Festival of the Calcotadas!

It's not a bad thing to have good luck!  Thanks to wonderful connections, four Americans found themselves part of a unique, traditional event, north of Barcelona.  The festival celebrates the beginning of spring as two year old onions - something like a cross between a scallion and a leek - are pulled out of the ground, strung on a wire, and roasted over wood coals.  The hot steamy onions, called calcotadas, are wrapped in newspaper and passed around to the crowd.  An onion-dipping-finger-licking sauce called Romesco is seen on every table.  We open bottles of wine, eat crusty bread, dip onions, and celebrate life, looking out to the sea.  The farmer is actually from California.  He visits and tells us of the onion's life, from seed to sauce, as we sit under an olive tree filled with local children playing and are surrounded by his emerging crops; new spinach, new lettuce, new cabbage.  Musicians play music, "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue", and the mood is festive.  As the afternoon carries on, dark clouds roll in from the southwest, the wind kicks up and it feels like an early spring day.  The festival begins to pack up and we make our way back to Barcelona on a train filled with handsome young men from a water polo team and a K-9 dog wishing to play.  He falls in love with our new-friend Amanda!

Back at the hotel, packing my bag to leave, I can still tasted the grilled onions, the Romesco, and the wine.  Life is good.  Life is so very good!