As I said in my last post, Festa Major began Friday evening and continued through yesterday. It technically finished around midnight, but I was still hearing the occasional firecracker around one a.m. when I managed to fall asleep. Festa Major in past years was originally just for the youth and often got out of control, so it was shut down in 2011 and only brought back this year as a family festival. There were a lot of traditional dances, fireworks, Los Diables de Sant Cugat (in Spanish a diablo is a devil, but diable is the Catalan term), outdoor markets, and plenty of food and drink venues to experience. Saturday I went to the market since I underestimated the temperature here in my packing, and that evening I went with Marc to see the diables whose pyrotechnics got out of hand and set a tree on fire. Luckily, the fire department was already there just in case and put it out in a few minutes. Sunday had its own entertainment beginning with some traditional dance and a food competition consisting of at least fifty teams making variations of a traditional Catalan seafood dish. In the afternoon, los castillos were built by the monastery. When I saw castillos (castles) though, I don’t mean the stone kind. I’m talking about acrobatic teams climbing on top of one another to build a castle. This was also a competition; when the final one reached the top, she would wave her hand to signal time. The teams were competing for the most levels in the least amount of time. That evening, I saw a ballet…twice. I really enjoyed it at 8:00, so I went back at 11:00. Monday was the last day of Festa Major and there wasn’t much going on. For most people it was a day to rest before returning to work today, so Marc took me to Barcelona to look around. We couldn’t enter La Sagrada Familia because of a rule against wearing shorts inside. I’ll be going back later this week though, and will hopefully have the foresight to wear pants or a skirt. Monday evening concluded La Festa with a parade through the town of everyone who had previously participated in any dances or shows. This eventually went past our street as they entered the monastery and set up for a final dance. After the dance, I went with Montse and her friends to the park where there was a line of American food trucks, though the food tasted distinctly different. My hot dog for example, wasn’t very good, but the fries with the ambiguous sauce were delicious. We stayed eating and talking until 11:00 when we made our way just down the street for the fireworks that would end Festa Major. Overall, the Festa was fantastic, and I’m a little sad it’s over, but there are still plenty of other things to do in Sant Cugat and Barcelona while I’m here!
