Carnivál '08

This past Thursday marked the beginning of Carnivál (not "carnival", as in ferris wheels and cotton candy, but "Carnival", as in Rio, parades, feathers, and festivities), here in Spain. One of the biggest destinations for Carnival in the Iberian Peninsula is Sitges (pronounced Seet-jez), a small city about 30-40 minutes outside of Barcelona by bus/train. While normally Sitges is known as being a relatively serene beach town where the rich (FC Barcelona players, wealthy Catalans, and tons from other parts of Europe) and gay come to live, during Carnival, its flooded with thousands upon thousands of Spaniards and other Europeans, all looking to party and take part in the celebration.

Since it was so close by, there was really no reason not to go, so I, along with most (although not all together) of the other kids from my program, made the 30-40 minute train ride to Sitges on Saturday evening. We arrived around 7pm, and unfortunately, it began to rain as soon as we stepped out of the train station. It wasn't long before the streets became completely devoid of people. The rain lasted a few hours, during which we took shelter in a restraunt, and later in the hotel room of some friends who decided to stay the night. Thankfully, after the rain died down, things livened up quite a bit.

While Saturday night isn't supposed to be one of the more active nights of Carnival, there were still a ton of people in the streets, about 60% or so of whom were decked-out in some type of costume (think Halloween meets Mardi Gras). I had anticipated the costumes to be flashy and festive-looking outfits (bright colors, feathers, glitter, boas, etc.), I was surprised to see that about half of the people who were dressed up were wearing your run-of-the-mill Halloween costumes. This meant we saw everything from gaudily-dressed drag queens to a group of Smurfs.

The atmosphere alone was worth the trip; music blared from every direction, people were dancing in the streets, and there was just a general feeling of excitement/joy in the air (I'm sure alcohol had something to do with this. I was probably the only completely sober person in the city that day). Sadly, all this excitement wore off after a short while, as it wasn't long before most of the kids I came with were trashed. Since my tolerance for dealing with others' drunken revelry is pretty low, I, along with Emily, one of the girls from our program, and my new partner in sobriety, decided we were better off leaving. Though I had initially planned to spend the night out and take the 5am train the following morning, it became a bit annoying having to stick with a group of 15 drunken kids, as there was the constant issue of people getting separated/lost, getting into arguments with one another, etc. So, to avoid being trapped in Sitges for another five hours, we made a run for it to catch the last train of the night.

Since we weren't entirely satisfied with our Carnival experiences, Emily and I decided we would make the trip back on Tuesday to catch the last (and most festive, along with Sunday night) night of celebrations. What good is going to Carnival if you don't even get to see a parade, right? We got there around 5:30, which was perfect because it gave us a enough time to walk around and explore the city, catch the sun setting into the Mediterranean (amazing), and ensured that we wouldn't miss the evening's parade. We even caught the tail end of the children's parade.

Walking around the city was pretty sweet. Since we got there fairly early, there weren't as many people in costume, and the overall scene was much quieter. We got to check out the church of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Tecla, and wander through the confetti-littered streets for a few hours before people began really pouring in for the evening's Rua de l‘Extermini (Extermination Parade). That's when the real excitement began.

Sidewalks were barricaded and completely packed with thousands of people struggling to get within view of the approaching parade, which began around 9pm and lasted for three and a half hours. The parade was unlike anything I had ever before witnessed. Each float that passed had it's own theme, ranging from traditional carnival-esque, to racy, to irrelevant, and began with a choreographed group dance (often accompanied by flares and mini fireworks), and continued with the costumed participants leading the float down the street, dumping confetti over the onlookers, and dancing to whatever music was blaring from its speakers (techno, reggaeton, 80's pop, or more traditional Catalan dance music). Though I'd never be able to do it justice with a description alone, simply put, the parade was insane.

Though it was a ton of fun to watch, I became a bit restless after the first 2 hours or so, since there wasn't any way of knowing when it would end, and I was freezing since I stupidly decided to leave my coat at home (the weather was really nice earlier in the day). On top of that, my camera battery died from all of the pictures and videos I was taking, so I had less of a desire to stick around in the cold. Unfortunately, given where we were standing (the beginning of the route), it was more or less impossible to leave, as there were so many people around us, and barricades were placed everywhere. As soon as the parade ended (around 12:30), we made our way back to the train station, only to find out that the last train had left almost an hour earlier. Luckily we were told by a police officer that there was a bus that ran from Sitges to Barcelona every hour.

Once we got to the bus stop, a waiting American told us that the bus comes every hour in about 20-30 minutes, and only fits 55 passengers. In an attempt to get out of the cold, we went to a bar across the street, where I got a sandwich to keep me busy for a few minutes. By the time we got back to the stop, the group of 40 or so that we had left turned into what appeared to be at least 120. As we waited for the bus we met a gay couple from Miami (they thought we were Spaniards and tried to ask us if they were at the correct bus stop), to whom we explained the scenario: one bus every hour, 55 people max. Though he felt bad doing so, since they had a flight to catch that morning, one of them decided it would be best to "act like Americans" and bully our way onto the bus. While I shared his guilt, I agreed based on the assumption that most of those who were waiting had some amount of alcohol in their systems, and would thus fair better than I in the cold due (see "alcohol blanket").

Amazingly, when the bus arrived, it ended up stopping directly in front of us. Within a second we were being pressed up against the bus (I've never been so smooshed in my life-- my elbow even ended up being lodged in some poor guy's adam's apple) from all directions, most forcefully by those who had been waiting in line and protested our luck by trying to shove us out of the way. Thankfully one of the Miami guys was pretty diesel and was able to hold his ground despite being pushed and pulled by everyone around him. As the door opened he quickly got on, grabbed Emily and his boyfriend, and wrestled them onto the bus. For me, getting on was slightly trickier, but with the help of another guy who was trying to cut in front of those waiting, I was able to force my way on.

With so many people fighting to get onto the bus, the scene became extremely chaotic. from inside we could hear the cursing and yelling of those outside, and even witnessed the unfortunate event of a drunk guy kicking and hitting a girl who got on in front of him. Thankfully the people behind him were able to quickly pull him away, after which he screamed obscenities at the girl in Spanish, and was tossed back into the street. Other than that, the ride home was pretty calm, as we just conversed with the Miami guys about what life after college is like. At the end of the night, I was back in Barcelona around 2:30, and after taking the NitBus, back at my place around 3, only to have class the next morning (I like how this seems to be the norm out here for weekdays).

All in all, getting to see Carnival in Sitges was a pretty amazing experience. I doubt I'll ever get the chance to do something like this again, so I'm certainly glad I was able to go back on Tuesday to see the organized events as opposed to just the partying aspect on Saturday.

Wow. Let's hope I never have to write an entry this long ever again.