Carnival, when I turned 21 in Espana!

On Monday I turned 21 and I headed to Cadiz, Spain the Friday before to celebrate. We left right after class, no point in wasting time, and caught a train to Tangier. The first leg of our journey and only one of many forms of transportation. By the time we reached Cadiz at 11 that night we had been traveling for over 12 hours by train, taxi, boat, and bus. We also somehow took a free bus about an hour out of our way upon arrival in Tarifa. Mashi Mushkil, we made it to Cadiz safe and sound and met some friendly and helpful American travelers along the way. My friend Leah, one of the girls I was traveling with, has an uncle who lives in Cadiz and he graciously invited us to stay with him for the weekend. He met us at the bus stop and walked us to his flat nearby. I should tell you one of the main reasons we decided to go to Cadiz this weekend was for their annual Carnival, one of the most famous in Spain. Cadiz Carnival is a two week long fiesta in the streets of Cadiz in which the entire city, and more, come to celebrate, drink, dance, sing, and above all dress up. The carnival, and Cadiz in general is known for it's witty, satirical costumes and singing groups. These groups practice all year long and go through many contests to make it carnival where there are groups performing in hilarious costumes on ever street corner and on stages in all the plazas. So this was the atmosphere of our weekend.

The night we arrived was just before carnival began, everyone was at home watching the Carnival groups perform on tv. We relaxed at the flat looking at all of uncle tim's very Beatles-esque old pictures and listening to music. Uncle tim is british as is all of Leah's family.

Leah and I were given birthday challenge books from our friends with a place for a before and after picture and a list of 21 challenges to complete before the weekend ended. They included things like, "ride a moped", "get a group of people to sing Happy Birthday", "steal an item of clothing", "convince someone you're famous" and "convince someone it's your 30th birthday". So at about midnight Tim led us to a bar that he apparently frequents quite often and we spend the rest of the night there watching the singing contest on tv, giving arabic lessons, meeting random Americans, running behind the bar, stealing hats and face masks, and playing hand clapping games. We didn't get home until 5 am in true Cadiz Carnival fashion and only after stopping at a stand for some patatas fritas.

Saturday was the first full fledged day of Carnival but the real festivities didn't begin until night time. So in the morning Uncle Tim took us on a walk around Cadiz in the daylight.

The streets near his flat are narrow cobblestone, bright and colorful and filled with mopeds and fast talking Spaniards. In the plazas children were dressed up in all sorts of costumes and seemed to be involved in contests. We walked down to the beautiful beach and ate lunch there. It was here that I ate seafood and it was pretty delicious. I decided to make an exception for the weekend because really Cadiz is all about seafood so what could I do but experience the culture :) We walked through some parks, passed some beautiful churches, and got some ice cream before heading home for a siesta. We went back out later around 6 and the plazas were filling up with people dressed in crazy costumes with their bags of alcohol in tow. We got our gypsy costumes on at home and ate some frozen pizza and again didn't leave the house until midnight for the Spanish plaza.

It was there or around there that we stayed the rest of the night getting into all sorts of shenanigans. I somehow found a friend from home who is studying in Cadiz so we tagged along with her for a bit. I met some Spaniards headed for San Francisco and had a long talk with them and I accomplished at least 5 of the challenges off my list.

Sunday was slow to start but once we got moving costumes and glitter were on and we were ready to go. I dressed as a butterfly complete with glittery antennae and yellow wings. Everyone was out in the streets and crowded into restaurants.

We joined in walking around and trying to get food. At one point it started pouring rain so everyone hid in doorways until it let up. Later we found some more seafood and basically just wandered around with the locals. We headed back for a short siesta then back out on the streets. We walked across town to the water with uncle Tim in search of a firework show only to find that it was the completely wrong place and they had moved the fireworks for the first time in forever.We got some bocadillo de tortilla instead and walked once more across town. At midnight it was my birthday so we jumped up and down and ended up at a really great statue complete with fake fire. After that uncle Tim took us to yet another bar but we were pretty much dunzo so we headed to our traditional patatas fritas stand before retiring for the night at an early 3 am.

I woke up Friday not feeling exactly older. We had a full day of travel ahead. All went smoothy once again. We got to cut out the bus as uncle Tim drove us to Tarifa and we had a quick lunch there before catching the ferry. In Tangier we had a moment to grab a Tolberone and caramel Mcflurry from McDonalds, the only purchase I will be making there. I finally got into Rabat at 9:30 after a loooong day of traveling. To make my birthday complete I had a phone date with my dad and grandparents, a skype date with my boyfriend, and a skype date with my mom in which she gave me flowers, a happy birthday sign and a fruit tart! Thanks lovely friends and family for making my birthday wonderful and loving and something I will never forget!