I spent the next three days hibernating, catching up on paperwork and overdue website blogs (:)) and doggedly transferring my photos from my overloaded camera phone onto my long missed laptop. I was sill fairly ill, but happy to finally be back and free to relax and recover from my adventures in a quite, clean and friendly space. I thought I would give my cough a few more days to see if it would recover on its own, but one of my housemates approached me on the third day and asked if I would like her to accompany me to the hospital (I had kept her awake coughing all night). I eagerly agreed and two days later, on her day off, she took me down to the local clinic and acted as a translator for me to the doctor. Within a few hours, after an examination and some x-rays, the doctor diagnosed me with a chest infection and a stomach parasite. She put me on hefty antibiotics and a strict diet of boiled rice, apples and bananas for the minimum of an entire week! I all but stayed in bed that week. I even almost missed the La Merce festival!
The La Merce festival is known as Barcelona´s birthday party. For many locals, it is not only a city wide celebration but marks the end of the Summer festival season. There were more than six public access stages set up all over the city that held live music performances from Friday to Monday afternoon. One night I saw a Twarek rock band with six electric guitars up front played by maestros in traditional blue desert garb. I saw Asian Dub Foundation and some awesome reggae support bands the next night. There was one park dedicated solely to electronica and garage music, targetting teenage audiences, whilst the Ciutadella park had live circus performances, clown acts, touch sculptures and circus workshops for kids all day, every day of the festival. World class pyrotechnics (fireworks) exploded across the beach skyline at precisely ten every night (and yes, I could and did set my watch by it!). There were plays and street performances, dances, concerts, stalls and costumes everywhere. I even managed to catch some of the closing ceremony in Plaza Espana. At the closing ceremony, they lined the fountain terrace with sixteen amplifiers on either side, strung up from lamp posts, which played classical symphonies. Before me, the great fountain itself was dancing gracefully to the music with splashes of different coloured lights reflecting through the entire range of twists and spurts, fluffs and springs that the fountain could possibly procure. It was a waterworks performance set to classical music and it was pure magic!
Tune in next time for Tempest Trails.
Some Tempest time.
Some Tempest channel.
