Devil's night

Sometimes this trip feels like a Rick Steve's experience, and I occasionally hear his nerdy voice in my head as we encounter new sights and sounds. Yesterday we took the long walk up Las Ramblas, a wide pedestrian esplanade the cuts through the heart of the city. We started at the Columbus monument, a massive tower at the waterfront with the man himself atop, pointing east to the New World. It was very impressive, but the walk beyond was even more so. Thousands of tourists were crowding the walkway bypassing human statue performers, sidewalk sangria vendors, and booths offering a variety of Chinese-made souvenirs. The midway point is the Boquaria, a giant open air market with the most colorfully displayed fruits, vegetables, fish, and hams that you could imagine, including a little bar operated by a lively little dude that Steves has shown on his program, his guidebook, and even a YouTube lecture that we watched shortly before coming over here. Once I saw that guy pouring cold beers I knew I had arrived in Barcelona.

After we got to the big main central plaza we got a cab to take us to Parc Guell, a beautiful mountainside park that features the house of Modernista architect Gaudi. This guy specialized in a weird style of curved lines and mosaic tiles, and although we did not actually tour the house, there is plenty to see

while circumnavigating the grounds, including incredible brick and stonework. At one point up the mountain we encountered an incredible series of stone arches set into the hillside and two musicians that were playing within it echoing environs. Absolutely beautiful. At the top of the mountain we could look out over the city and see Gaudi's greatest creation, the unfinished Sangrada Familia cathedral.

We took a cab back to our flat then and hung around the neighborhood. This is a strange mixture of working-class apartments and tourist apartment flats like ours, and there seems to be an awful lot of local hostility to the latter. Lots of people fly the Catalan flag along with handpainted signs that say, more or less, "tourists go home." We have felt no hostility personally, I might add, it is just their way of saying that the local economy has changed and they don't like it.

After dark we went out and stumbled across two events entirely by chance. The first was the most gaudy, brightly light carnival midway on the waterfront that I have ever seen. Bizarre rides, all decorated with almost crude interpretations of American cartoon characters (Disney, Warner Brothers,

Homer Simpson, etc.) and hundreds of laughing and squealing children. Indian immigrants were in abundance and decked out in their native finery, mixed in with native Catalan people and Asian tourists. It was wild, noisy and fun. The biggest surprise came two blocks later as we headed back home. One block off the main street we saw a woman in a devil's costume standing on a platform backed up by about twenty drummers. She was reading from a narrative, and every once in a while she would stop and the drummers took over. Suddenly, from out of the corner of the surrounding crowd, a bunch of guys in harlequin and devil outfits came prancing out with pitchforks and sticks mounted with whirling, exploding fireworks, showering the spectators with sparks. This process was repeated several times, but with the addition of giant plastic

and paper mache monsters like dragons and what appeared to be a giant mosquito, all moving around and sending fire and explosions dangerously close to the delighted spectators. From what I gather both the carnival and this spectacle are part of aweek long fiesta that ends tonight. I think we will go out and see what else we stumble on!