night pretty much went downhill from there. We hooked up with the local band and followed them through the streets for a while after the concert. I kept trying to get them to play the star spangled banner, but to no avail. They gave it the old college try though, and knew me as "USA" for the rest of the weekend.
We landed at a neighborhood bar and Ester fell victim to a mystery pickle. Yes, a mystery pickle. There was a table with a bunch of stuff sitting on it right outside the bar, including a cookie tin of pickles. She said, oh, we get a pickle with our drinks! No, I don't think that's what the deal was. But here she is, munching happily. Not so happy the next morning.
Here's a shot of Sara, our lovely hostess and myself, along with the antics that occurred at the very end of the night. We found an orange cone. After I swung it around over my head a few times, Irene started running some quickness drills around it. Not a bad turn.
Inaki and I crept into Sara's parent's apartment at about 5am. We went directly to bed and woke up at around 1:30pm to get rolling with a little sight seeing. Here's me in front of the Sagrada Familia and on the patio at Sara's parent's restaurant for lunch. The best gazpacho and croquettes, yum!
Bloated and hungover, the coffee after lunch hit the spot. We roamed the streets of Barcelona from there and the magic of the city came flooding back to me. We strolled down Las Ramblas and got a pic at the fountain where the Barca celebrates after every home win.
We hit up the Boqueria market for a few minutes as well. I just love all the colors and displays they make with the food.
Next stop was the Catedral Santa Maria del Mar. There's a book that contains this Cathedral as a character, more or less, and the last time we were here, it was closed. So here are some pics for you mom. So pretty because the beauty was so simple and humble.
We bumped into some castellers being built in front of the main cathedral on our way back to the metro. Basically, people climb on top of each other and make huge towers, it's so amazing to see in person! The climber on the very top is usually a child of about 6 years old. I can totally see Kins doing this in 3 years.
Cruising home on the metro was simple with Ester and we made it in time for a 9:30 dinner with Sara near the main square. We all had t-shirts that donned a picture of Spartacus on the back, arms outstretched and holding a beer in each hand. Our group for the night was called "Quintacus" because it was the 15th year of the festival and Spartacus was our theme. There were various other groups of friends that had their own t-shirts too. As we got moving for the night, the t-shirts were really helpful because we didn't lose our group.
At the stroke of, I don't know, maybe 12am, the beer fight began. Sara had told us this would happen, but we weren't quite sure how it was all going to go down. We thought, ok, maybe we're a team and we throw beer at other people. Maybe we could stay out of it a little and just let everyone else fight. But no. As soon as the horn rang to start the fight, one of our new "friends" threw beers right in our faces and and said, "welcome to San Adria!" It got vicious from there. Inaki got one down the back of his pants and even Sara's own brother got me straight on.
The strategy we hatched was to buy 2 beers at a time so you could drink one and throw the other. We were soaked in beer for the rest of the night and it was great. It's probably a dream of my dad's to bathe in beer and this is as close as you can get really. A shot of the crowd in the streetlight.
The strategy. They don't know how to make a proper pour in Spain! Too much head!
Sara evading a beer attack.
We finally made it back to the plaza and danced the night away, wreaking of dry, stale beer and loving it. Our buddy Ivan even bought me a balloon. I leave you with this final shot of Inaki, me and our new friend bob, who clung to my wrist for at least 3 hours before our heads hit the pillows at 7am, sticky and matted with beer. A good weekend's work!
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