Carnaval

I’m still not entirely clear about what Carnaval is, even after I went. I think it’s simply a huge party full of costumes and merriment before the start of Lent, but basically every foreign student in the entire country seemed to end up at Cádiz, which hosts one of the most famous Carnavales in Spain (and the world).

A bunch of us took a 4-hour bus from Granada to Cádiz on Saturday morning, and then returned on that bus at 4 a.m. the next day. I made my costume the night before—I saw some left-over holiday wrapping paper in a store and decided to go as a present. One of my more creative costumes, considering this Halloween I taped a moustache onto my face and called it a night.

A bunch of UC kids on the bus

When we got to Cádiz a group of us walked around, ate lunch and saw the city. If nothing else, the overnight bus was a great and cheap means of transportation to see the port town, which is supposedly the oldest populated city in Europe. It was really quaint and beautiful as it’s surrounded by ocean on three sides. We sat near the beach for a while and soaked up the warm weather, and I feel like I defrosted for the first time since November.

Around 7 p.m. we started the festivities and headed to the city center to get a better feel for Carnaval. I have to say that it was very reminiscent of UCSB Halloween: massive crowds, general confusion and making friends with strangers in the streets, and spending about half the night in lines for bathrooms. Literally I would say the biggest form of male privilege is their ability to pee just about anywhere, while girls have to fight tooth and nail for the dingy stall in the back of the sandwich shop.

Some key differences, however, is that my costume this year would probably only be accepted at Santa Barbara if I wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Also, drinking in the streets with open bottles is completely acceptable, if not encouraged, and there was a surprising lack of law enforcement (far from the policemen mounted on horses in Santa Barbara).

Gogo girls, Marge Simpson, Polar Bear, and a present

The bus ride back was notable for the fact that no one threw up. I was willing to bet my life savings that the 4-hour journey would be made unbearable by some belligerent kids who didn’t know their limits, but shockingly everyone was quiet and peacefully sleeping on the return.