Mosaic Tiles and Burning Effigies...

My amazing friend, Andi, lived in Barcelona last summer, and she was awesome enough to send me a couple e-mails with tips and ideas for visiting Spain before I left on my trip.  One thing she said was totally worth seeing was Loyola--the birthplace and conversion site of St. Ignatius (the founder of the Jesuits).  Ben and I searched maps of Spain and Spanish guidebooks for the better part of three hours trying to find Loyola, but to no avail.  Reluctantly we abandoned that idea and decided the next day we'd head to Barcelona.

Tuesday morning we got up (later than we'd meant to--oops--did I mention that neither of us had a watch or an alarm clock?  I had thought the clock on my phone would work, just to use as an alarm--notsomuch.  And Ben's watch battery died.  Made for some interesting adventures...and lots of math as we continually converted the Pacific Standard time from my camera into Europe time), checked out of the hotel, leaving our bags there for them to hold, and went to find some breakfast.  After breakfast, we decided our mission of the morning was to see the inside of the Basilica--and boy was it worth it!!  They had AMAZING mosaics designed around the Mysteries of the Rosary (stories from the life of Christ).  The colors were incredible, and they seriously looked like paintings, not tiny little tiles.  Gorgeous.

So after a few more photos, a stop to see the inside of Notre Dame (the church we first saw when we got into town), and a quick stop at the post office, we retrieved our bags and headed to the train station.

When we got to the counter, they told us we could not go to Barcelona that day--all the trains were booked.  :(  So in a split second decision, we revised our plans and decided to visit the Basque country after all, getting tickets to San Sebastian, a tiny little town on the Atlantic Coast of Spain, on the Bay of Biscay (or Biscane, depending on where you see it written).  We headed out to wait for the train.  We settled on a bench and I got out my St. Patrick's Day card from Erik (he sent me with a bunch of cards that he had written for me to read throughout my trip--so sweet!) and I laughed and laughed.  :)  That kid has a good sense of humor. 

We soon realized we had a couple hours to kill before our train would arrive, so I proposed we go on a hunt for some good French chocolate before we left for Spain.  We walked out of the train station and heard...a marching band.  Being up for adventure, we decided to follow the music.  It wasn't long before we found the origin--a parade!!  There were HUNDREDS of school children, dressed in costumes like it was Halloween!!  We tried to ask what was going on, and everyone said, "Carnivale!  Carnivale!"  We were pretty confused, as Carnivale ends the day before Ash Wednesday, and most places don't really have big celebrations during Lent.  Pointing in the direction the children were headed, a woman told us in broken English, "Big Fire!  5 minutes!!  That way!"  We decided to follow.

Running along side the children, we took lots of photos and tried to figure out what was going on.  They were all following a large pick-up truck with a Hagrid-like paper mache creature in the back--it was huge!!  There was, indeed, a marching band in the middle, and taking up the rear was a car with GIANT speakers mounted on top, blaring music like an overblown 80's boom box.

After a few minutes, the crowd reached a makeshift square, blocked off by temporary barriers.  The children and their chaperones and teachers (?) gathered around, pressing together to get a closer look.  Meanwhile, two adult men took the Hagrid-creature out of the bed of the pick-up and placed it on a platform in the center of the square, as two clowns interacted with and entertained the crowd.  I saw one of the men suspiciously douse the big chicken-wire and paper creature with some sort of liquid, and as excitement mounted, we could tell whatever was going to happen was going to happen soon!

Sure enough, barely another minute passed before the clown started yelling something to children, and they all started screaming and cheering.  Before we knew it, Hagrid was ON FIRE!!  And it was no small blaze, either--this thing was BURNING.  It was obviously full of firecrackers, and it popped and exploded all over the place, the children clapping and screaming, "FANTASTICO!!" the whole time.  As the creature was consumed by flames, the children began to grow disinterested, and the adults began to lead them into a nearby building (like a YMCA?), where the music was bumping and there was obviously a party going on.  

Ben and I took our leave, VERY confused.  My friend Debi has since told me that it was, indeed, part of Carnivale, and things like this apparently go on all over Europe (or at least France) throughout Lent, with the ashes from the burned effigies representing...something?  Not sure.

Anyway, we made our way back to the train station to await our train and begin our journey out of France and into the Basque country of Spain.

To see more Lourdes photos, click HERE.