According to my dear friend Wikipedia, Dia de Sant Jordi is: "
also known as El dia de la Rosa (The Day of the Rose) or El dia del Llibre (The Day of the Book) is a Catalan holiday held on 23 April, with similarities to Valentine's Day and some unique twists that reflect the antiquity of the celebrations. The main event is the exchange of gifts between sweethearts, loved ones and respected ones. Historically, men gave women roses, and women gave men a book to celebrate the occasion—'a rose for love and a book forever.' In modern times, the mutual exchange of books is also customary."
All of my single lady chicas and I celebrated together. We took on downtown Barcelona. We met at the top of La Rambla and began our trek down, towards the playa.
La Rambla was packed, so we decided that a Buenas Migas stop was necessary. If you're ever find yourself in Barcelona, your first stop (after the hotel) should be Buenas Migas. Not only are the staff beautiful looking, but they also speak some English, which on somedays was necessary (so beautiful that Jordan curtsied, just one time, because she was so in awe of Señor Barista's good look and didn't know how else to respond). A little sneak peak of Buenas Migas (also the only thing I have EVER stolen, a Buenas Migas coffee cup, with the most delicious tea inside).
We were also waiting for Caitlin, who's mode of transportation was Bicing. A form of public form of transportation by bike. She had to drop her bike off at one of the Bicing bike racks and she legit couldn't find one open. She checked everywhere, so much that she almost ended up going back home to find an open rack. Here is a Bicing rack on a normal day....
Anyway, after some Buenas Migas we tackled La Rambla. There were books and roses everywhere. It was LOCA, as Shakira would say. We all had plans to by books and roses on La Rambla, but we then quickly realized that 99.9% of the books were in Catalan. A language that none of us knew, except for the words "exit" (sortida) and "goodbye" (adeu). I was lucky enough to receive a b-e-a-utiful rose from Tracey.
We finally made it through the LOCA-ness and down to the playa. With a little pit-stop for some delicious noodles. On our way down we then decided that grass was more optimal for our picnic since we had all showered that morning. So we posted up and picnic-ed our little hearts out. We were even lucky enough to have some guitar playing from Kara. I'd put a picture up, but she says she "looks ugly" while singing and playing guitar and therefore purposely made every single photo terrible. Here's what you get.
I gave Tracey a book for Día de Sant Jordi. She had been dyyyying to read The Last Song. Don't worry, I wrote something heart felt on the inside.
It was a successful and Catalan filled day. It made me wish I had stayed in Barcelona more weekends. However, I have some pretty amazing photos photos and memories. "Congratulations, you have now completed a successful RyanAir flight."
Check out the Flickr album to see all of my Barcelona shenanigans:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasecarrie/sets/72157623946346778/
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