CARNAVAL!

Hola!

Tuesday was probably one of the best nights I have had abroad so far.  As many of you know, Mardi Gras was being celebrated in New Orleans last week and into this week and the same thing was happening in Europe.  It is called Carnaval (or Carnival) and its the celebration that happens 10 days before lent leading up to Easter.  Tuesday was the last night of Carnaval, also known as "Fat Tuesday" before the next day of Ash Wednesday.  Since it was the final day of celebration, it is the craziest day. My roommates and I took a bus down to Sitges which is an hour away from Barcelona.  During the summer, it a beach destination and a popular destination for the gay community.  Sitges has one of the largest end of Carnaval celebrations and it was true - there were thousands of people there! If you want history as to what exactly Carnaval is, you can look at my storify blog about the festival!

When we got to Sitges, it was crazy! Everyone dresses up in costumes and they don't have to make sense.  Since the gay community is so big there, there were a lot of men dressed up as women in heels! There were also a lot of people dressed up in tutus, sailors, really all kinds of costumes you could imagine.  A lot of people paint their face or wear things on their heads.  I wore a black sparkly dress and painted my face.  One of my roommates wore a pink wig and painted her face!  Everyone drinks in the streets, there is music playing and a parade with floats of people dancing.  Each float had a different theme, some of them have to do with different political problems in Spain and others are just for fun. We walked all around and watched the parade and got confetti thrown all over us! We even managed to walk in the parade at some point! (We don't know how we did it!) 

When we got done watching the parade, we went to a local bar and hung out for a little bit.  It started to get late and we were so tired so we walked back to the bus to take us home.  Carnaval was hard to describe in words, it was one of the most fun experiences I have ever had.  What is better than a huge party in the street in costumes? I wish I could go back and do it again!

Besos!!