Carnaval itself

CARNAVAL

Carnaval where do I begin.. well how about Saturday at 4 or should I say 4:30 because that is when Pedro actually picked me up and we went to Juan’s to wait another 2 ½ hours for him, and Pedro to eat (Juan made me and Antoine a drink with some Bailey’s Irish Cream, and some milk to make it “mas suave” while he and Pedro ate. Don’t get me wrong they offered food to us too but I had just finished eating about an hour before) then everyone got ready at Juan’s house- took pics. Then we made our way to pick up Julia. Julia is another student studying abroad in Sevilla- she’s from Austria and I had met her before when I had met the guys with Tanya to sit next to the river and listen to them play music. Anyways we went to pick her up which meant another 30 minutes waiting in Macarena.

Finally we set out and Pedro drove us the 2 hours to Cadiz and we listened to music the whole time and they played the theme song they intended for us to sing to go along with our costumes. Let me just say that I never joined into the song-it was some folk song from Ireland and they loved it and they really sang it a bunch. Anyways it took a while to enter Cadiz as there was an atasco (traffic jam) as so many college students and teens swarmed the city for Carnaval. We finally got in and found an awesome parking spot near the old tobacco factory. We then walked the 20 minutes to the center of the city where we passed under some old arches and encountered the mob!

Now when I mean there were people crowding the streets I mean it! These streets were crammed with people and the only way we stayed together was by holding hands like a train and moving and pushing around people. I was told that there was around (500,000 people crammed in centro that night- that means just in this part of the town there was that many people if you can imagine that) There were a couple points where we, (Pedro and I because Pedro wasn’t allowed to lose me as I didn’t have my cell on me as I had no pockets and the backpack was carrying my stuff and Pedro had that too) and it was only when Antoine held up his battle axe above the crowd that we found them a lot. However, at one point we lost the group all together because a guy splashed his beer into the crowd and Pedro got hit right in the face and while I tried to help him wipe the beer away we lost the group.

So we wandered through the millions of costumes going in and out of plazas, stopping to talk to the random person that would turn to comment on our costumes (mainly Pedro’s because he didn’t have a shirt on and so many couldn’t believe he wasn’t freezing- it was pretty cold for Cadiz). We stopped a couple times to jump up and down to the beat of some drums groups of guys played. All in all we had fun but it got to the point I would worry that the group would wonder where we were so we called them. Which didn’t work as neither side could hear the other with all the drunk people yelling so finally they started texting and found we were in the same plaza as them and after a bit of random yelling conversations met back up with the group. Who were at this time DRUNK.

The rest of the night we moved around laughing at drunk people we met, admiring new and creative costumes, drinking, and moving to different plazas to dance and talk to other people. We did stop around 5 to go to a club and it was nice for the warmth but it closed after an hour so we returned to the streets to meet some more people and for the sunrise we were next to the plaza de Espana in front of the ayuntamiento dancing to the beating of a drum. The crowds had calmed down around 4:30 so we were among the survivors.

We ate churros and listened to a drunk 19 year old guy talk about relationships- I really was waiting for someone to punch him. That is something that is neat about Carnaval with as many drunk people you would expect a lot of fighting and really I didn’t see any. I only saw one act of violence and that was a group knock down a street sign- but otherwise there was nothing at all. What is neat about this is that, Pedro told me this, Spain has the least amount of robberies, assassinations, and rapes in all of Europe. I just figured it would be the opposite because of these kinds of festivals but it is just the opposite- something I pondered at 5 am in the morning.

Everybody else sat in the sun near the bay while Pedro and I walked around and starred at all the destruction- the town was a mess! I have always been an impatient individual and can’t stand standing still so Pedro accompanied me on some short excursions to see the bay and then on the other side of the plaza to look at waves of the sea and the morning sun. I have got to say it was really nice. We returned to the plaza got everybody else (including drunk 19 year old that I really didn’t like) and went to the beach to sleep for a bit. I ran in the waves (my body was tired but I just wasn’t) then laid down for a bit. 19 year old didn’t sleep either instead he was playing with poor Antoine who was trying to sleep but kept getting sand thrown in his hair- when I got back 19 yr started trying hit on me so it was nice when Pedro sat next to me and we talked and I could give 19 yr old the idea that I didn’t really want to be around him.

We walked back to the car around 12 and in our costumes (some of the only few still in costumes and awake around the city- everybody else was passed out in cars, on park benches, or the beach) and got out of town around 12:30. I slept until we got to a gas station where we got out food to snack on and continued to Sevilla. I was pretty worn out so when I got back to the house I ate with Alfonso and Reyes then went to bed until Anne got back around 5- woke up for two minutes to say hi then slept until 9 had dinner then went back to sleep. I was tired to say the least.