sometimes bigger is better

and sometimes when you are late, you are really early. at least here in spain. the other weekend my friend ali and i decided to go see some castellers (human towers!). but, of course, we were late! and i was all nervous, with that sad feeling in my stomach. and ali was worried we would miss it all. but it turns out that an hour late is really an hour early. so not only did we get to see all of the castellers but also los gigantes, which are these crazy huge puppet things. really, they were intense. haha, they are like 12 feet tall, and people were inside of them making them move. if i understood right (which is usually unlikely) they were all supposed to be "traditional" catalan characters. but they have clearly been working on updating, cause there was one that was a girl in jeans holding a metro pass. there was also this weird bird one with breasts. i'm assuming it has some sort of regional signifigance but i can't figure out what exactly that would be, and it kind of freaked me out. and they danced! they had entire routines with partners and circles and music. they would all be standing still around the edges of the plaza, music would start, and all of sudden they would all be moving and dancing around in the crowd. i really thought they were going to hit someone. but there was some serious dexterity going on.

and then they all disappeared down a long winding road. i kind of wanted to follow them and find out where puppets go when they aren't dancing in the middle of plaza san jaume. but i was not about to miss the castellers.

ok, so you hear the word human castles and you think of cheerleaders and pyramids. and i would just like to say that those pyramids are nothing, in fact i might even say that they are boring. actually, they are boring in all sense of the word. castellers are crazy. first they came out and made towers of just one person stacked, standing on the shoulders of the another, 4 people high. and then they walk around the square stacked like this. so thats ridiculous to begin with. but it´s nothing. they then proceed to make huge castles, with layers, and several people thick. some of the tallest ones got to be almost three stories tall. i couldn't even get a picture that fit the entire tower in it. this is the closest i could get, and you can't see the bottom layer. PLUS, the people who stand at the very top are little kids. seriously, like 6 year old kids climbing a tower of people. much more exciting than climbing a tree. and apparently the kids at the top have only been required to wear helmets starting this year. and they were the only people wearing them. i really can´t explain how amazed i was by this entire situation. it was so crazy.

afterwords, of course, ali and i decided to go and get some dessert like item, and it was a beautiful day.