Me, Rebekah, and Liz were dressed as Mariquitas (Lady bugs) and our friends Katie and Kristen were dressed as fairies. I almost didn't wear a coat, but thankfully at the last second decided that I was going to need one! So glad I did because I was freezing all night long. It was about 65 degrees during the day, but temperature dropped significantly at night.
Pictures of the streets of Cádiz... So crazy.
We were all having a good time until we looked at our watches at one point and realized that we had 4 hours left and we were absolutely FROZEN. We decided that we wanted to get out of the crowd for a little bit (which probably was not a good idea since it was soooooo much colder by the ocean and away from the crowd). We met up with our Spanish friend, Gonzalo, and he helped us look for a place so that we could go inside and get coffee and warm up. This, we soon found out, was impossible. We searched for like 2 hours to find any sort of food place that we could sit inside and eat in, but without any luck. All of the places that were selling food had their stores completely closed (I can see why), and were selling from the doors/windows. At this point, it was so miserably cold and we just wanted to go back to Sevilla.
On the way back to the train station we had to walk through the main area again (outside of the Cathedral) and it was about 100 times crazier and 100 times dirtier. Picture Mifflin, without any police officers, more people, and about a foot of trash completely lining the ground. I was trying so hard not to step on glass, but I came home with a few shards in my boots.
The train home is a whole different story. The line just to get into the station was ridiculous. We didn't even know if we were in the right place because we couldn't see over the crowd of people. Luckily, we got on our train fairly early and were able to get seats, but a lot of people had to sit on the ground. It was also freezing on the train, so we couldn't really sleep, even though we were so exhausted. I got home at 8:45AM and my host abuelo was awake and reading and he wanted to have a conversation with me about how Carnaval went and if I had a good time. I couldn't help but laugh because here I was, dressed as a Mariquita, having stayed out the entire night, wanting nothing but to be in my bed, sleeping.
That day we were so happy to be home and were able to laugh at all the crazy things that happened the night before. I can't say I would ever go back, but it was definitely an experience that I will remember forever!
Carnaval actually CONTINUES next weekend and the celebration is supposed to be even bigger for the finale. It was funny because our program directors were the ones who suggested that everyone go to this event and it was actually the most crazy place they could have sent us. It was even written on our program calendars! But I guess thats Spain for you! They love their parties!
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