Sitges

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Beginning of the Carnaval Parade

more Carnaval dancing

On a whim we decided to take a train from Barcelona to a small beach town about 25 minutes away by train (or an hour if you get off on the wrong stop like we did on the way back) called Sitges. It is gorgeous and the atmosphere and scenery is much more what you think of as "Spain" than Barcelona. It was cold (no, not as cold as Indiana... but cold) however we managed to meet a few gentleman locals (I would say they were old, but that would be an insult to a few relatives. Alright, they were old.) who realized we were there to begin celebrating Carnival and decided to buy us two bottles of cava (basically champagne). We spent about an hour and a half getting to know Emilio and Pepe as they showed us pictures of themselves when they were our age, one of whom was in a war (funny how they carry around those pictures of themselves in their wallets... they must pull them out to show young American girls frequently, haha!). They were wonderful to chat with, and it is very refreshing to be able to do those types of things and it be all in good fun, whereas in the US it is...well... sometimes creepy. We left and promised to come back on Tuesday night for the real Carnival and visit them at the same little restaurant.
After leaving the cafe we were walking around and started hearing drums. One of us suggested walking toward them since we didn't have much else to do and we ran right into the beginnings of a parade of music and dancing. We joined the crowd which gathered hundreds more from the streets and danced for about an hour and a half along with locals, other students, kids, grandparents... you name it. There is no shame here. There are videos posted of the extravaganza, make sure to watch them. It is definitely nothing that I was expecting, and although we were all wet and cold it was probably the best day I have had in Spain yet.

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