CARNiVAL!

Wow.

Carnival was amazing and crazy. It was sooo much fun! Some of my roomies and I went costume shopping on Friday to gear up for the big day. I found these purple mariposa (butterfly) wings and it came with a fuzzy head piece. I also got gold sparkly glasses. I was so excited.

We had originally decided to leave around 2 in the afternoon to get to Sitges. Being girls and having to do our makeup all wild and crazy, we didnt leave till about 4, which turned out to be a good thing. To get to Sitges we had to take a train. I still can't believe that we made the train we did because when we got to the train station we had no clue where to go. We asked about a billion people and finally we found the place to get free tickets. Then we had to find the platform for our train and the train literally left a minute after we got to the platform. It was nuts. It was a thirty minute train ride which wasn't bad at all. The scenery on the way there was amazing. The train went along the coast. The sea was beautiful! So we got to Sitges at about 5:30 and there weren't very many people out and about yet. Sitges is a beach town so we headed out to the beach, which was absolutely amazing. We got there at the perfect time because the sun was just starting to set. It was gorgeous. We hung out around the beach for a while, took a lot of pictures and then decided to head back into town and walk around and find a place to sit down and eat. When we were walking around festivities were starting to pick up. The vibe was so cool! There were parades, music, and tons of costumes. We walked around for awhile but it was raining and I was the only one who brought an umbrella. (You know me, always like to be prepared and actually look ahead at the weather forcast....) So we went to dinner and some of my roommates had friends visiting who wanted to eat Pallea (rice with either seafood, vegetables, or chicken in it, the traditional Spanish dish. Its delicious!) We finally found a place that served that. Everyone else ate but I wasn't hungry so I just chilled out and had a cocktail...or two... When we left the restaurant things were definitely starting to get crazy out on the streets. Like I think I said in my last post, Carnival is like the Mardi Gras of Spain. But it wasn't like "show me your boobs and I'll give you beads!" (haha) type of crazy, it was just a ton of dressed-up people having a good time. So we just started walking around and going in and out of bars and clubs dancing and having a good time. I saw so many crazy costumes and I can't even begin to describe to you just how crowded it was. It was so much fun! One of the coolest experiences yet. It was so cool to see the Spanish people celebrate the tradition and all the Americans trying to join in.

It was a long night... like I said we got there around 5:30 PM and didn't leave until 3:30 AM when the trains started back up. But it was all worth it. Even losing my head piece and having bloody toes from being stepped on and walked on all night. So worth it. This morning one of my roommates and I spent like an hour just reminicing. It was amazing and I just wanted to write a little bit about it, but its so hard to describe everything because, well, its undescriable.... haha. Anyways, I took 135 pictures, yes I know. So I won't post them all but here are a few...