ok, so thinking of flag day, i would like to say that carnaval is pretty much the exact opposite of that. its basically impossible to not like carnaval. ok, so maybe you don't like dressing up, you don't have to! other than that there is nothing to not like, and even that is a stretch. i mean, i love dressing up as well as holidays where everyone else get dressed up in ridiculous things. its like the whole world is 4 again. who doesn't want to try out being four again?
recap of the night: emma and i get out of class on tuesday at 7pm, go to corte ingles for some quick groceries, and then have to go back to the apartment so that we can drop off our school stuff, and so that i can pick up my mom bag. trail mix, veggies, clementines, emergency toilet paper, tide stick, water, gum, money, camera, phone, pen, hand sanitizer, chapstick, swiss army knife. i was set. return to plaza catalunya by 8 to meet jeanna and catch the train to sitges. we were literally running the entire time. i was sweating by the time we got on the train. but we had to catch the eight oclock train because the parade in sitges started at 8:30, and we were not about to miss it.
on the train there was a group of people dressed up in costumes drinking boxed wine straight from the box and rolling slash smoking joints without even trying to hide it. watching a rabbit smoke is definetly an interesting experience. we knew which was our stop when they were getting off.
sitges is a town on the beach outside of barcelona that is known for it´s large LGBT population and famous (or infamous) for its weekend of nonstop carnaval celebrations.
i learned this all when we arrived in sitges and meet jeanna´s spaniard boy bruno and his friend oriel (i have no idea how to spell his name). and proceed to the parade. tuesday was the last night of carnaval, and so the celebration had already been going on for four days and nights. it was a city of confetti. the streets were multi colored and filled with cross dressers, masks, wigs, eyeshadow, and girls pretending that underwear is a costume. we made our way towards the parade, but the boys were already talking about food. what kind of spaniards are these? dinner at 8:30?! how can they be hungry so early? and how do they not want to see the parade?
and so they inform us that the parade goes until 1 in the morning. seriously. they weren´t even joking. so we went to find a mexican restaurant so i could get the nachos that i have been craving basically since i arrived. on our way there emma discovered a new use for my swiss army knife (mom bag use number 1). but we had some trouble, and had to get some help from the spaniards. and so we then found the restaurant, ate some nachos (but they weren´t as good as laura´s, so it wasn't quite perfect, but practically) and had discussions with the spaniards about slang and learned some new vocab. somehow josh managed to stumble across the restaurant and was miraculously able to meet us as had been discussed earlier. needless to say, we had to get a second round of nachos. then, en un ataque de la risa, jeanna spilled sangria all over her jeans. celebrate the tide stick. (mom bag use number 2).
after dinner the night mostly consisted of lots of random moments and ridiculous stories. but here is a general outline of events. watch the parade by the beach, go to the beach, dance on the beach, walk around, oriel and bruno leave, find a cafe to chill, catch the 5AM train back to barcelona.
ok, and now for some random moments and contemplations.
1)when we were at the parade i couldn´t see so josh decided to give me a surprise piggy back ride. it was quite scary, but i got some good pictures.2)at the parade i tried to get kisses on the cheeks from the dancers in front of the floats, but josh definetly got more kisses than me. and bruno would have gotten even more if he hadn´t disappeared for extreme amounts of time.
3)all of the bars and cafes were open at all moments of the day. even when we left at 5 in the morning everything was open, and there were crowds outside of every bar dancing in the streets.
4) at the parade we met some girls dressed as bowling pins, and the guy that was dressed as a bowling ball tried to bowl the americans over (aka, us)
5)we met a cross-dresser on the beach and emma had a conversation in spanish about his fake breasts. what are they made out of, how are they attached to the outfit, do you want to feel them? they are very realistic. he had very nice makeup. i was impressed. when he left he gave us all dos besos. he was wearing strawberry flavored lip gloss, so my face was sticky and smelled like strawberry smackers the rest of the night.
6) there was an amazing amount of peeing into the ocean happening. seriously a line of men standing at the waves. and then josh decided to take his shoes off and step ino the water. it was an interesting choice.
7) we played soccer with a group of guys for a bit, and then this new girl come and showed us all up. what a show off. when we left one guy, dressed like marilyn monroe, tried to explain that in spain they don´t do dos besos, pero solamente un beso.
8) we ate all of the snacks that were in my bag, including a pretzel i didnt even know was there, on the beach after dancing in about 3 minutes. it was impressive (mom bag number 3)
9) this guy was really jealous of our photo shoot in the street, and just had to be in a photo
10) we went into a burgerking (my first fast food experience in spain) but had to leave quickly because the floor was covered in unidentifiable substances.
11) jeanna got a red card
12) josh picked up a random girl on the street. she kept complaining about how everyone in the streets was staring at her
and making comments. what you can´t see in the picture is that she was wearing lacy black lingerie as her costume.
13) by the end of the night there was so much confetti on the ground that it looked like it had snowed.
14)on the train home josh stole the only open seat (what a gentleman) and fell asleep. emma and jeanna fell asleep on the floor next to him. but alex and i met po the telletubby. po informed us that he was going to be the next US president and wondered if we would vote for him.
15)we got to barcelona just in time for the metro to open for the morning. needless to say, people were very tired, josh had lost his hat, and my mom bag was nearly empty having eaten the food, used the toilet paper, finished off the hand sanitizer, chewed the gum, and lost the pen.
home to the apartment on balmes, my bed, and sleeping through spanish class.
1 comment:
beautiful. (from cricket)
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