Big Mercé Night

Nothing says “good time out” quite like some anonymous hooded guys trying to set you on fire. That’s why I had such a great time at the Carrefoc where the devils actually try to make sure that something flaming or sparking makes it out to everyone in the crowd. I didn’t personally witness any serious injuries.

And then on to the Mercé performances, which included the crowd favorite projection-on-building, light show at the big fountain and many musical performances. We were out wandering around until 12:30 and when we left things were still in full swing.

And on a more dignified note, about forty feet from our apartment is the Santa Maria del Mar church, built in the 1300’s. Yeah, plenty of people who come to Barcelona take tours that come to this place, but for me it’s just the place I walk by on the way to get café con leche and fresh-baked bread in the morning. No big deal. But I noticed two people getting married there just now. It would be pretty cool to get married in a place like this. But you’d better make sure you’re marrying the right person cause I don’t think you can get divorced after a marriage here.

Begins the Mercé

I’m going to skip the details about Martha starting her morning on our “patio,” our run and our time at the beach . . .












. . . and go straight to the Mercé, which technically started today but the big day is tomorrow – 600 performers and 2 million attendees. This was originally a religious festival, but there’s not much religious about it now. We started respectfully by visiting the historical parade and the entrance of the huge puppets, which participate in a short play about kings, queens, animals, dragons and a turtle.

1. Note how happy the bull puppet is, which I’m guessing is because bullfighting was banned in Catalonia in 2010.

2. The guy in the dark sport coat who turns in my direction just in front of the dancing lion is one of many armed, secret security people who were talking to each other with little microphones and earbuds, which made me feel comfortable.

3. The King and Queen video is blurry because the air was filled with smoke and confetti from a canon that had just gone off and scared the shit out of everyone.

But then we went straight for the music, about which nothing is religious. But there’s a lot of great food, people dancing and general noise. This is all just a warm up for Saturday.

Barcelona Day 5 - So Many Shoes

In violation of the universal rules of both microeconomics and supply and demand, the street vendors in Barcelona are selling exactly the same things in exactly the same place, by the hundreds. Do you want fake Nike shoes? You can go to this blanket, or this one right next to it,

or this other one two blankets away. Or the other twenty within 100 feet.

The same goes for hats, sunglasses, keychains and refrigerator magnets. The ironic (and callous) truth about these vendors is that a lot of them also live together and buy their stock from the same place. So, I really don’t get it. What if instead of having a Starbucks on every other block, we had 10 of them on a single block. How would you choose which one to visit? And even then, I actually need coffee to survive but I don’t need a brown ceramic bird that whistles when you blow through its kiln-hardened tail feathers?

It’s just hard to imagine how most of these guys ever make a sale.










But on to more important things; Martha joined me today in Barcelona and so far has been sleeping for roughly the same amount of time that she’s been awake. It’s not only fun to have her here, but I realize that I have spoken more English in one abbreviated afternoon than I have in the past two weeks. I also realize how much easier it is to speak a language when I don’t have to think through every word and sentence in my head before I say it.

She’s preparing for the Merce by painting watercolors in the park. I’m preparing by trying to decide which I want to do first, go to the parade of flame throwing demons where it is recommended to wear heavy clothes (or be married to a doctor) or standing next to a 10-story tall human tower, where, according to the program, “Barcelona is ready to take its place in the human tower scene.”

But there’s one thing I’m definitely not going to do . . .

Barcelona Day 4

On the spur of the moment I hopped on a train to Figueres to see the Salvador Dali museum, which he designed before he died and then got himself buried there.











No shortage of imagination there. Some of the rooms are huge, but it does take a lot of space to, for example, position a boat with bright blue globs of something under its hull 20 feet above a large car.
















I mostly enjoyed the fact that the museum itself didn’t even pretend to know how to make sense of Dali’s art. But honestly, what more is there to say about hiring nude models to parade around an art exposition with fresh seafood attached to them (this was a while ago, not today), or decorate the entire building with immense eggs.

My impression is that Dali was much better with images than with words and he named his paintings with pretty much all you need to know – “Telephone in a Dish with Three Sardines,” or “Soft Self-Portrait with Grilled Bacon.”





But actually the thing that I found most unsettling about Figueres was this large picture in the window of a barber shop. Tell me anyone in their right mind is going to walk in and expose their neck to this guy.

But a good time was had by all and by the end of the day I was back in Barcelona tidying up the apartment because Martha is coming tomorrow . . .

. . .At which point we can start participating in the festivities leading up to the Merce, the three-day blowout that happens every year at this time in Barcelona. Outdoor concerts with performers from around the world, weird parades including the Carrefoc spark throwers who can literally set spectators on fire, human towers, free-flowing alcoholic liquids and more, 18 hours each day. I. Am. Ready.

Barcelona Day 3

After my run . . .

. . . I was thinking (as you probably were too), “Am I really going to meet Martha at the airport wearing clothes that smell like a 200-mile bike ride?” The correct answer there is “no.” So this was my next stop.







Things I passed on today:







Four varieties of ham cones















Not sure what this is





















I know what this is, but I passed















Being the king of the world or king of a country or king of late night is a very big deal, but what does it mean to be the king of shrimp?
















And finally, in one of the large plazas, I saw this British tourist standing below this tree for a very long time trying to get the perfect picture of three green Monk Parrots up in the tree. I did her a favor by not telling her that it would take her 10 minutes to walk over to the park I was in yesterday to be surrounded by thousands of those things. They probably seem more special when you don’t know that they’re Barcelona’s version of pigeons.

Barcelona Day 2

I woke up and went for a run down to the beach, where there were already plenty of people. The sun is pretty hot here, even early in the morning. .









When I first thought of doing this trip in 2016, I purposefully chose to spend a week in Barcelona so that I would have time to slow down. I envisioned myself reading in the park and I told people “Hey, I’ll have time to just go to the park and read!” The first year I was way too excited to sit still. The second year I realized I just don’t like sitting still. Today for the first time, I sat in the park and read for an hour or so, right at this spot by the rowing pond. I’m not sure it’s really my thing, but I’m glad I tried it. Now I don’t ever have to do it again.



But I know from experience that starting tomorrow this park will be full of trucks and workers building stages and gates for the big festival that is starting Friday night. So this was my only chance.





Other people seem to have no problem just sitting in the park.

When I was leaving the park, I sensed something moving in the grass, and once I focused, I saw these cool green birds just pecking in the dirt along with those crappy gray pigeons. You can see in the photo that they blend in with the grass so well you can hardly see them.











I looked it up and they’re a species of parrot called Monk Parakeets.











And finally, just to go on record so that you remember you heard it from me first once this thing goes global, there is a store in the coolest part of Barcelona called “El Flako,” where hipsters come and eat cereal from all over the world. Franchises available.

Back to Barcelona - Some Observations

Today is mostly a travel day where I undid everything I’ve done in the last week and made my way back to Barcelona by bus, plane and train, in that order.




Some reflections from the last week:
1. Every long, steep, uphill ride is associated with a long, steep, downhill ride. The opposite is also true.

2. It is difficult to express in words what a relief it is when one is riding on an isolated, gravel path with an ocean cliff on one side and endless rolling hills on the other side, when the riding directions say “The path comes up against an orange house just after passing two stone eagles on our right. We turn right,” and then at a point on the ride you actually do come up against an orange house just after passing two stone eagles on the right.

3. Even when you get a lot of joy out of bicycle riding, after seven straight days of it you can also get a lot of joy out of not bicycle riding.

4. In many of the towns I’ve passed, people park their boats in tidal areas that are just mud flats at low tide, so for roughly half the day, their boats are embedded in mud. I guess they figure that whatever they have to go out for, nothing’s so important that they can’t just wait for high tide. Perhaps there is a lesson in this for all of us.






 And these incongruities I’ve noticed:
1. One of the beaches I passed was called “The Beach of the Virgin Mary,” which both seems inappropriate and also brings to mind some pretty entertaining images.

2. There are spots along the Camino de Santiago with kilometer markers, which seems pretty much at odds with why anyone is on the Camino de Santiago.

3. This place at right had a sign on the front gate that said “This is an operating cattle ranch, not a
playground. Please keep out.” Really?