THE Fiesta...

If you were wondering why the second photo is a little blurry, ask yourself if you would be able to hold the camera straight when an explosive BOOM went off a mere 20 yards from you.

So I have now experienced THE fiesta here in Gracia. Wow. It is after midnight there are still hundreds and hundreds of people in the street drinking beers, listening to the music and watching the crazy people dressed in black and red march through the streets with sticks armed with firecrackers. It is like nothing I have ever seen. They are marching to the beat of a few drums and the sound of the fireworks being lit and then going off? It’s the hissssssss, then a pop, then a BLAST! And all through the streets in this neighborhood! At one point I didn’t think I was going to be able to get back home because marching fire-making people were in my route to get to my flat. Still in my bedroom I hear the not-so-faint sounds of the drums and blasts.

What a way to celebrate my first day in the neighborhood…