New Year's Eve in Barcelona

New Year's Eve in Barcelona

31 Dec 2014 was our last day in Barcelona, the beautiful city on seashore. We had spent five days in Barcelona, living in a hostel of a Chinese couple. That day we four Chinese girls enjoyed the dinner prepared by the hostel-owner with another Chinese girl and a Chinese boy. We drank red wine bought from the supermarket. We heard that people in Barcelona drank Champagne to celebrate the new year and there would be a celebration event in Spanish Square. Then we decided to spend the eve in Spanish Square.

The hostess gave each of us twelve grapes. In tradition here, eating one grape after each strike of clock brings you happiness for the whole year. We each brought a little bag of grapes going to the square. There were few people on streets except some bums. When we arrived the square at half past eleven it was already crowded. I have never seen so much people in public except for train stations in China in Spring Festival.  A singer of traditional Catalonia music performed on the stage, with a band of drums. The beating rhythm welcomed the new year's arrival. We were glad that there was Chinese words of "welcome" on the big screen.  People around me began dancing and singing. Some people wore special hat of clown, and blew some whistles of interesting sounds. At the counting down point, people held their champagne, ready to open them to celebrate. Hongya took every grape during the counting down. I was not able to catch the space. Then the new year came. We hugged each other. With the happy and exciting music, Hongya almost could not help crying. Under the sky with fireworks, lovers began kissing, as if they were the only persons in the world. More people began dancing. I could see faint twinkling tears in their eyes because of the joy of meeting the new year. There were also tears in my eyes.I was infected by the atmosphere. I had never thought of that I'd spend a new year's eve in Spain, with the enthusiastic Catalonian people. 

When people withdrew from the square, the street were full of people moving slowly. They drank, danced, and sang. I had never seen so many people in Europe. As a citizen from crowded China I was shocked. Everywhere there were empty beer bottles. We saw cleaning machine working in some place where there were not so many people. In the dawn when we went out at about 4 to catch the flight the streets were all clean. We began discussing if this happened in China would the streets be clean in the next morning. 

In the next morning, we heard the news that some chaos happened in Shanghai's new year eve which caused some victims. Remembering the scene last night, everything's in order. Anyway, this was a very good experience of new year's eve, especially those passionate people. We took videos and selfies in the square. Those pictures will keep our memory fresh even when we are old.

Jan.01.2015