First Winter Concert
When someone tells you you can go see a concert for €2 you don’t spend a lot of time deliberating whether that’s a good idea or not. You simply find the location of the box office on Google maps, head out the right way but manage to get lost by turning in the wrong direction numerous times (why is this so hard sometimes?) and get lots of extra steps in for the day, have an “aha!” moment upon finding the correct location, stand in line behind a massive group of what looked like high school students encouraged by their music teacher to do something with their free time while making you panic there won’t be any tickets left because there are so many of them (!), and finally get your hands on two tickets for a real concert in the time of corona that you paid the laughable amount of two euros for. Imagine that.
I met up with Ewa at the venue, except there were two entrances to the place and, of course, we both chose a different one, so there was that fun exchange of “Hey, when are you getting here?” “I am here.” “No, you’re not. I’m here.” “Yeah, so am I. But I can’t see you.” “Oh, great, walking towards you.” “No, I’m walking towards you!” … you get the gist. Why venues choose to have multiple entrances to confuse people I do not know, but damn, that’s annoying </rant>.
As it was, we were still early. The concert was to be at the Fundació Bancaixa, which is a cultural centre funded by a bank (Bancaixa), where, besides concerts, there are also art expositions, a taste of which we saw while trying to sneak in early. Unfortunately, I only got a couple of shots of this very cool piece of art before they kicked us out to wait outside.
Once inside, it was interesting to see how the seating was organized: every other seat was blocked off and, of course, everyone wore a mask, and they sure keep the room chilly.
The artists were a group called Quintet Furiant and it was four strings and a piano. For the life of me I cannot remember what they played, though that’s not so unusual … it’s not like I have a particularly good ear or memory for things that aren’t by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and maybe Vivaldi (and one of the more famous pieces too) … everything else I enjoy but that’s where my knowledge (and memory) ends. Whatever they played–and I did have the programme somewhere–was very good and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening of culture.
After the concert we took a leisurely stroll towards Plaza de la Reina, enjoying the newly-appeared holiday lights spanning the lovely Carrer de la Pau. And no evening would be complete without stopping at one of the chocolatiers on the plaza for a bit of hot chocolate and some churros. This really was a lovely way to spend a winter evening. I can’t wait until more of the city is lit up for the holidays.
