La vida es un carnaval.

It’s been way too long since I’ve written a blog. I need to get better about doing it. 

The last big thing that happened here in the land of Navalmoral was Carnaval.  After a full year awaiting its arrival, I was so excited to leave work no Friday afternoon, knowing that I would have 5 days of pure fiesta ahead of me. 

Friday night a big group of us met up for dinner in Casa Candy and ate delicious food.  We were a rather sorted bunch, me as a dork, there were male brides, a Charleston girl, a superhero, a Mexican, Super Mario, and other wonderful costumes. After dinner, we went to Benito, drank some copas, then hit up the party tents (casetas) where we spent the night dancing and taking breaks to snack on French fries.

CASESTAS!

Saturday afternoon we all went to lunch together and spent the entire afternoon de cañas, drinking beer and eventually transitioning to mixed drinks.  At night, we bought supplies to botellón, as we had decided to brave the cold and drink outside the casetas instead of going to Benito again. We reconvened once we all had our costumes on.  Last year, on Saturday night, we all went as firefighters.  This year, after a TON of drama on the subject, we were all flamenco dancers.  It was hilarious to see the guys and us guiris in the Sevillana dresses, and the Spanish girls looked lovely.  Once we grabbed a spot on the street, surrounded by hundreds of other people, to set up our botellón, we began with drinking games (Cheers to the Governor!) and hung out until we were ready to dance the night away. It was freaking freezing, so at one point Whitney and I secretly snuck away, went home, grabbed some gloves (and cookies while we were at it), and hurried back to the group. As usual, we went home for good early in the morning.

Best costumes I saw all Carnaval- A curling team.

Las chicas!

Los chicos! (And some might argue some chicas as well...)

On Sunday afternoon was the first of the Carnaval parades.  Whitney and I are lucky enough to have wonderful connections and were able to secure a prime viewing position from an empty (and by empty, I mean not even finished) apartment building right across from ours on the main street.  And good thing too…it was pouring during the parade.  We brought over beer, popcorn, and introduced Spain to Jello shots. We told most people they were just a “typical American sweet” and only later did we tell them about a handle of vodka was in them…tricky, tricky.

Our viewing spot.

The parade was long, but really great.  Once it finished some people left, while the rest of us went and bought (after standing in line for an hour) churros and chocolate to bring back to our apartment and hang out for a bit.

Sunday night Whitney, Maria (who was in visiting from Scotland), and I ordered Chinese food and rested. We had to save our energy, as we still had 2 more nights left of going out hard.

Monday we had some beers in the afternoon and ended up meeting up with some of the other guiris.  We passed by a bar that had a sign saying “Abraham from Gandía Shore! Tickets here!”…Story: Gandía Shore is the Spanish version of Jersey Shore. It’s wonderful. One of the guys on it is Abraham…a blonde-haired, not so choni boy who prides himself in his hair and his ability to only wear a speedo.  Somehow, someway one of the bars here had contracted him to come to one of the casetas on Monday night. We went into the bar to check out the ticket price. 8 euros. But it included one mixed drink and one shot. Done! Four of us bought tickets and were super pumped for the night. After that, we had some more cañas, visited the fair (bumper cars!) and went to get ready for the night and more importantly, Abraham.

That night, there was a very informal parade for basically groups of friends and school groups to show off costumes. We watched as much as we could from the street, but eventually it was so cold that we just went back home. After cooking dinner, we did a bit of a costume swap…I wore Maria’s superhero costume and Whitney and Maria wore my Indian and Little Red Riding Hood costumes. It worked out really well. We had had enough of being cold and botellóning, so instead we went to a bar and drank there until we were ready to go to the casetas. A few of our stronger, crazier friends had botellóned, so we grabbed them and went to the caseta to meet ABRAHAM!

After waiting a good while for the one, the only Abraham to show up, he finally made his grand entrance and stationed himself on top of a platform.  It was pretty much a free-for-all, as people jumped up onto the platform the take pictures with him.  Some people were jumping on and off the platform multiple times and taking about a million pictures with him…call me guilty.  After he had his fill of platform time, he relocated himself closer to the bar (guess he needed some hard liquor), where the crowd (all 30 people who had actually paid to see him…and tickets even turned out to be cheaper at the door- 4 euros…bummer) swarmed him again.  We kept taking pictures with him, until he and I had a heart-to-heart conversation about the trials and tribulations of being famous.  Don’t worry, I get you, Abraham. But, then we got bored with him. We abandoned the giggling 15-year-old girls and took control of the platform, dancing and goofing off on it. I like to think that Abraham saw us and was super jealous of the fun we were having and secretly wanted to come dance with us…that’s what I like to think. After getting over the excitement of meeting Spain’s finest in the flesh, we moved onto another caseta and as usual, danced and danced hasta que salió el sol. 

With Abraham!

Our special moment.

Platform friends are friends for life.

Let’s just say that Tuesday morning/afternoon was R.O.U.G.H. Maria, Whitney, and I woke up and immediately I started chugging Aquarius (think Gatorade).  When we thought ourselves well enough to venture out for food, we went to Quetapa where, as well as our 7-Ups and small tapas, we ordered a basket of bread to nibble on. Quetapa man definitely judged us.  Whatever, we’re some of his only customers.

After rehydrating and getting some energy, we went to stake out a spot for the afternoon parade (same as Sunday’s, but this time we were going to see it up close, instead of from the 2^nd story building).  The costumes and choreography were wonderful to see up close, but my favorite part of the parade was when a float of little kids dressed as Pinocchios passed by.  They were dusting the crowd with confetti and even handing handfuls of the stuff to the people in the front row.  The parade came to a standstill when this float was parked right in front of us and there was one little boy with a handful of confetti. I politely reached my hand out to him, suggesting that I would like it.  What did the boy do? He just stared at me and slowly shook his head “no,” while continuing with no expression on his face. Creepy. But his little buddies weren’t as “Shining-esque.” They thought that they should shower us with some of the confetti. It all started off innocently…but then after we laughed the first time they sprinkled the colored paper on us, about 4 of them started launching it at us. By the time the parade started moving again, the area where we were standing was COVERED in confetti…and so were we.

Evil smirk.

We found confetti in our house for weeks after.

The rest of the parade wasn't as eventful, but like I said, some of the costumes were stunning and it was really cool to see them up close.

1st place winners.

2nd place.

3rd place.

4th place. (But definitely the best choreography)

Tuesday night involved Whitney going to have dinner with a family she knows and Maria and I ordering Telepizza while we half-heartedly put on an Indian and (again) Flamenco costume. Our ganas to go out were definitely lacking. But, we (wo)manned-up and went for some drinks and then spent an hour or so in the casetas. It was an early night in around 3am.

Wednesday, we did very little. Maria left to go back to Scotland and Whitney and I went to see the town burn a figure of a sardine (because what else would you do to mark the end of Carnaval?). But, it didn’t exactly burn, so we got bored and left.  Apparently it never actually burned all the way. I guess Carnaval just didn’t want to be done.

All in all, I think this year’s Carnaval was even better than last year’s. Hopefully next year I can join a group and actually be IN the parade. Who knows?