Talahalloween

Halloween is a weird time of year...

In Canada it’s such a well defined holliday... you get dressed up as whatever you feel like, be it funny...scary...stupid...etc. and you go out to parties or clubs, have fun, and eat chocolate.

Now in Spain, Halloween is a relatively new cultural phenomenon that has only emerged throughout the last 6 years and is definitely still quite the novelty! The idea of actually dressing in a scary costume is very much the craze here. I think that as the years go by, there will be more and more ubiquity throughout the western world. Maybe from American TV shows?

Here I am with my horrifying roomate Diana!
Note the crutch she is carrying... Motorcycle accident

Anyways, I digest... There were some amazing costumes at the party that I went to! My roommate’s were very nice and invited me to their 3^rd annual party in Talavera, aptly nicknamed Talahalloween. Talavera is a really puny city that gained its fame when it arose from the ashes of a fairly large battle fought 200 years ago between Spain and France. Unfortunately as I was in the city a total of 18 hours, not a lot of exploration was had; however, I did get a lovely hangover cafe from a coffee shop downtown before returning to Madrid.

My roommates and their friends went to a LOT of work to make the night really fun and special! On top of the amazing amount of time (and money) they invested in their costumes they had come up with a myriad of entertainment for the evening. There was seemingly never-ending food coming off of the homemade brick barbecue, a team based obstacle course, and a pasillo de pavor (passage of terror).

The guy on the left had done an exchange to Canada
and decided to make some scarrrrry Canadian zombies!

The night flashed by with the speed that only new friends and crazy events can bring about! However, I found myself reflecting a bit at the loss of a certain cultural aspect of Spain though. Just the Thursday before we watched a series of videos in my Spanish class that went into the solemn and traditional practice of visiting their ancestor’s graves to clean, pay respect and commemorate the lives of their loved ones. Although I love Halloween as much as the next guy, it was hard not to feel a little sad that the majority of Spaniards under the age of 30 don’t take part in the Día de Todos los Santos activities. I suppose that with an increasingly globalized culture, this shouldn’t be as unexpectedly sad as it seems.

Anyway, I definitely left Talavera with a bunch of new friends and memories. It was certainly a different way to spend Halloween!

Mucho Amor,

Rob

Here are the three roomates Diana, me and Marcos! This is the first picture of
the three of usI have ever been able to get and we look horrific... sigh!

Barcelonaaaaah!

A day before leaving for Barcelona, the girls and I were comparing airplane notes and laughing at the ridiculous RyanAir system...

...that is of course when I noticed that there was a minor discrepancy between what the girls had on their ticket and what was on mine! Apparently in my recently-awoken-from-a-siesta-and-ill stupor I had managed to buy a ticket for the plane that left the next morning at 7:45am not the afternoon one that left around 2:00pm.

Of course I was more than up to the task of being the proverbial guinea pig and getting to do some solo exploration of Barcelona for a couple hours before the girls got there (after a nice little delay for them too!)

How cool to arrive in such a beautiful and famous city and be able to just take it in. Things that are difficult to do in a group...like just standing under the Barcelones Arc d’Triomf just enjoying the colours for 20 minutes without making one’s travelling companions feel awkward.

My solo trek consisted primarily of twoish kilometre excursions from the bus stop. On the way in I had seen a big crane and what looked like a steeple in the distance and decided to go check it out! Knowing that halfway constructed temples are all the rage in Barcelona, I decided to go check it out! Turns out, that there is really only the one temple and I managed to stumble upon it! This came in quite handy as I was able to take the girls on a lovely walk to the Templo de la Sagrada Familia on our last day.

Here I am!!  I had just gotten my hair cut
and it It took 4 tries to get the mercat's name to fit
...you should see the "outtakes"

A few days before, Andrea had listened to me complain about my long hair and joked that I should get a nice Barcelones haircut while we were there. After encountering a really cute little barber shop on my way to the Sacrada Familia it was as if destiny had placed a large neon sign saying “get your hair cut Rob!” The man who cut my hair was probably the coolest Spaniard I had ever met, while snipping away he told me almost his entire life story, made me coffee and had shown amazing interest in where I was from. The entire process lasted almost 3 hours and was thoroughly enjoyable!

Afterwards, I had a siesta in park and read some Sociology before meeting up with Andrea and Cayleigh when their bus pulled in. We headed over to the apartment that we decided to rent for the weekend (it actually cost about the same as a hostel would have, but was almost directly downtown and much more secure.) 

That night we explored the area around our place, focusing on seeing the ocean! Ahhh yes, once again the Mediterranean...It made me miss Canada a bit to be honest, but I think that is normal. We wandered through the MareMagnum area, which is the port that houses the multitude of beautiful boats and yachts (I’m pretty sure I saw the ridiculous one that I’ll buy for you all to visit me on when I’m a quadrillionaire). After that we basically headed home and hit the sack so that we would be ready to do some rockin’ sightseeing.

¡Desayunando en nuestra habitación acogedora!

The next day, the girls and I woke up and made French toast in our little piso, which was a great way to start off the day! We then wandered down along the beach through La Barceloneta where there is the fountain that is supposed to be the meeting place for parties after the Barcelones soccer team wins a game. It also turns out that the water is magical and connects to your soul when you drink it, making it so you will someday return to Barcelona. There is a matching idea in Madrid for the Real Madrid team, but that one just so happens to be in the middle of a traffic circle down in the middle of the city...might be a dangerous (or fun???) place to start a postgame party and I hear the water is not magical at all in Madrid....

We wandered down to the white, sandy beach and popped off our shoes to dunk our feet into the ocean, splashing and enjoying the ridiculously warm October day. On the way home to meet Michelle (who had to come a day later than us cause of school) we meandered through the Barri Gotic where there are the coolest and more eclectic shops and callejones (tight lil’ alleys). This part of the city really made us aware of the antiquity of Barcelona; there definitely weren’t any plans to accommodate SUV’s when that city was planned!

Ready, Set *click* JUMP!

After that we ended up zipping home and picking up Michelle, who had just arrived since she had to attend class on Friday morning. That evening we went out for tapas, to the beach, down through “Las Ramblas” which is the main tourist strip of the city. One of Andrea’s friends had previously been on exchange in Barcelona so we had some great tips for where to go to get a beer and tapa that evening, definitely nice to know have a local opinion!

We retired early that evening as the next morning we had to get up early to get to the Parc Güell to enjoy some of Antoni Gaudí’s amazing new age modernistic architecture! We roamed about the park for a few hours in the morning among the masses of tourists (I’ve got to tell you, it was a little overwhelming for me after the tranquility and peace of Brazil.) But it is important to appreciate the sheer amount of work that Gaudí put into his masterpieces. Nothing like the artistic offspring of a man who was so bohemian that he stoically refused to be moved to a better hospital when he was hit by a trolley, he just wanted to stay with the poor folk.

Team Cañespaña out on the town!

The rest of that day we spent in the centre, exploring the city, filming a top-secret BCOM video, getting semi-pick pocketed, and watching a great street band that got the entire audience rolling with their awesome beats. We headed out on the town with some Barcelones amigos to have some drinks at the Oveja Negra (black sheep), a cute little college student pub that filled with the rumble of 60 separate mini-conversations and laughter. By the time we got back to our place it was nearly 4 in the morning (which is actually early for Spain remember...) and we had to hit the sack right away to ensure a full day of hungover touring the next morning before heading home for our flights.

The next day we got ourselves ready and took a couple other clips for the top-secret video, then zipped out on the town. I took the girls on the same walk that I had done my first day in Barcelona so that they could appreciate the Sagrada Familia as well, then we circled back around and wandered down a street to the Arc d’Triomf for a while before catching the bus to make our long journey home.

Conclusion on Barcelona you ask??? 

Well, I had a wonderful time! It was very interesting and sobering experience for me to see a city so alive and full of historical beauty. I still found myself happily satisfied as we boarded the plane going back to Madrid. I think that even though Barcelona takes it upon itself to fulfil every possible desire the average visitor might have...Madrid is where I am currently hanging my hat; therefore, the people and places that I have here are now my home.

Mucho amor,

Rob

We'll end on a classic lion photo.
We were considering the horizon while galloping away on Aslan!