Sunday, March 13, 2011

Cádiz Carnaval=Halloween on Crack

Last weekend was definitely a wild one.  Saturday night was the Carnaval in Cádiz which meant every Spaniard and their mother dressed up in a costume, bought a lot of alcohol, and headed for the streets of Cádiz to celebrate before lent begins.  It was like halloween in March!  This carnival is said to be the 3rd largest in the world (just behind Rio de Janeiro and Trinidad), so you know it was crazy.  I found a dress on the sale rack in H&M that looked sort of flapper-ish so i bought tons of accessories in a chino store, had my friend Cassie do my hair and makeup, and bam! I had a costume.


Me and my fellow flapper, Catherine :)

Almost every American student in Sevilla signed up to go with an organization called Discover Sevilla, which provided transportation there and back.  It was an hour and a half bus ride which became a bit torturous because we all REALLY had to pee (Spain for some reason decides to not put bathrooms on their buses).  We arrived in Cádiz and everyone immediately flocked in all directions trying to find the closest bathroom.  My group of friends and I saw no bathroom in sight because the area they dropped us off at only had food stands around.  So instead, we ran around trying to find a private street that we could use.  However, there were cops blocking off every side street!  We asked a cop where we could find a bathroom and he so vaguely told us "over there."  Thanks for the help, man.  So we took his advice and headed "over there" where we went in a restaurant only to find that the bathroom was out of order.  Then we found a Burger King where I'm pretty sure half the people that were at carnaval were waiting in line to use the bathrooms.  I would haved pissed myself before I even made it through a quarter of the line.  We started to panic because I know I was at that rare point where you just can't hold it anymore.  And we couldn't even run to find somewhere to pee, because it hurt too much!  Thankfully, we finally found a small street that didn't have a cop guarding it.  It seemed like the rest of the carnaval population also decided to make this street their personal toilet as well because there were people all down it just letting their pee flow.  The street literally looked like Cádiz was just hit with a giant rainstorm.  But really, it was piss.  So us girls formed a wall and my friends were kind enough to let me be the first to go.  Let me just say, that was one of the greatest pisses of my life.


 This bus ride felt like forever!

We apparently had time to stop for a picture on our way to pee.

And here is piss street.  "That's not rain!"

So, once we finally relieved ourselves, it was time to join the party!  It was basically a giant botellon- everyone gathered in the streets, drinking, conversing with different people, and having a good time.  We met a bunch of cool people.  We mostly stuck with this group of hippies.  Going out is truly the best way to practice your spanish.  Get a little alcohol in you and suddenly you're fluent! (ok maybe not fluent, but it does become much more easier to speak).  So we got a lot of practice in with everyone we met.  These people asked if I was from England and I said I was from America and they errupted and were like "America?!? OBAMA!!!!!" They were apparently huge Obama fans.  In fact, 2 of their friends were dressed as Obama and Obama's security guard.

Obama!

Our hippie friends.

The girls looking spectacular :)

Overall, it was a very fun night, that unfortunately ended too soon :(.  Discover Sevilla said the buses would be departing at 2:45am so that we would get out before the trouble starts.  Which I think they should have pushed it a bit later because that's the time the party starts in spain!  Anyways, we ended up waiting for buses for another good hour and half (that's time we could have been enjoying more of the carnaval).  It was so ridiculous.  And it was seriously like Titanic (no joke).  Picture the scene where tons and tons people are fighting for their lives, pushing and shoving and screaming, trying to get on a life boat but the life boat only takes so many people so once that one departs, the crowd swarms to go find a new one.  That is how it was.  It was insanity!  The first few buses weren't even leaving with their full capacity!  Remember this?: "These life boats were tested with the weight of 70 men!  And I just saw a life boat leave with 12..12!"  Yup, what was a bus that could hold 60 people doing leaving with only half that number?!  I was waiting for someone to call out "I need women and children only, please!"  But we finally got on a bus, enjoyed our sandwiches that they gave to us, and got back to Sevilla safe and sound a couple of hours later.

The mob waiting for the buses.

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