The One With Carnival

Clowning Around

Pictures on the beach

This past weekend was absolutely incredible. It was the week leading up to Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent, which meant that it was time to party in Spain. On Sunday a group of 30 students from my school (ESADE Business School) got on a Coach Bus at 6:30pm and drove to Sitges. Sitges is a beautiful, small beach town about 45 minutes away from Barcelona. 

Sitges is also the host city of the number one Carnival celebration in the entire country. For those of you unfamiliar, Carnival in Spain seems to be a combination of Mardi Gras, Halloween, and a Pride Parade all in one event. Almost everyone was dressed up in random costumes whether they were young or old. Carnival really allowed people to let their creativity shine whether good or bad. I took part in wearing a costume as well but my mask and wig combination ended up being scarier than I originally anticipated. I never really understood why people were afraid of clowns but after seeing my costume, I could somewhat see their point. I had fun with it though by attempting to scare people when they weren't looking. Also multiple strangers came up to me and asked me to pose in a photo with them, which I was really surprised to see. 

The Streets and Clubs were packed

We ended up watching the parade for a couple of hours which I definitely enjoyed. We then went to a party at a friend's beach house before going back out to the bars. The streets outside of the bars, and inside of the bars, were so crowded it was insane. 
We eventually made it into a couple of different bar/clubs and had a great time. We took the bus back to Barcelona and ended up getting back at 6:00am and as a result I then proceeded to sleep until 3:00pm on Monday because I don't have class.

Elvis and Michael Jackson shared a float

Bright colors were a popular theme throughout the parade

On Monday there was another celebration called Sant Medir Festival in Barcelona. This festival is known as the "Sweetest Festival" because of the 100 tons of sweets that are given away every year. A good summary of how it works is, "The Parade is a big procession of decorated horse drawn carts, wagons, and carriages which hand out sweets to the crowds lining the procession route shouting "aqui!" which means "here!"" Travis and I brought pillowcases and filled up on candy just like during the Trick Or Treating days. We were actually complimented on our pillowcase idea because everyone else was just using plastic bags. 

The streets were filled with candy

Catching the candy during the parade was surprising pretty difficult because some people were chucking the candy at the crowd. It was actually kind of dangerous to be watching the parade. I know I got nailed in the face a couple of times by incoming pieces of candy. We learned that the best strategy is to bring an umbrella and flip it inside out to catch the candy. People also were on their apartment balconies holding out their umbrellas trying to catch candy as well. What I found amusing was that no matter what age you were, people were going hard after the candy. Even grandparents were pushing and shoving their way in order to get it. I really enjoyed seeing the community come together for this event because it seemed like everyone had a great time. 

There were over 100 horses in the parade

Candy from Sant Medir Parade