Well we now come to a very fun blog entry about Carnaval in Cadiz. Judging by the name you could probably guess that Carnaval isn't a big study session or sci fi convention. It is literally a city wide costume party where thousands of people from all around Spain converge on Cadiz to have a blast. And we did just that.
The way it works for students in Granada is that there are a variety of different services that sell tickets. When you buy a ticket you leave on Saturday for Cadiz get there anywhere from 5 to 7pm depending on your bus and then party straight through until 5am or 8am depending on your bus. Sounds crazy right? Well it absolutely was and for a college kid, right up my alley.
So the whole adventure started the night before when we were returning home for Cordoba and I still hadn't bought my costume yet. So I ran to a costume shop near my house 5 minutes after it was supposed to close and luckily for me they were still open. So I ran in and began skimming through dozens of costumes and nothing was striking me. I wasn't about to pay 35euros to be a cheesy gladiator for a one day party. So after searching and searching finally the woman says to me "3 minutes and you have to be out." I look and look and see one and knew pretty much right away it was perfect. I wanted to go all out for this and for 17 euro I did just that. And rather than tell you what my costume was I will just show you.
Thats right. For all my family and friends looking at this (and my mom who is probably shaking her head) I was a barrel of wine with a strategically placed grifo (faucet) and the hat is supposed to be the top of a grape. Needless to say I was thrilled with this. I come from a long line of Drury's who enjoy ridiculous costumes and I believe I get this passion from my dad who has told me many a tale about his goofy and awesome costume adventures. Everything from a man in the shower with an actual curtain rod and shower curtain to a bug whose eyes were made out of a pair of ladies panties and some bowls, my dad is pretty creative.
So needless to say he has passed on that passion for creative absurd costumes to me. My mom loves creativity and encouraging my creative side but this is one of those moments where she would shake her head, smile, and say "you are just like your father." I love them both and miss them so much but they will be here in two weeks! But anyway, back to the story.
So I leave my apartment wearing my barrel with what appears to be nothing underneath and am walking the streets of Granada to the bus station. Normally it takes a lot to get Spanish people to react they are more prone to just stare with a neutral expression than really react but this costume was a little too much for them. People laughed, and not that little chuckle, more that turn the corner see a red head in a barrel and almost fall over laugh.
People were sticking there cameras out of car windows and snapping shots, people were stopping and taking out their camera phones and taking pics and anyone who knows me knows I was loving the attention. I walk to the corner to meet my friends and till that point they didnt know what my costume was and after they saw it they just shook their heads and said this doesnt surprise me at all.
So we walked to the bus station and people were shouting at me all positive things, whistling, taking more pictures. While waiting for the bus I had a woman tell me I was going to freeze tonight (it was about 60 degrees during the day and around 50 at night), one told me I need to get some color (I didn't have the heart to explain to her thats not possible for my kind), and another came up told me I have huge muscles then asked for a donation for her charity. I'm gonna assume she was serious and wasn't just buttering me up for a donation.
So the bus comes we get on and there was a promotion that one lucky partier would be selected to get a bottle of rum for free. Bus driver picks a ticket and low and behold who gets it me and my friend Alex who was sitting next to me.
She needed to sit at the front of the bus cause she gets motion sickness and I was hoping to sit more towards the middle to mingle with our fellow party goers but after this I was happy with her decision. And when we got to Cadiz we each took a little sip and then threw it in the trash cause we don't need alcohol to have fun :) (Did you buy that one Mom?)
Anywho the bus ride was a long long 3 and a half hours with 2 long pit stops. At the first one some Spanish girls from the back of the bus asked to get a picture with me and asked if I was cold and I said no then we just talked for awhile. That was the first of many random pictures I would take that weekend.
So after a lovely scenic drive through rural Spain we finally come to the promise land...
So finally we arrived and were cruising through the city and it looks like just an average day. Nothing crazy seems to be going on until we come to this.
This was basically the calm before the storm cause once we crossed under this bridge we entered into Carnaval.
It began with a group of guys dressed like Scottish braveheart warriors singing me a Spanish drinking song. So naturally I got a picture with them.
Then we kept walking through the streets and the energy was unreal everyone was so happy and lively. The people of Cadiz as a whole were just awesome.
Then we come to the epicenter of it all. Imagine a HUGE breathtaking cathedral, hundreds of years old, with thousands of people partying in front of it.
Now I know what a lot of you are thinking. Particularly the adults reading this blog, "Wow those kids in Spain are crazy they party hard." Well let me tell you there were just as many adults as kids in these crowds. And they were fully decked out as well, crazy costumes, plenty of drinks, and going just as crazy as the kids. AND they stayed out till 6 am just like the rest of us.
So as the night went on I got more and more comments about my costume but the most common was, "Que frio" which meant in this context "Oh my God you must be so cold" and I probably explained 1000 times that 50 degrees is not cold to me, where I live back home its probly closer to 5 degrees at this point but still they had trouble believing me. The people of Spain do not have much tolerance for heat. My host mother said she loves it when it "heats up a little" and I said well what do you consider hot she said well I love it when its 40 (centigrade) but it can get up to like 44C during the summer and thats perfect. For those of you like myself who have no idea how to calculate that in your head, I looked it up and thats 111F. I digress.
So as the night went on I got separated from my friends and then for the rest of the night spent my time with different random groups of Spanish people who I met. Pretty much every time the conversation started with them asking about my costume then I spent anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours with them.
For example...
This group of girls dressed like mimes. Like everyone else they couldn't believe that I wasn't cold but after a great deal of explanation I think they finally bought it. Then they said they were going to get food and asked me if I was going to come. I said sure and where were we going.... Burger King. And I have to say I have never seen a crazier site at Burger King than I did that night. A line literally out the door and around the corner and EVERYONE was in a ridiculous hilarious costume. So I took some pics.
As you can imagine it was awesome. And on a side note this night was one of the most fun I've had because I spent it almost entirely with Spanish people and spoke Spanish the entire night. Now often times as study abroad students we don't give ourselves credit for the progress we have made in our Spanish speaking and that night I heard how well I spoke and that my accent was great a bunch of times. I've been hearing it more and more and I need to keep reminding myself of that because there are plenty of days where you feel like you haven't made any progress when you know full well that you have made progress in leaps and bounds. So this night was great because I spent it with all people around my age speaking Spanish and just having a blast.
So after a few hours bouncing from group of random friendly Spanish people to other group of random friendly Spanish people I ended up with this group of 3 people and after awhile they asked me if I wanted to go with them to a club. I said sure why not. So we go to this huge outdoor club which was basically a giant temporary tent and start going nuts. Now this club was very Spanish and before coming to Spain I had no idea the clubs were different but the style of dance and everything about it is very different. The only thing that isn't different usually is the music. 90% of the music I have heard here in Spain is from the states. And I also had the misconception that when someone said Spanish dance it meant salsa but thats not the case at all. Sometimes it is if you go to salsa club but the general dancing at clubs is more of just a sway.
But this club was unique in that they were actually doing some legit Spanish dances some salsa, merengue, bachata, and others so the group I was with was showing me the moves as we went along and as you can imagine a barrel of wine doing the bachata looked just awesome. Then I feel my phone go off and I pick it up.
"Hey Alex what's up?"
"Brian, where are you?"
"I'm at a club why?"
"The bus is leaving."
"...what?"
"The bus is literally pulling away right now."
"Wait what time is it?"
"5:20, we were supposed to be back at 5:00"
"Oh no, can you tell him to wait?"
"He said he's not waiting, were gone."
"It's okay I'll figure it out."
Oh and real quick, this is what the club looked like at 5:20am
So basically these people go way harder than clubs in the states. Most clubs in the states are required to close by 2 or 2:30am. In Spain the only curfew I've heard for a club was 7:30am and there were people there until it closed.
So back to the story, its 5 in the morning and I am stranded in Cadiz. I tried to enjoy myself for the next hour or so but then realized how utterly exhausted I was. I decided to find a hostel, hotel, pension, or just somewhere with a bed where I could crash for the night. I knew it would cost some extra money but I wanted a bed so badly at that point it didn't matter. So walking the streets of Cadiz every hostel, hotel, and pension was either full or closed at 6 am. And the aftermath of Carnaval in the streets was incredible. I have never seen so much trash and broken glass in streets before in my life. Literally every step was the crunch crunch crunch of broken glass. And I was kind of just fed up with everything at this point from sheer exhaustion. It literally got to the point where I was walking and saw a club where a lot of people were outside sitting on the stairs so I went over put my head in my hands and fell to sleep for 20 minutes (Don't worry Mom it was well lit with lots of people around and I was wearing my barrel so it couldn't have been safer).
Then I got back up and continued walking the streets until about 8:30 am when I finally got a taxi and went to the bus station. I asked when the next bus to Granada was and the man said 3:00pm and I said okay how much is it, he gladly informed me it was 31 euro. So basically my costs for the weekend doubled with this ticket which was frustrating but necessary. And this was not a nice bus station, literally a big trailer with no seats, benchs, or chairs. Everyone was just sleeping on the floor so I joined them and sit with my back to a pillar and just tried to fall to sleep.
About 20 minutes later I hear, "Brian?" I look up and it's a friend of mine from the program wearing a bright red dress, dirt on his arms, and blood on his hands. Basically we both had our own interesting nights. Turns out he had fallen to sleep in a parking garage for a few hours and then made his way here. We were both so happy to see a familiar face and just to have someone to share in our struggle. The hours between 5:30 and 8:30am were probably the worst I've had in Spain and in all honesty they weren't that bad I missed a bus and was really tired but it was frustrating.
So after about an hour of uncomfortable sleep on a wood floor my friend says, "Wanna go grab some churros?" And why not, churros can only improve your mood. So we go grab some churros and my friend recommends we go and just walk around Cadiz considering we have 5 hours to kill, I said sure why not.
So back to the streets of Cadiz but the great thing about Carnaval is that it is a weekend long celebration that goes on all day and all night. So during the day there are all kinds of big performances, everyone's outside, and it is a blast.
At this point my friend was in his dress and I looked something like this...
So a guy in a dress and a barrel of wine wearing sweats and a white T roaming the streets of Cadiz. Naturally people were looking at us, laughing, taking pictures, the usual. So we decided it'd be best if I got in the spirit of things and went back down to just the barrel and put my t-shirt and pants in my bag so I did just that. And after that, things got so much more fun.
Literally everywhere we went people were mystified by our costumes and just how ridiculous they were. We had a bunch of people stop us to ask if we would take a picture with them. Countless candid shots were taken from a distance and whenever I caught someone doing that I would strike a crazy pose for them, try and make their shot that much more interesting. We had lots of little old ladies hit on us saying, "Oh guapos!" and one even came up and squeezed my buddies chest. And naturally since he was in a dress many of the Spanish men said, "Que quapa (which means what a pretty girl)" just messing around and it was hilarious. And there were plenty of girls our age cat calling us, whistling, saying "Que musculos! (What big muscles)" and needless to say we were eating up the attention.
At one point we stopped to have a beer and some food at an outdoor cafe and a Spanish news team with a camera stopped and filmed us for about 20 seconds so odds are we were on Spanish news somewhere at some point.
The amazing thing was that we would walk into a plaza with hundreds of people and all these big performances going on and I'm not exaggerating about 90% of the people would be staring right at us. I have never really experienced anything like that where almost EVERYONE is looking right at you. But we just embraced it we waved, we posed, we made funny faces, and just had a blast with it. It literally was so much fun and I can't say enough about how fun the people of Cadiz are. I don't know whether it was just the absurdity of the costumes, my pale white skin, my bright red hair, or everything all together but whatever it was everyone was curious about us.
So after several hours and random photo ops later we decided it was time to head back. On our way back we saw the coolest, most realistic alien costume I had ever seen. Unfortunately my camera was messed up at that point so this is the best pic I have.
I know, stunning quality and detail but trust me it was awesome. He would stand still and if someone put a tip in the jar he would pose with them for a picture and every now and again someone would be walking up to drop a tip in and he would jump and scare them. It was an awesome street performer.
Then we saw a guy walking a big, fat, ugly pig.
That someone was walking on a leash as their pet. Hilarious.
So we walk our way back to the bus station and get there right as a number of buses and trains arrived and so we got that many more stares, laughs, pictures, and comments.
We finally got on our bus and it was 5 hours home. So i wrapped up in my barrel, which turned out to be a surprisingly good blanket and slept pretty much the entire way home.
We get back to Granada still in costume and ride the bus in the city back to our homes, I say goodbye to my friend and walk home in my barrel. I get back, take a much needed shower, change my clothes, and lie down in bed. I look at the clock... 8pm. I was supposed to be back at 8am. So 12 hours and 31 euros later home safe in my bed. And although it wasn't the plan things turned out great.
Because of a mistake that seemed like a bad thing at first me and my buddy had an experience that no one else in our program and few people will ever have. We basically felt like movie stars for a day when we were sleep deprived and hungover and it was just a beautiful thing. And for some reason I feel my Aunt Dolores is going to enjoy this story more than most of my other relatives. I know she enjoys crazy hilarious antics and I think this blog entry is chalk full of that.
So all in all it was just the best example of making the best of a bad situation. I love that I have that kind of attitude where I look for the best in any situation even when it's really looking rough. And because of that my experience in Cadiz was twice as amazing. So that is that for this entry. This one took probly close to 2 hours which is more my average but I'm happy with it.
And in 3 days I leave for Ireland to spend 5 days in the home country, celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, and reunite with some friends I haven't seen in over a year! So there will be plenty more pictures and blog posts to come. Hope all is well back home!
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