What a long day of traveling!
Last night we were up until 5 or 6 am trying to recover our lost pictures.
Then this morning we got up, packed, and went back to Sagrada Familia to take some more pictures and buy a few things.
Very quickly here is one of the weirdest stories we have ever heard...
So in Barcelona, there are a lot of Catalan people. They have their own language, goeverment and interesting traditions. While in the market the other day near the Sagrada Familia we found all of these dolls for nativity scenes. At first we were confused because a lot of the little dolls looked like they were crouched down, almost like they were going to the bathroom. After we saw this about 20 or 30 times, we finally realized that's exactly what they were doing. From the side of the dolls we could see they all had their pants down with a little pile of poo under them!!! We also saw these strange logs with smiling faces and santa hats. Later at dinner we asked Mariana about the pooping dolls. She said that the Catalan people celebrate with big gifts and festivals on the 6th of January instead of December 24th or 25th. They have the 3 kings day and that is who brings them the gifts not Santa.
Last night we were up until 5 or 6 am trying to recover our lost pictures.
Then this morning we got up, packed, and went back to Sagrada Familia to take some more pictures and buy a few things.
Very quickly here is one of the weirdest stories we have ever heard...
So in Barcelona, there are a lot of Catalan people. They have their own language, goeverment and interesting traditions. While in the market the other day near the Sagrada Familia we found all of these dolls for nativity scenes. At first we were confused because a lot of the little dolls looked like they were crouched down, almost like they were going to the bathroom. After we saw this about 20 or 30 times, we finally realized that's exactly what they were doing. From the side of the dolls we could see they all had their pants down with a little pile of poo under them!!! We also saw these strange logs with smiling faces and santa hats. Later at dinner we asked Mariana about the pooping dolls. She said that the Catalan people celebrate with big gifts and festivals on the 6th of January instead of December 24th or 25th. They have the 3 kings day and that is who brings them the gifts not Santa.
So anyway... they like to do something for the children on December 24th or 25th, but something smaller. So everyone buys these logs...
The children 'feed' it, by bringing it fruits and treats. On December 24th, the parents cover the log with a blanket (and replace the food the children left with small candies and gifts). Then the children beat the log and yell "Cagate, Cagate, Cagate!!" which means "make a poop!". They lift up the blanket and it is like the log pooped out their small gifts. They put the pooping doll in their nativity scenes to represent this tradition.
I cannot tell you how hard we laughed during this story. It was so amazing, today we went out and had to buy a mini log and our own pooping doll.
And as for the rest of today...
After buying our log and pooping doll we rushed off the the airport, where it turned out our flight was delayed for over 3 hours! It was not too bad, we played cards, and they gave us a ticket for a snack, which I used for a little bottle of Catalan wine and pasteries.
Then in Amsterdam Patricia picked us up. Traffic was so bad at one point it took us over an hour to go 3 km!
But now we are here, and have to get to bed. Tomorrow we are going to look at all of the Holland things, like windmills, the little wooden shoes, and cheese!
Good night from The Netherlands!
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