After reading in my guide book it mentions summer solstice and fireworks and parties at the beach. Sounds like a great holiday to me! It did leave out a few details as all happy guidebooks do.
The evening prior to Sant Joan I was sitting at friend's apartment snacking and chatting. All of a sudden I heard a loud BANG! Now I've been hearing a few of those bangs recently at our apartment, so I was curious. Katie proceeded to tell us that the kids had been shooting them off for days at all hours. She of course just loved hearing bang after bang especially late at night...doesn't everyone? This sparked off a lively discussion of Sant Joan and our plan of action specifically when to arrive to the beach. As I was informed going early, say around 9 or so, warrants swarms of unruly children throwing fireworks in any direction including at you. Needless to say we wanted to avoid this so the plan was to meet for dinner and drinks around 9 and head to the beach around 11 or so. Ryan and I headed home a bit earlier that night so as not to be worn out of the night that lay ahead though we did have the privilege to hear one of those loud fireworks across the street as we walked to the metro. Seriously sounds like a gun shot or a cannon.
I will admit I had some building anticipation mainly about the prospective fireworks. They are tradition for me and always bring me back to my childhood. A birthday without lots of lights in the sky and sooty smell of gunpowder is simply wrong so I was looking forward to having them albeit a few weeks early.
The day had arrived and I was side tracked with buying an air conditioner. You may not know this but I loathe the heat and I find that people do not enjoy the person I become as I get hot. Ryan was starting to witness this horrendous event, so I was on a hunt for an A.C. for the apartment. To my grand luck I found one and one on sale. So rather than napping or snacking or just resting, Ryan and I were hauling the giantic box up our lovely 97 steps. At that point I realized I had approximately 15 minutes to get ready despite being sweaty and out of breath. You should be impressed to know that we left relatively on time.
Esther and Gerardo's apartment was lovely and filled with great prospects of food and drink :) While Esther showed Ryan and I the proper steps for making a mojito, Gerardo was preparing a common dish from Mexico consisting of steak, bacon, peppers, onion, and cheese....I know: YUM. Slowly other friends arrived and I got to play my favorite game: guess what people are saying. One thing I have found though is that if the person can speak English, they will commonly translate for me which is very sweet. Though it is interesting listening to room full of tispy people quickly spewing out rows of Spanish words that I will never understand. That is an experience all of its own. Anyways as the night continued and poor Katie texted and called, I noticed that time was passing. Our original plan of 11 was quickly changed to 1 and then "later." Now we have all been there where the plan is go to do this and as the hours pass the plan never really comes to fruition. This was not one of those times. I soon learned that the biggest tradition of Sant Joan is not just to go to the beach but to stay all night to watch the sunrise.
You can imagine my shock. I'm used to late parties and good times, but no one prepared me for a 10 hour party. No wonder I was being fed such delicious foods!
Finally around 3 after a demanding yet pleading call from Katie, we headed toward the beach. Really we headed for the metro since we weren't anywhere near the beach, just across from the stadium ;) The metro was an experience as well. Despite the early hour, it was filled with people whom were almost all drunk and yelling and singing and swaying. It's a miracle no one fell on the tracks...truly the cars were full of happy, celebrating people and probably a few thieves finding easy prey. At this point I was walking down the street with a group of 12 hoping that we were going the right direction towards the beach particularly since we had a long debate on the metro street corner about this. After a quick dance at the random street party we discovered, I figured, this has to be the right way and it was just another 10-15 minutes of walking.
Here is the street party.
Miles of beach covered with people, chairs, blankets, and bottles. As we began to walk down the long stretch ahead of us (looking for a few others we were supposed to meet up with, namely poor Katie), I was floored by this drunk mob reminscence of spring break Cancun: everyone screaming drinks in hand. The only piece that didn't fit was the random fireworks and bangs. This was not what I had pictured upon arrival to the beach although in retrospect, I'm not sure why I had thought anything differently. Eventually we met up with the others, pushed our way through a night club, and found ourselves a spot of sand. Now just three more hours to go until dawn!
This is just a few us on the beach...notice the bottle of Coca :)
The feast of Sant Joan was a great one filled with quality people, good food, and most importantly drunken idiots to laugh at. I don't know that I've ever sat on the beach until dawn especially with thousands of people, but it was a true experience. If nothing else it makes bitching about staying up til 12 for New Years look absolutely ridiculous!
Dawn had arrived and most of the partiers were leaving most unfortunately this behind...
One other thing: the metro was stopped so we had a lovely hour wake home. Never have I been soooo happy to see a bed or that new air conditioner.
If you want to read a great description that is much more accurate than my Fodor's:
http://bcnin.com/2011/06/sant-joan-barcelonas-craziest-festival/
No comments:
Post a Comment