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Published: February 11th 2008
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So last Tuesday, February 5th was the last night of a huge festival in Spain called Carnival. Barcelona doesn’t really celebrate it, so all of our teachers said that we should go to Sitges, a small town 30 minutes outside Barcelona to experience it. Carnival is a huge celebration lasting from the previous Thursday to the middle of the day the next Wednesday. It is similar to Mardi Gras, but without beads.
I had class till 5:30, so once I got out of class, I went directly home to change and get ready to head out there. I had a cold, so I was really considering not going, but since it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, I felt I had to go. Lauren and I got dressed, and we didn’t have costumes, so we just wore bright dresses, and Lauren even wore bright blue tights under her purple dress to jazz it up. Needless to say, we got many stares walking through Barcelona getting to the bus station.
Walking through the metro, we saw a lot less people going to Sitges than we expected. But once we got to the train station, we started seeing many people
in costumes. We all piled onto the train, which was free that night, and it was literally like a cattle car. We had to stand the entire way, and we had absolutely no space around us- it was jam packed.
We were really happy to finally get to Sitges to get out of the train. We walked out and the streets were full of people walking around. It was a little after 8 o’clock, so we got a snack and headed over to the parade route. That night was the biggest parade of the entire festival because it was the last night. The streets were completely covered in confetti, there were banners and streamers above our heads, and people in ridiculous clothing all around us. Once we got to the parade route, we tried to get a decent spot, but once the parade started, we could barely see it because there were so many people. Apparently we were right in the beginning where the TV cameras were, so that’s why it was so crowded. After about 30 minutes, we gave up because we could barely see anything. We hadn’t had very much for dinner, so we decided to get
some food. We walked down a street with lots of food stands, and got super excited when we found one that had burgers, hot dogs, and fries! We hadn’t had fries in so long, that we definitely had to eat there. We each got fries and then split a hot dog.
Afterwards, we walked down that street to the other main street of Carnival- the one right along the beach. It was a gorgeous view of palm trees, cute apartment building, and the Mediterranean. I ran into a friend from Berkeley, Sarah Simmons, so we chatted for a while. Then, I got a call from Alex, who was with some more friends from school, so we went and met up with him. Once we all met up, we walked along that main street, and saw that the parade was still going. Unlike most parades that only last an hour or two, this parade went literally all night long- when we left at 2:30, it was still going! The floats just kept circling around the city. After watching the parade for a while along the beach, Lauren and I separated from Alex and his friends because we were getting cold,
and wanted to explore the rest of Carnival. We walked back up along the street with all the food, and went into a few bars, which were all absolutely packed. We went to one named New York, and talked to some guys that were from Sitges, who were very friendly. One thing I noticed is that in Spain, it is much more accepted to have a piercing. Every single guy in that group either had his lip or eyebrow pierced! Its really similar around Spain- many more people have piercings here than in the US. (Don’t worry, I’m NOT going to get another piercing!).
After walking around for a while more, we were really tired and wanted to go home. It was around 2:30, but the first train back wasn’t until 3:30, so we decided to walk up there and maybe just sit in the station. Little did we know that hundreds of other people had the same idea, so we had to stand in line in cold weather for an hour. But it was good that we got there early, cause otherwise we wouldn’t have made the first train. Once it hit 3:15, and they were going to let people into the train station, even more police came. The situation quickly became pretty scary when all the police we wearing their riot gear. They started letting people in very slowly, so all the people in the back started pushing like crazy, so you literally couldn’t move and just had to go with the flow of people. Apparently behind us a girl who was claustrophobic feinted. Lauren and I got separated, with Lauren being pushed more towards the barricades, and was pushed in to the barricades. The police were literally having to put their full force into holding the barricades up because people were pushing so hard. Lauren panicked and I could see tears in her eyes. I tried to keep close to her, and finally we were together. Then again at the very front, I got through and she got pushed behind, so I tried to wait for her, even though the police were yelling at me to keep walking. One nice policeman saw that she was stuck and separated from her only friend there, so he grabbed her and pulled her through the crowd to get to me. We were extremely relieved to have gotten through that okay and be in the train station. 5 minutes later, we saw that Alex got through, so he came over to me and gave me his jacket because I was obviously freezing. The train was yet again completely crowded on the way home, and it wasn’t until 5:30am that I finally walked through my door at home.
Overall, I was really happy that I got to see Sitges and Carnival, because it is a famous event. All the floats had dancers in different costumes with music blasting, and everybody was having a great time. But I did feel it was a little overrated, and I wouldn’t feel the need to go back again. It was a once in a lifetime thing. I think the 3 hour mayhem getting home probably put a damper on the night, but overall I am glad I went.
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