La Sagrada Familia

Navidad

Toni with his new shirt
Christmas day, the table...

We had a lovely Christmas period, although tinged with sadness as it was the first without Toni's mum. On the night of the 24th, we went to his brothers house for dinner. There is a tradition in Catalan called Caga tio, which is basically where the children hit a piece of wood with a stick so that it 'poos' presents. Let me explain. A week before Christmas, a little piece of wood with a face and a christmas hat on, is put under the tree and covered with a blanket. During the week the children leave it bowls of fruit peel to eat. The idea being that when you hit it, it will have diorrahea and 'poo' more presents for you. The children are forbidden to look under the blanket before Christmas and they are told that if they do so there will be no presents. Then on the night of the 24th, the children (mainly toddlers and youngsters it doesnt really work for older kids) have to sing a little tune, and then hit the Caga tio with a stick, after that they look under the blanket and they find a small present. While the child is opening the present, or looking away, another present is placed under the blanket and the same things happens again. It was really nice watching Toni's nephew Marc doing this. He is only two so he was pretty suprised after each present appeared.

Festival de Vic - December 07

We had an extra long weekend here. Thursday was a holiday and so was saturday. So most people have a ´puente´a bridge and take the friday off work and get out of Barcelona. Toni had to work, and i had wanted to get out of BArcelona so on the friday, two girls from work and I caught the train to a village in the mountains called Vic. Its a tiny medievil town and the first weekend of December is always their Medievil festival. It took about 1/1/2 hours on the train and we arrived at 10.30am. It was 5 degrees and cloudy but as we walked through the little cobblestone streets we forgot how cold it was. The tiny streets were lined with market stalls and tents selling everthing from cheese and ´fuet´sausage typical of that area, to jewellry bags, clothes, christmas things etc. We picked up a little map and followed the winding streets to the cathedral. There were bands playing and people juggling and waving those huge flags to music. All the people working in the stalls were dressed in medievil robes with robe tied around the waist. After pushing through the crowds for an hour or so, we almost fell out of the óld town´into the river. We decided we would follow the river along, where there were less people. The river didnt have much water, but was still beautiful with a stone wall and bridge along the side. The trees were orange and all the leaves were decorating the ground. We got to the bridge and realised there were more markets on the other side. So as we walked over, we saw a stand that had two men and an array of wild very large birds. One man was holding a very big African Owl. He had deep orange eyes and beautiful liight brown feathers with black flecks. As we got closer we saw more owls, a snow owl, and little one, and a huge vulture! They were all standing on their own little stands and were tied by the feet, with little chains. We walked around and took some photos of them, and then we saw that if we wanted to hold the big african owl, we could. For 5euros, you can hold it and get a photo taken, so we thought ´when else would you ever get the chance to hold an owl?´So we did!

Christmas Windows 1

Sparkly, Glitter, Red Silver and Green, Baubles, Tinsel, Fairy lights, Atmosphere, Buzz buzz, Shopping Spending Giving Recieving, Cold dark days, Wine and Toasty warm fires.

Blanco y Negro

World Press Photography Exhibition

Last weekend we went to the CCCB in Barcelona to see the exhibition of the World Press Photography. It is a collection of photos journalists works from the last year. They are separated into catagories and prizes are awarded for each. The photos were spectacular! The were beautifully framed and the lighting was amazing. Each photo demanded all of your attention. Over all it was rather depressing, looking at some shocking images of war, poverty and destruction. These were some of the best or most moving photos.