Barcelona Day 3: Under the Stuffing
We got to Placa Catalunya at about half past 5. Nothing much was going on at first, but slowly I started to see it: people congregating towards the center of the placa, pillows in hand. No it’s not a typo, they brought pillows. Why? Well this year was Barcelona’s first ever Pillow Fight! By five ‘till six, a decent crowd of several hundred people had assembled. A fog horn was blown, and instantly an entire mob of people starting wailing each other with pillows. The festivities went on for a solid half an hour, people giggling and jumping around like children, feathers and stuffing flying. It was one of the most light-hearted expressions of fun I’ve seen a mass of people partake in.
Afterwards we went to the Parc della Ciutadella, a massive park where the community, not just tourists, actually gather. The space was defined programmatically more so than most parks, with beautiful, lush foliage in between buildings, playgrounds, fountains, and rowing lakes. The largest feature of the park is the Cascada, a monstrously large grand fountain filled with a disturbingly green liquid presumably considered water by some stretch of the definition. Somehow the mold colored filling actually enhanced the fountain’s character, giving in a more cartoon-like, exaggerated appearance. A giant gold sculpture perched on top of the fountain cements its obscene sense of grandeur. We walked to the top and back before I decided the park closed.
That night I took a “nap” around 11, never to be heard from until morning.
Afterwards we went to the Parc della Ciutadella, a massive park where the community, not just tourists, actually gather. The space was defined programmatically more so than most parks, with beautiful, lush foliage in between buildings, playgrounds, fountains, and rowing lakes. The largest feature of the park is the Cascada, a monstrously large grand fountain filled with a disturbingly green liquid presumably considered water by some stretch of the definition. Somehow the mold colored filling actually enhanced the fountain’s character, giving in a more cartoon-like, exaggerated appearance. A giant gold sculpture perched on top of the fountain cements its obscene sense of grandeur. We walked to the top and back before I decided the park closed.
That night I took a “nap” around 11, never to be heard from until morning.