Warning: this post may be a little... crazy. And probably a tad controversial. Please bear with me.
This whole thing started a few weeks ago when a few of the girls at IES said they were going to Carnaval. Pretty soon, about half our program (myself included) had tickets for the same bus, which were actually a pretty good deal. 20 euro for a round trip. Normally, you'd have to pay 35 euro to get to Cádiz and back. Anyway, we knew we had to dress up. There was some debate over whether we should just dress crazy or have actual costumes. I went with my typical 'buy one or two things and make a costume out of it' approach. I ended up purchasing one of those skirt things that belly dancers wear (with all the jingly things) and a top as well. I knew exactly what I had in my wardrobe to go with this: leggings, a black skirt, a black tank top, and (for night time, so I didn't freeze) a stay-warm shirt, cardigan and jacket.
My idea going into this was that it would be some sort of cultural festival, maybe with a parade or music. Well, I was half right. It was certainly a display of Spanish culture. We got to Cádiz around 6 pm, and decided to chill at the beach while it was still light outside. We played in the water and sand (legit, there are about 100 pictures of people jumping on the beach or in the water) then watched the sunset. We then heard some loud noises of the festive variety, so we walked in the direction they were coming from.
Was it a parade? Was it a band? No. It was a bunch of people with drums, and some guys dressed as matadors with a shopping cart bull. We followed the crowd and ended up in the plaza of the Cathedral, where we realized that, at this point, Carnaval was a giant botellon. Because of a delay in leaving Granada (there were so many people going to Cádiz that there was lots of confusion and it took twice as long to load the buses) we had missed all the parade-like festivities.
For those of you who don't know, a botellon is sort of like a giant Spanish frat party: people get really drunk and stay out till all hours of the night, and following morning. We didn't know that it was just going to be this, but we rolled with it and decided to enjoy what we could. *disclaimer: yes, we were drinking, but not nearly as much as the Spaniards (or many other attendees) and made sure that we were close enough to sobriety to be safe.* Pretty soon, I was bored. Yeah, it's fun to talk to your friends and other random Americans that always want to talk once they realize you're American too, but literally all most people were doing was drinking.
You see, in the US, college parties (which is all I can really equate this too) have drinking games, and other stuff, like music/dancing to enjoy, as well as bathrooms and couches. Carnaval, on the other hand, was one giant mass of crazy, where people just stood there, talking to their friends and getting way too drunk. I can't even tell you how many ambulances I saw go by. There was no place to sit, as people throw their empties on the ground (gross) and some people would just go to a wall a pee (even grosser). Various times throughout the night, my friends and I walked back to the beach, where we (not even kidding) decided to sing some Disney songs to pass the time. Yes, it is an automatic requirement that college students regress to kindergarten levels of maturity.
Eventually (around 5), we gave up trying to entertain ourselves, and sat on the stairs of the plaza for the buses until 6 am, when we were scheduled to be picked up. That went mostly fine, with the exception of some latecomers who had been lost. We got back to Granada by midmorning, and I was so happy to be back. Yes it was an experience, and I'm glad I went rather than asking myself what it would have been like, but I don't think I'd go back again. I value my sanity a little too much for that.
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