   
When I first found out about the Screamin' Festival
in Calella, Spain
I thought that would be a great weekender to go to, but the $1800 airfare made it out of the question. So
I kept putting in bids
of $500 for round-trip tickets to Barcelona on priceline.com and got an acceptance
on May 10th from Delta
Airlines. I flew out of the Portland airport at 7:00am Tuesday morning on the
first leg of my journey to Spain. A 4-hour flight from Portland to Cincinnati, a
2-hour flight from Cincinnati to New York, and 7 1/2-hours from New York to
Barcelona. Every time we landed the debarkation gate was at the other end of the
airport from the next embarkation gate so I got a complete tour of Cincinnati
and JFK airports. In JFK there’s only one bar where smoking is allowed and a
pint of beer in there costs $7.00. Landed in Barcelona at 7:30am Wednesday
morning after a 3 hour night as we left the sunset and raced to meet the
sunrise. It didn’t take 24 1/2-hours to fly there. 2-hours was spent running
around airports and 9-hours because of the change in time zones. I had been
worried about the customs inspection but nobody bothered even looking at my
luggage. They just stamped my passport and waved me through. I caught the train 
from the Barcelona airport with the help of a little Spanish, a lot of waving,
and the kindness of strangers. I even managed to change trains at the right
stop. At 10:00am I got to Calella and took a taxi to the Hotel Catalonia, my
home for the next 7 days. At noon I rented a scooter for a day to explore the
town and get an idea of where all the places were that the events would be
taking place. I went down to the beach at 1:00pm for some free kebabs and
butifarra (sausages) at the Beach Party Bar. It’s a nice little bar and
restaurant, that plays ‘50s music, right on the beach, Not much of a crowd
that early in the day so I didn’t stay long.
Went back to the hotel to try and
catch up on the sleep I missed flying over. When I got up after a 4-hour nap,
intending to go back to the Beach Party Bar to catch a German Doo Wop band, The
Checkmates, I found that sunny Spain also can be rainy Spain. Not wanting to
ride a scooter in a fairly heavy rain I opted for a little more sack time in
hopes the weather would clear for the evening. At 10:00pm the rain was only
showers so I decided to take a run down to La Nit Del Magot to catch The Foggy
Mountain Rockers from Germany. I didn’t take the camera with me since I wanted
to have an evening where I could enjoy myself without having to think about
recording it. When I've got the camera with me I feel more like an observer on
the sidelines rather than a participant in the scene. Suffice to say that I had a great time and did everything I’d
hoped to when I found out I was coming over.
Map of Calella
#1 La Nit De Magot, #2 Pebbles bar, #3 Llobet Fabrica,
#4 Beach Party Bar
Scenes of Calella
The main church in Calella In
the year 1539, the church began construction and in the year 1747 the church
tower caved in provoking the total destruction of the building. Re-building was
immediately carried out and in the year 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, the
church was again burnt and totally destroyed. In
the year 1939 construction again took place and the church was completely
reconstructed on the 23rd of September in the year 1951.
The view from the balcony of my hotel room and the view from
Thom and Lucy's balcony on the other side of the hotel.
 Street
scenes in Calella
 My
favorite restaurant in Calella "Les Caves"
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