Sant Antoní and San Sebastian

This next segment is about the Saint’s days that we had in Palma and Mallorca.  Sant Antoní (celebrated January 16^th) is the patron saint of small pueblos and animals in Mallorca and is mostly celebrated outside of Palma, which is a bigger city.  According to Xisca’s story (hopefully I understood all of it), St. Anthony went into a desert to pray and encountered the Devil.  They fought, and now people and children dress up as Demonis (devils in Catalan) and dance around and chase people with fire.  This happened at our school when two male teachers dressed up, complete with masks and ran into classrooms/through windows/kicked open doors trying to scare the children.  It worked as a few kids in each class (grades 1-3) were literally trembling and bawling.  Their costumes were quite scary actually, especially with the masks they had made.

San Sebastian is a little different, but during the same week (January 20^th).  We got a day off work in Palma for this holiday, which made me happy as I got a 4-day weekend.  Wednesday at school we had an assembly where the kids could bring their pets for the priest to bless.  I think this is actually part of Sant Antoni, but our school kind of combined both holidays.  The blessings were followed by Jordi, the music teacher, playing the Zambomba and a group of dancers showing us a typical Mallorcan dance. 

On Wednesday night we all went out to Plaza Mayor where there was a big bonfire and huge statues of people dressed in typical Mallorcan clothes.  As Amanda pointed out to me, the fire seemed pretty dangerous as there are apartments all around Plaza Mayor and the smoke/flames were escalating quickly. 

Whew!  I think I’ve caught you up with my travels, and life in general, as of now.  Amanda, Beckie and I are going to Berlin at the end of this month and I have friends hopping the pond for a week in March.  Spring will be a busy time in this apartment!  

Getting Caught Up

This post actually starts about a month ago on New Year’s Eve.  Taylor and I were lucky enough to stay at her friend’s apartment, which was close to a Metro station and, therefore, close to the center of the city.  The first day we were there, December 30^th, we walked around the city.  We have both visited Barcelona before so it was nice this time to leisurely stroll instead of running around trying to see all the sites in such a short time.  We enjoyed La Rambla, an awesome Hindu restaurant called Maoz, La Boquería (a HUGE outdoor market selling everything you can imagine), and, of course, Starbucks.  One thing I had never visited was Parc Güell (pronounced Park Gway), designed by Antoni Gaudí.  We made the trek all the way to the top, where we encountered our first (of many) hurdles to jump:  Taylor’s camera wouldn’t work.  The rest of the day we scouted around for another camera that wasn’t insanely overpriced in the tourist district of Barcelona. 

On New Year’s Eve there is a tradition in Spain to eat 12 grapes, one at every stroke of the clock at midnight; and, of course, drink champagne.  Well, Taylor and I were prepared-we’d bought both products that day and were happily making the trek down to La Rambla in dresses and high heels (mistake number one).  Let me preface this by saying La Rambla, and I’ve heard Barcelona in general, is known for pick-pocketing; especially when it’s as packed as it was on New Year’s.  There were literally people everywhere.  Personal space was NOT an issue.  After the clock struck we decided just to sit in a bar for a quick drink and then head back to the apartment; a very early evening.  It took us about 15 minutes to get to the bar since there were so many people on the street.  We literally got pushed by the mob that was Barcelona on NYE; if one of us would’ve fallen, we would’ve been trampled to death-no joke.  We finally make it to this bar and are about ready to order a drink when I realize my right pocket of my coat is empty.  It used to contain my Blackberry and my camera.  Perfect.  Needless to say, we did not stay for a drink, we just went home and I was in shock about my stolen items.  Taylor tried to calm me down by saying I could get another camera tomorrow, someplace would be open, it’s Saturday. 

Well, the next day everything was closed because it was a holiday (January 1^st) so I was sans camera for the rest of Barcelona.  By the time we arrived in Rome, after sleeping in the Barcelona airport and being up for most of the night, I was ready just to head back home to Palma. 

We were on our way to St. Peter’s Square where I FINALLY found a shop that sold cameras!  My trip was looking up.  The first place we toured was St. Peter’s Basilica, which was gorgeous-so many paintings and beautiful marble, it was unbelievable. 

After our Basilica tour we stopped at a small restaurant to grab some authentic Italian food (we both ordered pizza) and split a bottle of wine.  We were so tired and hadn’t eaten forever, so the wine really had an effect on both of us, even though it was a small bottle.  From the restaurant we went back to our hostel for a quick nap (it was 5:00 pm) but then just went to bed at 9:00 with the promise that we’d wake up early the next morning and do more touring. 

Over the next few days, we walked around Rome for most of the day from morning ‘til night and ate our way through the city.  I tried a few different pastas, tiramisu, cannoli, and pizza.  Everything was delicious-the Italians really know how to cook.  

We had an excellent time in Rome but were definitely ready to be home and sleeping in our own beds in Palma.  Not to mention the weather in Italy was a lot chillier than in Mallorca.