Castles, Catalans and traithlons!
On the 7th of
October I will be swimming, cycling and running along Barcelona’s bonny
beaches. After deciding to go from
couch to triathlon in 4 months I have been training hard(ish) and during one of
these many many runs I thought that maybe I need some extra motivation, so lets
do this for something you care about and am proud of the work it does for those
in its area! Raith Rovers has been my little piece of home for a long time now
and I would like to say thank you, I am TRI-ing for the Rovers! I have created
a facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/TRIing4theRovers, here you can follow my progress and see how you can help me say thank
you too!
I hope that you enjoy this tasty serving of Paella and Bovril from Raith's game against Partick Thistle. Rovers took the lead over the but where denied the full 3 points by a late minute equalizer!
PLEASE SUPPORT THE MATCH DAY PROGRAMME AND ALL WHO GIVE THEIR TIME TO IT!
Paella and Bovril
September is, I think, possibly the best
month to be in Barcelona. The weather is still suitable for flip-flops and shorts;
the sea is still like getting into a warm bath and best of all the whole city parties
for one big weekend. La Mercé is Barcelona’s festival to say thankyou to the citizens, and boy
every year that thank you just gets better and better. All over the
city stages pop up and famous buildings are used as giant projections screens
for some amazing light shows, over 4 days the locals go mad. This year has seen
us singing along to a Catalan Beatles cover band till 1 in the morning with 7
or 8 thousand other merry people, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia being turned into a
waterfall of ice and fire and dancing till 6am with 10,000 plus happy and proud
Catalans after a late goal from FC Barcelona lifted their spirits even more. But as everybody knows with all that
merriment comes the morning after!
Luckily this year I
planned ahead and got a friend that was visiting to bring the essentials over,
Scottish morning rolls, veggie haggis and tattie scones. Breakfast was made and the usual
channel hopping started to find that elusive bit of entertainment. Spanish television has plenty of
channels but not a lot of choice, over dramatic soap operas, strange dating
game shows, local cultural information and of course sport! This morning we had the choice of the
football, some Olympics repeats or human castle building. Human castles it is
then!
Having lived in
Barcelona for a while now and seen how passionate and proud these people are
about sport, the massive love for one club, to see groups of them, of every
age, congregate in one of the main squares in Barcelona and “build castles” is
on another level of live entertainment.
Groups from all around Barcelona meet up in various squares and stadiums
throughout the castle building season and compete for the title. These groups have a wide mix of ages,
from your 60 year-old granddad down to the wee 5-year-old girl, it really is
something your eyes can’t quiet believe. Each team has a brightly coloured
shirt and all wear whiter-than-white trousers and no shoes. As the competition starts the colours
start to move together to form a solid base. Once this base is strong the team captain,
with his scrap of paper in hand, beings to call out the building instructions
for the castle of choice. From nowhere, more of the “coll” appear, climbing on top
of the base to the centre. Up and up they climb, every layer getting younger
and younger until, like a rat up a drain pipe, a tiny wee child shimmies up the
tower, sometimes 9 people high, get to the top and get down as quickly as
possible, point are awarded for construction and deconstruction, no points for
a collapse, oh and they do collapse!
This city has such a
passion for competition and having a good time, regardless of age, that maybe
you think that is what is missing from Scottish sporting culture. What is there
for something a family can do together?
Comments
Post a Comment