Well, big updates, this will be a long post. The first stage of my trip is over. The final co-worker left this morning, and I've moved from the company apartment to a Hostel on Passieg de Gracia. This past week has been an eventful one, no doubt. I'll give you the play-by-play here in a minute. Internet is now difficult to come by, so I will do my best to keep thing up here, but no promises.
However, by and large, the first stage of the trip was about DrupalCon. Not only was being in Barcelona a mind-expander in itself, I was surrounded by some of the top minds in web development. I got a ton of new ideas and could work for a few weeks just refining my technique and learning all this new material. I don't really have weeks, but I did take some time to do a few patches for drupal, we'll see if they make it in before Drupal 6 launches.
Its Monday. Thursday night was drinks in Placa Sant Miguel with crazy Europeans. We all met a Placa Reial, the locating of which was a little adventure. I had a general idea where it was but mostly had to spiral in on it. That trip probably taught me more about the layout of Las Rambles than anything else. I'm still consistently amazed at how you can be literally around the corner from somewhere in the old city and not really know that it is right there. I figured this out in a pleasant surprise, when at the end of the night I walked off in the general direction of the metro and found Placa Sant Jaume, about 50 feet away. Wow, this is right where I was last night!
Conference all day, Friday night we caught up to Aaron, who had mysteriously disappeared the previous day and through the morning. Turns out he wasn't registered for the conference that he had come to Barcelona to attend... whoops. Him, Neil, and I went down to Placa Sant Jaume and saw the beginning of the Festival Merce. Giant Puppets paraded through the crowded square, and then performed tradintional dances to a full orchestra. A King and Queen, a Lady and Gentleman, and some other couple that I couldn't place. Two dragons, a tortoise-thing, a lion, an eagle, and many dukes. All larger than life, they are called los gigantes, and stand 20 feet tall. 
Anyway, conference all day, Saturday night was the Correfoc. Aaron and I headed down to Via Laietana where we knew it was going to start at 10:30 - it was already in full swng at 10:15. We ran into the streets with everyone and watched as Devils and Dragons danced to the drums, and set fireworks off in ways most mothers would disagree with. In general, a devil holds a 4 foot long 'pitchfork' on the end of which is put something between the range of a huge sparkler with an M80 on the end of it. Then they light it and run down the street spraying sparks at your feet, then raising the pitchfork into the air it creates a fountain of fire, fially ending with a loud concussion. The idea is to dance in with this, and run with the devils.
Aaron burned up a good dress shirt (who wears a whie dress shirt to run in fire?), and I had one of the loud bangs go off about a foot from my ear, causing some ringing for the rest of the night. It was a ton of fun.
We then walked back through to Placa Sant Miguel and had one of the best seafood dinners I've ever had. Mussels Marinara, and some fried oblong potato thingy, whose name I forget, but they are all over the place here, to start. I had a seafood casserole, with at least three kinds of fish, mussels, and prawns. Aaron had a turbot, which is Spanish, for tasty-damn-fish.
Neil joined us and we walked through Las Rambles till early in the morning. Aaron left early Sunday, reluctantly.
Next morning, I went off to the Placa Sant Juame again to see the human towers that I spoke of earlier. I have some camera phone video, but don't have my cable with me, so I will upload when back in the states if it turned out OK. The travel guide I had said that the rarely built over 6 stories, but I was seeing them go up to 8. The last person up is always the lightest, meaning a 4-7 year old child. The honor is actually in disassembling the tower gracefully. I saw one fall, but I don't think people get hurt too much, as when it does happen, its kind of in slow motion as everyone is trying to prevent it. Instead you just kinda wind up with a large pile of people. The youtube provides again:
Hack fest at one of the drupalista apartments for a few hours, then I headed back. I got off the subway a stop before to take a quick look at La Sagrada Familia cathedral, I'll need to go back and see the inside, but I'm already fascinated. The way the stone seems to droop or flow like water is amazing and a skill I'd like to look at for use in my own work. That Gaudi was a wacky dude.
Then a walk home on Carrer Guadi hat has a center median strip for shops and restaurants. Turns out there was a massive dance going on about three blocks from our apartment. The placa was so full it took me 20 minutes to navigate 50 feet and realize that I just didn't have the energy for this. I was already at sensory overload. I bought a bottle of local wine (2,55 Euro, about $5) and spent an evening in for a change.
And that brings us to present. The rest of the trip is going to be different. Flying more solo, more sight-seeing, and more work, which I don't want to fall more behind in.
Coming Soon:
Inside of Sagrada Familia - with a sketchbook.
Barcelona Aquarium.
Possibly the Roman Ruins South of here.
More.
Adios.
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