Twelve grapes for good luck

Yesterday afternoon, when we returned from wandering around the city, small bags of grapes were waiting for us in our room. We had no idea what they were for, so we left them behind when we headed to Plaça d’Espanya for the New Year’s celebration.

We waited for the clock to strike midnight and for the fireworks to begin.

That’s when we noticed that many people in the square were holding grapes. The final wave of drones faded out, rockets shot into the sky, and the clock struck midnight. With each chime that followed, the people around us ate one grape. It’s called las doce uvas de la suerte, a New Year’s tradition in which you eat twelve grapes at midnight, one for each month of good luck.

After the fireworks, the crowd dispersed calmly and in an orderly way. We didn’t hear any firecrackers, the shops were still open, and there were no incidents throughout the evening, even though more than 115,000 people had gathered.

A unanimous decision: the beach

The girls woke up surprisingly early, even though we didn’t return from the area around Plaça d’Espanya until around 1:30 a.m. We had no plans for the day. We had deliberately left it open back home, with no schedules and no obligations. We would simply do whatever felt right. And what felt right was the beach.

Through the Gothic Quarter to the sea

We started at Plaça de Catalunya and made our way down to La Rambla, which was already filling up. Before long, we turned into the side streets, Carrer de Ferran and Carrer d’Avinyó. The latter was almost empty, just a short hundred meters from Barcelona’s main pedestrian avenue.

One more thing we noticed right away when we stepped out of the taxi: everything was spotless. There was no trace of the previous day’s celebrations anywhere, as if it were just an ordinary Thursday.

No matter how you make your way from Plaça de Catalunya toward the waterfront, whether along La Rambla or through the side streets of the Gothic Quarter, you eventually end up on Passeig de Colom, that long, palm-lined avenue by the sea.

You cross it, take in the palm trees, reach the other side, and suddenly see people strolling beneath them in short sleeves. Yes, this too is Barcelona on the first of January. The thermometer read 15 degrees Celsius.

El Cap de Barcelona

Somewhere near this pop-art sculpture, installed in 1992 for the Olympic Games, you start to notice the change. You leave behind the narrow streets lined with tall buildings and an old-world feel, and as you move closer to the sea, everything opens up. The sculpture is covered in colorful ceramic tiles, though it can’t quite compare to the ones we saw on our last trip to Portugal.

We continue past the marina, which is filled with yachts.

Along the waterfront, the restaurants are busy. Most people are drinking coffee, some are having a late breakfast, while others clearly haven’t quite finished celebrating the night before and are continuing with Aperol spritzes.

Invisible parrots

We follow a stream of people who have the same idea for spending the first day of the new year at the beach. We spot a large Christmas tree, but your eyes slide past it, distracted by the backdrop of palm trees. If you’re from somewhere like the Gorenjska region, the mountainous part of Slovenia, your brain simply can’t immediately process the coexistence of a decorated Christmas tree and palm trees in the same scene.

As you walk beneath these palms, you constantly hear a kind of shrill bird noise. You’re by the sea, so naturally your first thought is seagulls. But when you look around, there are none to be seen. A white seagull on a green palm tree would be impossible to miss. Clearly, they aren’t seagulls. The chaotic screeching, which sounds like a never-ending argument, continues.

Anja had read that Barcelona is full of parrots, which you rarely see because they hide high up in the palm trees. They’re monk parakeets, which were a popular choice as pets in the last century. Many escaped, and others were simply released.

These days there are so many of them that their screeching has become part of the city’s everyday soundscape, like an upgraded version of cicadas by the sea. At first you notice them, then you tune them out. Seeing them is another story altogether.

Over the course of the entire week, we saw them only twice: once at the viewpoint above Park Güell, and once on the very last day, right in the city center, all gathered in a single tree.

Barceloneta Beach

After all the screeching in the palm trees, you soon catch sight of the beach. Shaped like an elongated triangle, Barceloneta stretches for just over a kilometer and is several hundred meters wide. Much of its modern layout is thanks to the 1992 Olympic Games.

Time and again, as we travel, we realize how much events like world expos in the early twentieth century or the Olympic Games have contributed to the look and feel of cities. Barcelona was lucky enough to host both.

The beach was busy, and considering its size, the scene was surprisingly pleasant. Some people were sitting on benches along the edge, others had found a spot on the sand, and the bravest of all decided to test the temperature of the Mediterranean Sea.

The girls ran from the waves so they wouldn’t get soaked, and were very obviously having a great time.

As you watch this beach, it feels like something is missing, and it’s precisely that absence that makes it so appealing. It feels more like part of a neighborhood and less like a tourist attraction, even though it’s crowded.

There are no hotels.

You only see the iconic sail-shaped one, known as the W, but it doesn’t feel intrusive since it sits right at the edge. Someone clearly gave real thought to the urban planning here, and that’s what makes this place feel different, better, and more beautiful.

The Aquarium

If you’re already in this part of the city, a visit to the aquarium is almost a given. With its main tank holding nearly four million liters of water, it’s one of the area’s main attractions. You start with the standard tanks filled with smaller fish, lobsters, sea stars, and whatever else you might find along the way. The aquarium is home to more than 11,000 animals.

The highlight of the visit is without a doubt the moving walkway through the underwater tunnels, with three-meter-long sharks, rays, and schools of fish gliding above you.

At the end, you can walk through a giant whale, there’s a play area for kids, and you can even feed the fish.

They’re Slovenians

On the interactive screens, you can choose a fish, color it however you like, and give it a name. There were several of these screens, and kids were creating their own fish at every one of them. Including our two.

Once they were done, they sent their fish off, and it appeared on a large screen on the wall. First, a small fish in yellow and blue shades swam across, named Nia. Then another one followed, pink and red, named Nara. At the screen next to ours, a boy had just finished his fish and sent it along as well. When it appeared, it was gray, completely colorless, with the name Jebo Jebic floating above it. *The fish appeared with a deliberately vulgar Balkan joke name, instantly understood as inappropriate by anyone from the region.

I immediately started laughing uncontrollably. Then, from behind us, we heard a mother’s horrified voice:

“Are you out of your mind? These are Slovenians, they understand you!”

Big Fun Museum

When we first walked along La Rambla, we noticed this museum and promised ourselves we’d come back one day when we had more time. Today, we had plenty of it. It turned out to be a museum of illusions, unusual art installations, clever visual effects, and playful backdrops for photos. The girls loved it, and so did we. We laughed a lot, making it a perfect way to start the new year.

A change of plans for tomorrow

Tomorrow, we were supposed to take the train to Montserrat, the famous mountain sanctuary with its Benedictine monastery, and then stop at the Colònia Güell crypt on the way back, where Gaudí experimented with his ideas.

The girls weren’t particularly excited about that plan, so I picked up my phone, and after half an hour we decided to go to Tarragona instead.

It’s a city known for its exceptionally well-preserved Roman buildings, which also fits nicely with our next trip in February, when we’ll be heading to Rome.

So tomorrow, a mini trip within the trip awaits us.