CADIZ! The Home of Carnivale 2008!

After stepping off the train in Cadiz, we walked outside into warm weather and palm trees to catch a bus to the beach. Yes, the beach, in February. Excellent.

We got off the bus after probably 15 minutes, grabbed some tapas and sangria for lunch, picked up some refreshments from the local liquor store and headed to the beach. At first we were put off by how windy it was, but soon the sun came out, brightening everything up, and the wind died down. We stayed and played on the beach for about two hours, building sand castles, walking in the water, playing soccer with some kids we met, climbing up this huge, random structure they had there, practicing our Spanish, talking U.S. politics with local Cadizians and getting to know one another better. The refreshments also helped...we went through that rum pretty quickly, let me tell you.

After we got tired of the sand, we wandered across the street to a couple of bars for some drinks and more tapas. (If you haven't yet realized, the theme of this weekend is Food and Drink...) By this time it was getting dark, so we got on the bus that would take us to the big square where the heart of Carnivale was located. As we got closer, we started seeing people dressed in ridiculous outfits. There were Smurfs, babies, bees, superheroes, Waldo, Shrek, mugs of beer, convicts, wizards, etc. Everything and anything you could think of, it was there. After exploring the area a little bit, we split up, with Meg and I going to watch a live concert given by a Spanish female singer whose name escapes me at the moment. She was so good, and everyone was dancing and having a good time, but it was getting colder and colder as it got later.

But then, amidst the thousands of people from all over the world, dressed like idiots and dancing and drinking at a world-renowned festival, what do I stumble upon but a red jacket hanging on a fence post. The jacket is cute. It fits like a glove. It appears to have no owner. Could it be another gift from God?! I donned it with quick-fire speed and was immediately warm. Then I was able to enjoy the rest of my night. Perfection...

After a small tiff (read: Caroline gets angry and yells because half the group refuses to leave another stupid Irish pub...) we were off down the streets.

Here are some of the main events of the night:

1. Seeing a really really drunk guy peeing on the street and then getting arrested.
2. Molly getting lost on her way back from the bathrooms. It took us 20 minutes to realize she was gone, at which point a manhunt ensued. We found her speaking to about five Spanish guys dressed as chickens...she doesn't speak Spanish.
3. Eating dinner at sort of a nice restaurant - Jenny dropping her wine glass on the floor...
4. Standing on this one street corner for about an hour just observing the insanity of the square, while making friends with tons of Spanish-speaking people.
5. Buying Carnivale tee-shirts, shot glasses, etc.
6. Me implementing a lot of my Spanish-speaking skills (J, you'd be proud), since nobody else besides Tara and I spoke it.
7. Running into Goldilocks and the three bears (all men), right at midnight when it turned into Colin's 21st birthday - they joined us in singing "Feliz Cumpleanos" on the street corner.
8. Molly freaking out when these three guys dressed as toilets, complete with toilet brushes (wands) started to come at her (jokingly) with their brushes.
9. Losing 10 euro. Finding 10 euro.
10. Calling Cara at least twice, effectively spending about 30 euro in phone charges, unknowingly...

All in all it was a tremendous experience. Everything went as planned, nobody got hurt, we all survived, etc.

At around 4:30 in the morning, we decided it would be best to start moving toward the exits, since our train back to Sevilla left at 5:45ish. So, we collected our friends from all their various locations and went to grab a taxi, having no idea where the train station was. But, of course, we had to wait in a queue of about 60 people. Well, Suzy was not happy with this concept, so she cut the line with Jenny and Meg, instructing the rest of us to hang back behind a parked truck. As she, Jen and Meg got into their cab, another one pulled up behind it. The rest of us bolted and stole the cab right out from under the noses of a bunch of people dressed as cows. Looking back, if someone did that to me, I would have been really upset, but we played the "we don't speak Spanish" card...and after all...they were dressed as COWS. How can they be taken seriously?

It turned out the train station was about two minutes away, but good thing we got there when we did (around 5am), because there were already about 100 people sitting outside on the ground. Apparently the train station wasn't open all night. So, we got some prime real estate near the front doors, against a wall to lean on, and passed out. It was freezing cold, miserable, dirty, etc. All I wanted was to get on the train and go to sleep. But, as 5:45am came and went, with no activity from within the station, we started to get nervous. Once 6:30 arrived, and the doors opened, everyone bolted inside. We thought they would all run down the stairs to board a waiting train, but we were sadly mistaken. Instead, all the costumed Spaniards ran for chairs in the waiting areas...puzzled, we inquired as to what the deal was and learned that the 5:45am train does not run on weekends...therefore, we needed to wait for the 8:50 train.

Well that just about made me cry. I was so cold that I was literally shaking. I was going on almost no hours of sleep from the past two nights. I was hungry. I was dehydrated. I was pissed off. Multiply that by the 8 other people I was with, and it made for a pretty dire situation. But, my tiredness soon took over and I fell asleep, huddled in a ball on the ice cold train station floor. I guess time must have passed quickly because before I knew it the train was there and we were running for seats. Thankfully we all got seats together, except (again) for Meg, who had to sleep on the floor. The train took probably two hours to get us back to Sevilla, and we all slept every second of that ride. I kept my red jacket on me the entire time...