The St. Jordi's Day book festival is something that cannot be adequately described, it has to be experienced. It's an odd mix Mardi Gras-size crowds and Valentine's Day gift-giving and affection. We were expecting it to be busy in a relatively concentrated area but it was much more widespread than that!
The festival started off a little after 9 am with tents and books being easy to browse.
It quickly turned into this in every direction:
It gets so busy you are lucky to get anywhere near a tent to see the books. Lines also form outside of the bookstores that extended a full block for people waiting to get inside. Apparently some people waited in line for eight hours or more to get a book signed. At one point we were so overwhelmed we spent about half an hour trying to get out of the crowd and move a few blocks away to catch our breath. But since this is our first and possibly only time experiencing the festival we headed straight back better prepared.
My favorite part of the festival turned out not to be the books but the window displays and tents selling St. Jordi-related gifts and stuffed dragons!
And of course the beautiful decorations throughout the city:
Later in the evening we went to see a musical we were both excited to see, L'alegria que passa, adapted from the play by Catalan playwright and artist Santiago Rusiñol. Jay had read the play and when I saw it starred Jordi Coll (from Netflix's Merlí: Sapere Aude, and many other shows) I knew I definitely wanted to see it. I wasn't going to let the language barrier stop me from seeing Jordi in person! The musical was incredibly good and so worth seeing. We always want to see more concerts and plays when we travel but the timing never works out.
Today felt like the longest day yet since we've been in Spain. We are almost at another 40k steps according to my Fitbit. Tomorrow is our last day so we'll probably see a few attractions we didn't have time for earlier but for the most part, take it easy and enjoy ourselves. Stay tuned!
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