The legend tells that in the catalonian lands of Montblanc there once was a fierce dragon that had terrified the inhabitants of the reign since the dawn of time. Said dragon used to eat animals and inhabitants of the reign, so citizens always had to look behind their backs. One fateful day the king had an idea to solve that problem: In order to live peacefully, the dragon shouldn’t be hungry, so each day, a inhabitant of the reign would be randomly-chosen and offered to the dragon as a tasty meal, in the hopes that the well-fed dragon would leave the rest of the people in peace.
One day, the daughter of the King, the princess, turned out to be the chosen one in this raffle. The princess was well-loved by the folk because of her beauty and charm. Such was the love that the people professed the princess, that they asked the king for clemency so that they could send a different person to the Dragon’s lair.
The king was very loyal to his principles and accepted the result of the raffle: He would sacrifice his own daughter and with his heart full of sorrow, sent the princess into the cavern of the dragon to await her sacrifice.
Suddenly, a knight riding a beautiful white horse showed up. His name was George (Jordi in the local language) and he intended to save the princess and the Montblanc inhabitants for good.
George fought against the dragon in the most heroic and brave way that anyway could remember. During their fight, he stabbed his lance into the dragon’s heart, killing him instantly. From where the blood of the dragon had fallen, a rose sprout. The valiant knight offered the flower to the princess and as a token of appreciation, she dedicated him a poem, while the king, taking things a bit further, offered her in marriage.

Much to everybody’s surprise, the knight refused her hand and disappeared into the sunset riding his beautiful white horse.
This beautiful legend is celebrated each April, 23th. in Catalonia, Aragon and many other countries. Tradition dictates that boys gift their loved women a rose and a book and they receive another book in exchange as a token of appreciation.

Saint George’s (Sant Jordi in Catalan) is probably one of the most beautiful days to take a walk through Barcelona’s streets as there are lot of stands selling books and roses, writers signing their books to anyone who wants them and people gifting roses and books to friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, parents, sons and so on.
Today has been a beautiful sunny day, so I grabbed my cell phone, which takes awesome pictures, and took a walk with my girlfriend through the streets of Barcelona to capture the magic of this cultural and social festivity.

The first stop has been the book store. We have bought some great books for us and my sister.

Afterwards, we have moved to the center of Barcelona to live the atmosphere, what a crowd!

After that we have braved the depths of Passeig de Gràcia. What an astonishing view! The street full of happy families, loving couples, nonprofit associations selling roses, handcrafted roses and dragons and the booksellers giving wise advice to the people on which book they should buy.

We have stopped at a stand from a non-profit organization that helps kids affected with cancer into their battle against this horrible disease. The entire income of the day would be set aside for helping these little heroes, so we couldn’t miss the opportunity to help them by buying a funny handcrafted dragon.

Later, we have visited a stand where some top-writers were signing their latest books. At that moment Javier Castillo was signing. Javier Castillo wrote his best-seller “El dia que se perdió la cordura” while commuting to work by train. After the book was published, he left his job and now makes a living as a writer.

While strolling around, we met a dandy sitting in a stone-bench, the kind of things that you can witness in the cosmopolitan streets of Barcelona!

Later on, near Casa Batllo, a very famous building designed by Antoni Gaudi and one of his masterpieces, we came across a beautiful stand with lots of colourful roses.

Finally, our little dragon arrived to Casa Batllo, which looked incredible, full of roses and tourists taking pictures of it.

Oh no!! We had a problem!! I hadn’t yet bought neither my girlfriend’s rose, nor my sister’s and we were running out of time. Fortunately, I had the solution. Near us, there was a rose stand which sold very well-presented roses and, in addition, the money gathered was going to families in social-exclusion risk. We headed there and accomplished the rose mission.

After that, our little dragon was tired, so he, my girlfriend and I went back home. We have had a great time today in the streets of Barcelona and I hope that you will like this post as much as I have enjoyed taking the pictures and writing it.

Cheers!