Manresa

Happy Monday! Last day of February... bring on March!

During my free-time (aka when I'm bored) I check out the Barcelona group on CouchSurfing to see what's going on.... people are getting together to go to museums, have movie night, hiking, running... all kinds of things.

I found one post about people going to this thing called Fira de l'Aixada... I looked it up... and decided I wanted to go too! It's a medieval market in a town about 40 minutes outside of Barcelona. I invited Alexia (Paul's sister) because I know she loves medieval things, and she was more than excited to come with me and Toni.

We got up early on Saturday morning and were in the town Manresa around 11am. After a sausage sandwich for breakfast.. I was ready to go.

The whole city center was decorated to look medieval... there were 7 different squares to visit with different shows and activities going on all day.

There were so many booths to look at, and we saw them all. Alexia got her name written in a medieval calligraphy and it came out really nice.... and right afte that, it was time for the King and Queen to arrive!

There were towns people and nobles walking around, drunks and gypsies... there was even a town retard on a leash... and they gave him to Alexia haha... everyone loved Alexia all day. The people who participated in this fair were really great and were always in character.

Of course I loved the human castle... because I had only seen it on TV. It's a typical Catalan... activity? Sport? Hobby? I don't know what it is... but people compete and work harddd and the castles can be really huge. There's always little kids at the top so it is really dangerous... but really cool to watch.

We also went inside an old medieval... place. Toni and Alexia said it used to be the street of the town... and then it got covered up and kind of lost, now it's being restored and turned into something... I dunno... I don't speak Catalan and Toni doesn't pay attention.

The best thing about the festival for me was that Alexia was in heaven! She always said she wishes she could live in medieval times and see what it was like.. and this was pretty close! We both felt like we weren't even in Spain... or at least not in the 21st century... it was so well done... it smelled like medieval times (I guess)... It was really nice to spend the day with her :)

We took a break from the market and went to a chuch right down the road...

In 1512 Ignasi of Loyola visited Manresa after visiting Montserrat. He lived there for almost a year, and while he was there he spent time in a cave and wrote a book about religious practice... he carved some crosses in the cave........ He created the Jesuit demonination and later he became a saint. So... this cave has become a shrine, and you can still see the crosses that he carved 500 years ago.

Toni went to the school called Saint Ignasi... so he knew all about it; his school used to go spend the night in the hotel and have religious retreats and stuff...

It was a nice little break before heading back to the market... Toni was exhausted by this time (4pm) so we hung out a little more and bought some goodies - cheese and cake. Everything we bought during the day started with the letter C... Corn, Candy apple, Cheese, Cake... so good.

By the time we reached Barcelona we were all exhausted... it was a long day and lots of fun.