Barcelona: Day 31 : A Night of Failures .

Today we didn't have any class which was so nice. I feel like we've been so busy lately, and it's night to just have a little time off with a three day weekend! La Mercé is this weekend, which is apparently a really big deal, though we haven't been able to figure out even what it's for. However, regardless, there are a lot of things going on, and apparently the entire city is packed! We had some guys come in who were also studying in Spain who were friends of a friend in architecture, and they couldn't find room in any of the hostels in the area. It's really pretty insane.


A few of the things going on this weekend are concerts, and giant human pyramids, fireworks multiple nights in multiple places, little devils running around throwing fireworks and sparklers at people, and of course the usual weekend party crowds. Not to mention there was a bullfight this weekend (which are rapidly disappearing so that's a big deal) and the Barcelona game as well.

Anyways, on to the night of failures. We attempted to go to the beach to watch fireworks, and found out that a) we missed them because they went off earlier in the night, and then b) the police started making everybody get off the beach for "cleaning" because they were dragging everything around to clean up trash supposedly. They even brought water cannons to scare people off the beach... Who knows if that was really a valid reason or not.

So that was fail number 1.

Then, while we were waiting for the guys to get past the spot we were at on the beach, we saw some girl bawling her eyes out and some Spanish guys trying to talk to her. They saw that we spoke English and Ian went over because he thought she might have gotten robbed. She hadn't, and it turned out that she had just gotten to Spain and then got a phone call that one of her parents had died from a heart attack out of the blue. This was, apart from shocking, pretty much the end of our night right there. After we dealt with that we just walked home. There was really nothing more that we could do other than walk her back to where she lived, which was literally like a block away.

I hate to be cynical, but it seemed like she was already sort of drunk or something. I don't know, but if I had one of my parents die I would be on a plane stat... There would be no messing around with anything. She seemed worried about the wedding that she had come to Spain for.. It all was just really shocking and ridiculous.

So, certainly not your typical Friday in Barcelona, but that's okay. The rest of the weekend awaits.