Pretty crazy weekend here in Barcelona celebrating the Festa de la Merce. As usual, it wouldn't be a Spanish festival without at least 18 different city sanctioned events that could prove potentially fatal to children and small animals. The Correfoc (literally fire-run) was probably the most mental. People pack into a small street, and they open gates and release people in devil costumes holding metal rod devices mounted with firecrackers. There are no barricades, so they just make their way through the crowd dancing and shooting off sparks. We found a nice spot next to a Mom in asbestos gloves armed with bottles of water prepared to douse her small children should they ignite. It all felt very safe. Not.

We followed that up by a pleasant dinner on the beach to watch the big firework show. Not much mass interest in that show. I guess if there isn't a risk of getting at least second degree burns, fireworks just aren't that fun.

On Sunday, we attended the Castells demonstrations. Again, high fatality potential. The first time we saw the Castells, we went to a neighborhood group's practice session. After witnessing a seven year old girl fall from a few stories high, I wasn't sure I could handle more. But the groups we saw were the pros (supposedly). The first Castell fell.


The others were good though! Here's one of the bigger ones we saw. There's a base layer on the ground that you can't see in the picture. So this one is eight people high.