Girona

This weekend I decided to go to Girona, which is only a couple of hours or so away from where I am by coach. Girona is a fantastic little city, with a history that stretches back to when Rome controlled the Iberian peninsula. Sadly there is very little to be seen from the periods of Roman or Moorish rule, but there is a lot of very impressive Romanesque and Gothic architecture. More modern, but still very nice, are the painted houses that can be seen along the river that runs through the heart of the city.



I arrived slightly later than I had intended, since I missed the first bus to Girona and had to wait another two hours for the next one. Nor was this the first piece of back luck I've had with buses - the weekend before I went to Barcelona for the day on Saturday and managed to miss the last bus back! But I arrived in Girona eventually...only to spend the best part of an hour looking for my hostel. The directions on the website had been very vague, but to fair it has to be said that a large part of the problem was my own lack of observational skills, since I walked right past the hostel at least three times before finding it, and even looked straight through the window (I saw people sitting at tables and assumed it was a café).

Once I was finally all sorted with the hostel, I headed out into the city to explore. Girona is a very nice city to wander around, with lots of interesting architecture and a generally pleasant atmosphere. The cathedral is particularly impressive (with what is supposedly one of the largest naves in the world), as is the Benedictine church of Sant Pere de Galligants, a fine Romanesque structure that now houses the archaeological museum.

The weekend I was in Girona was the start of "Les Fires de Girona", a week-long festival for the patron saint of the city, Saint Narcissus. It started with a short sermon given from the balcony of the town hall, which was followed by a fairly strange performance by two men on a trampoline set to the tune of "Daddy Cool" by Boney M. I can't say I really understood the point of it all, but it was quite entertaining anyway!

The next day, after a night of sleep that was disturbed several times by rowdy French schoolchildren who were staying in the hostel, I continued exploring the city. I also met up with a friend for a tour of the city and some lunch, which was good. In the evening I headed out to see more of the festivities. My first stop was at a small plaza to see two groups of "castellers". "Castell" is the Catalan for "castle", and the peformances involved the construction of a human tower that looked something like this. The outer ring of people then climbed down layer by layer, leaving a central pillar with each person standing on the shoulders of the person beneath them. It's really quite impressive, and I will try and upload one of the videos I took of them soon.

After this I headed to the Parc de la Devesa, which is the largest park in the city. For the festival it had been converted into a large carnival ground, with a great range of stalls offering all sorts of food/drink and games and also plenty of rides and other attractions. There were loads of people and a great atmosphere, and if I had been able to it would have been nice to be able to stay for the whole week and enjoy all of the various activities and entertainment on offer.



On the night I was at the park there happened to be a free concert by a group called "Els Pets", who are very well known in Catalonia. Their name translates as "The Farts". In a way the name is quite fitting for one of the most successful Catalan bands, since the Catalans have some fairly interesting cultural quirks based around a similar sort of thing...but I will go into that nearer to Christmas time! The concert was good fun, and by the time it was finished it was well past midnight. It was early by Spanish standards, but since I needed to catch a train at 8.30am the next morning I headed back to the hostel to get some sleep. Alas, the hostel was inhabited by more noisy people, but I guess that's what you get when you pay for a cheap bed in a hostel dorm (only €15 a night, with breakfast included)!

Girona was well worth a visit. In fact, I would have to say that it is my favourite place in Catalunya after Barcelona. Having said that, there are still plenty of places in Catalunya for me to visit, so who knows? It will be pretty hard to beat, however.