One thing I hadn't thought about until I was on the bus was how long it took to get to Cadiz; 8 hours. It was pretty bad. In addition we did not get along very well with the other Americans that we split the bus with. It didn't help that the bus had to wait for a girl named Tanya for 20 minutes whenever we left anywhere. One of the girls in our group announced "I don't know who this Tanya girl is but I hate her." My sentiments exactly.
The hotel ended up being a 30 minute bus ride to Cadiz, which the tour company failed to mention. Also they failed to mention we had to pay for transport back to hotel at the end of both nights. How convenient...
The first night the company rented a small bar. It was mostly Americans and the drinks were overpriced. Though oddly Cadiz is empty the Friday night before Carnival, I guess they have to save for Saturday. On the bus ride back Stefan, our German accented tour guide, announced "Tomorrow is the de big parte, be ready parte people". He sounded like Hans Gruber from Die Hard, I loved it. Much to the annoyance of my fellow students, I proceeded to imitate him the entire weekend and for several weeks afterwards.
Another thing that was disappointing about the tour is that the bus left at 9 pm Saturday for Cadiz and we wouldn't get to see the parade or any of the city during the day. Plus Stefan had now began to channel Schwarzenegger and had announced that "The parte bus will leave at nine without you! We cannot wait for you!" Daytime activities for Saturday basically entailed sleeping all afternoon and eating delicious pizza. Though we did go to the beach.
The weather was overcast about 50ish degrees with a decent wind. For me this was not swimming weather, but two of my friends disagreed and proceeded to test the waters. After about 2 minutes in the water, they had reached the conclusion that it was indeed too cold to swim. There was also an impromptu soccer game, which I was to lazy and uncoordinated to take part in.
At about 8 we began to assemble our costumes for the night, mine was very creepy, and began to consume traditional drinks of Carnival. I am having a sneaking suspicion that pictures will emerge one day when I try to have a legitimate job. At least it got me the attention that I crave so much. There was also a little pep talk to my two roommates for the weekend that amounted to that I will leave them behind inorder to get back to bus that night inorder to get back to Madrid the next day. Though it was mostly a bluff and for my own amusement. By the time Stefan had began yelling "GET TO THE BUS!", most of us were feeling pretty good and ready to go.
When the doors of the bus opened, all of my dulled senses were treated to Carnival's essence. There were people everywhere with some of the most ridiculus and outrageous costumes I have ever seen. It really caused me to wonder what people would have worn if it was warm outside. This party made Halloween in Iowa City seem like an elementary school costume party.
Some things that really struck me about Carnival is how few police officers I saw, only seeing them in the square near the bus station. I was also amazed how I saw literally no fights or rude drunken behavior. Literally everyone was happy, singing, dancing and socializing in the streets. Towards the beginning of the night I saw all ages of people. My favorite is seeing an old man dressed as a blond woman just relaxing in a bar having a beer like it was typical Saturday night.
Everyone just brings their own alcohol and consumes it right there in the streets. Most of the bars, except for the ones right near the stage, were basically empty. I ended up indulging in a few 40's throughout the night.
In the main square right in front of the Cathedral there is a stage and various groups of extravagantly costumed Spaniards were singing very well rehearsed & sung songs. Most of these groups had bands with them. When these groups weren't taking their turn performing on the stage, they were performing out in the street.
It was truly an epic demonstration of mob mentality, though in a very good way. Its amazing how thousands of people out in the street together singing with drums & other instruments accompanying them can make you feel so welcome, as though they are there to entertain just you. I definitely got caught up in the celebration and joined in with mumbled singing/chanting.
The night before I had opted to take the group tour bus back at 4am. I knew by that time most people would have had enough of the party and I sure wasn't going to miss the bus back to Madrid the next day. For buying a ticket in advance to go back at 4am I took a lot of flack from fellow students, but I knew they would all be taking the bus back also. Whether they knew that yet was unclear to me. Sure enough though only one student, my roommate in the hotel, didn't take the bus. I couldn't help but revel as a result of my premonition coming true.
My roommate ended up staying out in the streets until 8am and some how managed to take the train back to the town we where staying in. He then walked for almost an hour to the hotel. He ended up calling me several times during his trek back, after forgetting both what town and hotel we were staying at. Luckily for him I am a somewhat decent friend and light sleeper. Upon arriving at the hotel, he went straight to breakfast buffet in his phantom of the opera costume. At 10am he got into the hotel room, slept for an hour and then we had to checkout. I christened him a legend of Cadiz and Carnival. He would soon pay for this title with a hangover to match his grand escapades. Though he did slept the entire ride back to Madrid... which was worse then the ride to Cadiz.
Overall it was one the craziest, most entertaining nights of my life.
Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera so no pictures.
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