Carnaval en Cádiz

I survived Carnaval! Ha. Carnaval is a carnival (go figure) in Cádiz, a town on the beach that I have mentioned before. It is a mixture of Halloween and Mardis Gras in the United States, so you can only imagine what it was like.

We went with a company in Sevilla, WeLoveSpain, that caters to students in Sevilla (particularly Americans). They had a trip that we paid for which included a bus ride to and from Carnaval with a bocadillo and a beverage. It ended up being mainly Texas Tech students from our program on our bus, so that made it really fun!

Here's most of our Texas Tech group while waiting on the bus before leaving Sevilla.

The entrance to Carnaval was all lit up and it then takes you to a certain section of the town where the carnival takes place. There were various concerts in different plazas and lots of food stands set up all throughout the streets with everything from cotton candy and candy apples to grilled hot dogs. A lot of the streets were decorated with lit up Carnaval decorations. The streets were packed solid with people and it was just one big...party. There really wasn't anything more to it (that we saw, at least). We were kind of afraid to wander off too far because we knew where we were supposed to meet the bus to catch our ride home and we didn't have a map or anything to show us how to get back, so we just walked as far as our mental maps could take us.

Here's a view of the streets in Cádiz...it was pretty insane but so much fun!

The costumes were crazy and so much better than your typical American Halloween costumes - everyone went ALL OUT. I loved it. My group went for something a little more easy/cheap for us. We dressed up as Las Animales de Fiestas, or Party Animals, or animals with party hats on - ha. :) 

Here's a pic of the Party Animals. There were quite a few guys dressed up as animals too, but they didn't have the party hats on. They were, instead, just decked out in head-to-toe animal costumes.

All of the costumes served as most of the entertainment for the night. It was basically a night full of people watching at its finest. Overall, it was a fun night, great experience, but was incredibly exhausting and I don't think I need to do it again - at least not for a very long time, haha. All in all, we left Sevilla around 10 p.m. or so, and were supposed to leave Cádiz around 6 a.m., but we didn't end up leaving until around 6:30 a.m. We finally got back to Sevilla a little after 8 a.m., and after taking a cab ride home (because the walk was too long for our exhaustion to endure) we were home and in bed by about 8:45 a.m. Whew, long night is an understatement. I was practically up for 24 hours on Saturday! So...Cádiz was a good time and I think we are all still recovering from our lack of sleep. Last night, (Sunday) I was in such a deep sleep that I didn't wake up once until my alarm went off the next morning, and at that point I was half way off of my bed, but apparently it wasn't bothering me one bit! Ha.

Only 4 more days until my parents come to see me! Woooo! :) I am SO excited to see them and show them around Sevilla. I don't exactly know what we're going to do, but just being able to show them a day in the life of Paige in Sevilla will be fun in itself. :)

I hope everything is still going well in Texas. This semester is going to be over before I know it! I've also already decided that I am eating at Rosa's on the way home from DFW Airport...and I CANNOT wait. One crispy beef taco plate and a LARGE UNSWEETENED ICED TEA - here I come!

Prayers, Love and Hugs!

Paige