MONTSERRAT

A very beautiful Sunday morning and expectations - to go to see Montserrat - a very special mountain in Catalunya and I would say a proudness as well, and one of the biggest objects of tourism here. A lot of religious people all around the world come here to pray in a cloister and to touch a virgin which untypically is black.


Inspite of a huge ammount of people I felt that special atmosphere there. Very beautifull paths in a mountain and incredible views, therefore also a big choise of trecking possibilities.

MONTSENY

This year the 1st of May turns out a very special day for me as I restart trecking in mountains again. We choosed a very beautiful mountain named Montseny and a summit Matagalls. Inspite the grey and rainy day we decided to go up. Being wrapped in a cloud for several hours made a really mystical feeling, all around was just a fog. The views are incredible, but this time we needed to use our imagination as we could hardly see each other.

As always reaching summit feelings are gorgeous - pure connection with nature.

The fields of one of my favourite flowers. The endless beauty of nature.

MONA

This Easter no egg colouring, no egg hunting, this time everything is different. Here the only Easter symbol is Mona - a cake with huge chocolate egg and rabbit on top of it. It is given to a godchildren by their godparents, therefore (as it is very usual here) - Easter is a celebration among family and friends. And beside everything beach seeson opening time.

VALENCIA

Fantastic weekend of love in Valencia. Sensations and moments, unpredictability and new inspirations. Spring and blossom all around, love, love and love in the air.
As Valecia is one of the first cities just after the borderline of Catalunya things are happening quite different over there, and one more time I ascertained that Catalan and Spanish cultures are quite different. The city is third largest in Spain and I would say it is very diverse and pulsing. I was surprised by amount of big parks in the center and I really enjoyed old town, beautifull baroque arhitecture and some heritahe of Roman times.

Valecia is birth place of several things as horchata, paella and oranges. Horchata is cool drink made of milk and nuts, sold on the streets or in cafes or shops, and it absolutely makes hot summer day more enjoyable and fresh. Paella - the best paella I ever ate as far, amazing bunch of flavors, available any kind and any size and followed with cool white wine. Eating in a restaurant outside, feeling warm breeze of wind, enjoying wine and having a great company make me understand why spanish people give so much importance to meal time. Just outside of the city there are kilometres and kilometres of oranges trees plantations, it looks so beautiful, these are those places where fruits of sun come from.
The dessert we left for the late evening - a romantical walk in an iluminated city of Arts and Sciences, which absolutely has an outstanding arhitectural approach. It leaves an impression of realization of a fantasy world.

VINTAGE CAR RALLY

Already 52nd Sitges vintage car rally! By my surprise there where really a lot of cars participating in a race, which starts in Barcelona and ends in Sitges, taking a beautiful hairpin road near the sea.


The competition was also judged on the vintage costumes weared by the participants as well as the positions of the cars in the race.


All the images were irreproachable. After rally all the cars were available for people to take a closer look or to have some chat with participants.

THE DAY OF KINGS

Juhuuu... The most happiest day for all the kids in Spain is here. The day of kings - the day of new year presents. The parade of kings is in the evening of 5th of January in every city and town of Spain. It is very beatifull and splendid. The main characters are kings and the star, surrounded by other ones and animals as well. As the music bands are also participating, the atmosphere is really joyfull. Assistants of the kings are throwing small caramels in the public, and as kids come already prepeared (with small plastic bags), they can collect the sweet candies for the rest of a year.
The next morning everybody is jumping out of beds in order to get their new years presents. Usually all family and also some friends come together for a celebration. The opening presents is a very joyfull and full of expectations moment, mainly for children. It is followed by a lunch and a special big pretzel.



There are a small kings figure and a bean inside and a small tail written on additional card, whish tells the story. Everybody gets his piece, the person who gets a bean, pays the cake and a person who gets the figure, gets a crone and is a king in celebration day. Usually this day is full of joy, fun and love as families come together to celebrate this special event. This year I was the happy one who got the piece, where was a figure inside and with this a magic crone.

HUMAN TOWER

The roots of one of the most impressive Catalan traditions called Castell (in original language) are found in the end of 18th century. The main concept is - people are making tower standing one on each shoulders, the highest one is 10 people level. There are many technologies of making human towers and some of them are really complicate. The passion and perseverance of people making human towers gives huge energy to the event itself. As in complicate versions towers sometimes use to collapse, it causes pain feeling for participants, but it does not stop them to try again and again. I would say that this is a tradition which goes from one generation to another also in a meaning of family as in one team can be found both grandfather and grandson. The last person is always a child, usually 5 up to 7 years old. When he climbs up and makes a specific cross as a sign that tower is done, the demounting starts. The process demands a lot of concentration and physical effort from people participating.
Every team has a couch which consultes participants all time long making a tower and makes all decissions about mounting process, in some cases the tower can be demounted middle done if there are some errors already in a beginning. The event of building towers usually happens in a way of competition, teams from towns come together to one town (every time different). To have sucess people are excersising all year even if the season is mainly in summer and autumn time. It is a lot of fun as well and great feeling of unity.