From what I've gathered from official booklets, Wikipedia and actually witnessing it, the Mercè is the celebration of Barcelona's patron saint, Our Lady of Mercy. It runs from Thursday to Sunday, and this year involved a fireworks competition between different countries showcasing their finest pyrotechnics, light shows in the Parc de la Ciutadella every night, and a whole heap of free gigs. Oh, and a hell of a lot of fire.
On the first night, we went to see the gegants (big papier-mâché giants of a king, a queen, a dragon, a horse and the happiest-looking cow I've ever seen, among others) in the Plaza de Sant Jaume. It was relatively tame - just some big statues hopping around to a brass band really - it was at the finale that things really started to kick off. Sparklers and fireworks were set off in the square and the dragon started to breathe fire. Then, huge fireworks were set off from the top of the Presidencia de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Just when we were about to leave the square, a light show started. It's hard to describe, because I had never seen anything like it before, but essentially lights were projected onto the façade of the Presidencia, and it wasn't just lasers or anything - it was more like short animated films set to music. For example, it began with hundreds of multicoloured balloons swarming over a kid's drawing, then clearing but leaving enough balloons to spell out HOLA.. Then lights traced exactly the lines of the windows and doors and columns of the building, and then exploded into sparks. So it continued in this vein, and seriously, it was just completely awesome! We went on a bit of a wander, and picked up a few drinks, and went down towards Barceloneta to see what Canada could offer us in the way of fireworks (they were pretty decent). After a bit of banter down by the port, we thought to follow our stomachs to McDonald's and then our ears to a free jazz/swing style gig on the waterfront. After dancing ourselves silly we got the Metro home.
The next day we thought we'd see what was going on in Ciutadella. There were loads of activities for kids - face-painting and playground things, and magicians and the like. There was also a barbecue and lots of food and drink. It was a lovely afternoon, so a group of us hung out there for a little while before myself and Donnacha took off down the park to the zoo - we had been there before, but zoos are fun and this one is particularly good, so we took our time wandering around looking at bears and anteaters and monkeys (they had this one type of chimp and I actually had to leave, it was creeping me out so much, this knackery family was throwing food in to them and the chimps were clapping for food and holding out their hand for more, and they looked so bizarrely human..). That night we met up with my friends from UCC again at Ciutadella, where there were more light shows and the like, including these mad guys dressed up in eight-foot white light-up suits, so we passed a little time there before taking off to the Forum in an effort to see Goldfrapp (we only caught the last song, but we still maintain we saw Goldfrapp!).
Saturday was the big pull for me and Donnacha, in that Belle and Sebastian were playing for free at the old Estrella Damm factory. We met up with UCC people and a pile of new Erasmus friends and went for tapas. The group was pretty huge, so naturally we split into a few smaller groups. Donnacha, Mikhaila, Caroline and I went to Via Laietana to see the correfoc - the fire run. This is where they make the street look like hell, with giant gates set up outside the Jaume I Metro station, and groups with different dragons and monsters and hideous beasties of all kinds march through and the blow fire and fireworks all over the shop. I had bought a copy of Colm Tóibín's Homage to Barcelona, in which he describes the correfoc in the late 1970s, and nothing has changed at all, so I followed his example and watched from behind a Red Cross ambulance. Now, you'd think that this is merely standard procedure at any huge parade in a big city, but we genuinely saw about seven or eight people being treated for burns - some small enough on their arms, one really bad one on a girl's leg, and another really bad one on an arse.. Needless to say we were pretty thankful that we decided to watch from the steps of the cathedral rather than inside the crowd! After that we met up with Carina, another of the UCC girls, and went towards Belle and Sebastian. Seeing as this was an unfamiliar part of town to us, it was very easy to find - just follow the flow of people wearing thick glasses, skinny jeans, leather jackets and waistcoats. The hipsters lead us to a street that was as wide as any other street, and pretty much unremarkable except for two facts - one, the giant stage erected at the end, and two, the fact that the entire street was dubh le daoine. Seriously, you could barely move, and it was entirely jammers from the stage right down to the end of the street. B&S came onstage literally two seconds after we arrived, and played a really brilliant set (for those who are interested, highlights included Step Into My Office, Baby; Judy And The Dream Of Horses; Piazza, New York Catcher; I'm A Cuckoo and The Boy With The Arab Strap). Afterwards we made an effort to prolong the partying, but really couldn't find anything solid to do, so after an attempt to get down to the beach, we abandoned town for our cosy beds.
On Sunday Donnacha and I headed up the many, many steps of Montjuïc, one of the hills that overlooks Barcelona. We chilled out up there for a while before eating in one of Eixample's many, many wicked tapas cafés. In the evening I took him out to the airport, and met Mikhaila and Aoife in Plaza Espanya afterwards to see the closing fireworks - probably the best fireworks I've ever seen, going on noise and light and longevity and wonderful soundtracking (medley of Catalán covers of Beatles songs, anyone?).
And that had me wiped! I've been spending the week more or less catching up on sleep lost from three consecutive 3 o'clock bedtimes, as well as going to classes, hanging out with my new flatmate, taking a really nice stroll down the Ramblas and chilling by the port with a giant bar of Milka chocolate, and avoiding strikes like the plague. (A note on the strikes - all day yesterday basically everything was shut off across Spain in protest against new labour laws, pay cuts, later retirement, etc etc.. When I came out of the Plaza Catalunya Metro station this morning by Carrer de Pelai, protestors had covered this really beautiful building in yellow paint, anarchist symbols and graffiti about the vaga, which just adds to whatever disdain I already had for trade unions - whatever about the strikes and the recession, that vandalism was totally needless, even if that lovely building does house a bank..) This weekend I'm going to see what the story is with joining the gym, and I think there is a street festival in Sarrià and an air show-Erasmus meeting at the beach. And it's three weeks until I go home for the weekend! :)
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