Carnaval!

While the Spaniards leave a lot to be desired when it comes to Halloween, they definitely compensate for it with Carnaval. On Feb 17-19 we headed south to Cadiz, Spain, for a good time in celebration of all things Carnaval. Renting a 9-passenger van was actually the cheapest option and I, being the only one eligible to drive given my age and knowledge of manual shifts, piloted the party bus through floods, road closures and giant sand banks in the middle of the freeway. Apparently, Seville had seen quite a bit of rain before we got there and it had no intention of stopping for the duration of our 6 hour drive.


We made it into Cadiz around 2 am and moved our party of 8 into an apartment for 5. Actually we were quite comfortable. The following 2 days were a mix of partying, costumes and tourism. We wandered our Cadiz, which is a tiny little city, checking out the cathedrals, the ocean and the old city during the day. Then at night we all got into costume and wandered around the city with thousands of other folks in interesting costumes.


Oddly, everyone wore the exact same costume when they were in a group together. I saw 8 Elvis(es?) running around in the same costume (I still have a pair of their glasses to prove it haha), football teams, avatars, ghostbusters, matadors, and there was even a Baywatch troupe except they were complied completely of hairy men all dressed like Pam Andersen... they were still my favorites though. Anyway, our costumes were well received, we were Alice and Wonderland.


This was my goal for the night and consquently, my favorite picture- they even had people with them dressed as cows... quintessential Spain :P