Monalia's World

I am writing from the mountainside village of Viladrau, a 45 minute drive from Barcelona. Mark, Haka and I have been invited here for the weekend. Our friends Sara and Ricardo have a countryside compound. It belongs to Sara’s family. We are staying in the apartment of her brother, who never comes here. He is very absorbed in his life in Barcelona. We meet Sara’s mother, Conchita, who is 83 years old and looks it. She is in the apartment next to ours, Sara and Ricardo in the apartment on the other side of her mothers’ place. All 3 of our apartments share a common entryway at the top of a stairwell. The steps go down to a big barnlike room with an apartment on each side, one occupied by Sara’s sister Anna and her dog and kid, the other by her sister Jema. We all have self-contained apartments. Mark and Haka are resting. Conchita is delighted to have her full brood of daughters around.
photo below: Conchita and Mark, Sara

Below – photo of the compound taken from the yard. The left middle floor window shows our apartment. You would go in the door, up the stairs and to the left. The double doors in this photo are the top of the stairwell that leads to all 3 upstairs apartments:

This afternoon Sara made a “paella del bosque”, a yummy rice dish with 3 freshly killed (by a neighbor) meats; chicken, rabbit and wild boar. It was quite an experience! Freshly killed Spanish peasant meal.

Then we took a digestive walk down a chestnut laden trail with ferns, oaks (bearing young acorns), wild berries and mushrooms – dog heaven. It looks a bit like New Zealand (the ferns) and a bit like Los Angeles (the oaks), it is an autumn wonderland. We come across people carrying baskets which they are busy filling with fresh acorns. Our trail is an acorn and wildflower and berries laden wonderland.

Unfortunately we cannot return next weekend for the castaña roasting traditional weekend festa because we will be participating in the 4th annual Barcelona Cortos (short film) Festival. This is our second year as participants. We had 3 submissions last year, this year we have two, and my best friend Nicole has one. Mark and I have also been asked to play some music at the event, the details of which will be sewn up this week. It would have been fun to come back for the castaña roasting festival though, I simply love the smell of chestnuts roasting. It brings back fun childhood in Italy memories.

Barcelona is a city where there is ALWAYS something fun to do. Yesterday I rode my bike to the beach, through Ciutadella Park and ended up spending a couple hours in Ciutadella Park before reaching my goal, the beach. There was (yet another) festival going on at the park; Festa de la Cooperaciò Catalana. There were various stages with music strategically placed throughout the grounds. There was a circus atmosphere, stalls selling ethnic food – I sat on a hillock in the grass and basked in the sun. A circus-like parade, (tuba, clarinets, drums, jugglers, a man on stilts…) passed by.

I had no idea I would be entertained in this way when I set out on my bike. On my way back from the beach I went through Ciutadella again and it was really happening. I recorded some sounds ( like the passing Felliniésque band, and also a horse and buggy passing by) snapped some photos, swayed to a Catalan funky blues band. I noticed two cute, punk rock lesbians dancing with a tiny kitten and a big Golden Retriever. The kitten looked to be about 6 weeks old, the young lesbians looked to be in their early 20’s. They were dancing and kissing, the kitty on one girl’s shoulder, the golden retriever circling them. Every so often they would put the poor confused kitty down where first it would stand, a bit dazed. The Golden Retriever would come up, lick the kitten. The kitten trotted towards the plants behind which I sat on my bike, observing. The dog would herd the kitten back to the punkette, who scooped the kitty back up onto her shoulder while she continued to sexy dance with her girlfriend.

I picked up a pamphlet on the festa, which I loosely translate from Catalàn:

This event is a celebration of cooperation of the Generalitat of Catalunia with the objective, modest yet complicated, of contributing in modifying north-south relations to favor sustainable humanity.

With this encounter we want to share, in a festive way, the cooperation and help long-lasting development of responsibility for all to collaborate.

The one thing the people of Barcelona know how to do, it is how to have fun. No matter how dismal the news of the global economy spiraling downwards, the Fiesta San Mercè has arrived just in time for us city folk to let off steam and immerse ourselves in the 10 day celebration of the patron saint of Barcelona, San Mercè. (Our Lady of Mercy).

Festivities include a traditional parade (cavalcada) of gegants and besties (giants and beasts), the exciting correfoc (fire run) which I share with you in the clip above, the castellers (human castles) along with hundreds of bands performing between Sept. 19 and 24. It is the biggest party of the year, and unlike my local Fiesta Mayor de Gracia, it takes place simultaneously in many venues, all of them downtown or on the beach.

CASTELLERS:

The Correfoc of San Mercé, is the biggest fire run of the year. It features fire spitting dragons, eagles and devils with pitch forks throwing fireballs into the crowd, creating chaos and mayhem as they slither, hop and hiss towards the beach, making us all literally dance when they spew fire at our feet. People in the know wear a hat or a box over their head and fire repellant attire. We twist and jump around under the spitting flames. Dads with kids all dressed in fireman gear come to dance in the flames of the demons as they pass by. Some little kids even have shields, apparently to fend off the flames. It is both exciting and scary to jump into it and film the above clip. The Correfoc fire run begins at the top of calle Laetana and ends at the Barceloneta harbor, after which there are fireworks along the beach of Barceloneta.

Fresh back from Italy, I didn’t make it to many of the events this year, only Correfoc. But theres lots more going on. On my bike ride through Ciutadella Park yesterday, for example, there were food stalls of cuisine from around the world, as well as other exhibits intended to raise awareness in people.

from the local info website:

Centuries later in 1687, Barcelona suffered a plague of locusts, and placed itself in the hands of the Virgin of La Mercè. Once the plague had been overcome, the Council of the City named her patron saint of Barcelona. The Pope did not ratify this decision until two centuries later, however, in 1868. After Pope Pius IX declared the Virgin of La Mercè the patron saint of the city, Barcelona began to celebrate a festival in the month of September to herald the end of summer and the onset of the autumn months.

San Mercé traditionally ends with an air show on Sunday, which we caught by chance by going to the beach.