In India and other primarily Hindu countries, there is a celebration called Holi, also called the festival of colors or the festival of love. This festival celebrates the power of good over evil, the beginning of spring, the end of winter, and is an excuse to laugh and play. Along with music, singing and dancing, the main activity is throwing powdered colors in the streets at anyone and everyone, friend or stranger. Of course, most people wear white to accentuate the colors. Many parts of the world celebrate Holi for its incredible fun factor, and we participated in the one in Barcelona.
Friends of ours, Claudia and Ricardo, organized a small group of friends to meet up for the festival. Here they are with the boys before the colors fly.
There were many groups performing traditional Indian Bollywood dances before the color throwing.
Then everything went crazy when they said "GO!" I was standing on a gate a bit removed from the color chaos, and I had no idea where the boys had found their spot in the massive crowd. So I do not have photos of them during the actual event.
Ray did not even participate, but was too dangerously close to the color crowd. :)
Claudia and her little business to "set" the colors in the shirts so they stay on the clothes.
(Otherwise, they will fade or wash out.)
After the festival, we walked down La Rambla and met up with the street "artists".
Dad got to spend his birthday in Barcelona!
We had the most scrumptious hazelnut toffee chocolate cake from our favorite bakery.
We cut the cake and dig in...
We went to Plaça España and saw a temporary Pixar exhibit nearby...very cool!
Mom and Dad with the old bull ring behind them.
We also took a walk on the beach.
Again, love these climbing structures!
Ray tried it, too, this time.
And Nicholas' birthday arrives four days after Dad's. Nicholas, Dad, and Robert, pose for a photo at Flax & Kale, Nicholas' top brunch spot. He gets his favorite smoothie there!
Later in the day we made Nicholas' favorite dessert...Baked Alaska with brown sugar meringue: brownie on the bottom, ice cream (gelato here) atop the brownie, and meringue covering the whole thing to "insulate" the ice cream while baked in a 500° oven. Given that I have an extremely temperamental oven that makes baking very inconsistent, we decided to attempt it anyway. Whipping up the brown sugar meringue was the easiest part.
Well, it was a messy outcome, but it tasted great!
Nicholas got the hat he asked for!
Wearing birthday gifts
We found a gimmicky ice cream shop called "Eyescream". First, you grab a tray and choose two toppings. Then they shave a cylindrical block of ice cream into a bowl and put two edible "eyes" on it. Funny? Weird? Cool? What do you think?
The machines in the background are for shaving off the ice cream.
Up next...PARIS in springtime!
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