Cádiz Carnaval

           Since we arrived in Madrid, a company called European Vibes has been advertising trips and open bars to us study abroad kids. Although sort of turned off by their beer pong competitions at Orange Café every Wednesday (only because it feels like an American frat party and there is nothing Spanish about it), we decided that Cádiz Carnaval would be the perfect trip go on with European Vibes. Some how one of my friend’s Gabe, became a promoter for the company and the infamous Sam Lee, and got a huge group of people in the BU program to sign up for the pre-organized trip. About 20 of us went, joined by 400 other study abroad students in various programs in Madrid. Cádiz is also located in the southern region of Spain, called Andalucía, and is on the coast.

            The weekend started out right going to Kapital (the infamously insane 7-story club in Madrid) for Ladies Night on Thursday night (aka free entrance and a drink!). We danced and lounged (the 7^th floor has bed-like couches) until about 6 AM, ate pizza and crepes at the one-and-only 24-hour spot in Sol, went home to shower, and were on the bus at 8 AM ready to pass out for the 8-hour bus ride ahead. We arrived at our hotel outside of Cádiz at around 4 PM and were pleasantly surprised with our cool villas looking out at the water. I shared a villa with 4 of my girl friends and the very lucky, Dimitri Belkin, who was unquestionably outnumbered. I’m pretty sure we scarred poor Dimitri that weekend with our incessant girl talk, although he did get to a unique perspective into the true thoughts of women (kind of like the movie What Women Want). Our villa was big with two stories, a big living room, and a kitchen. We immediately went to the Carrefour grocery store and stocked up on tortilla española, baguettes, cheese, chips, and guacamole (the essentials). We had a family dinner and then hosted a pregame in our villa, inviting over all of our BU program amigos and new friends. Because we all live in host families, we never get to have pregames (an American tradition we all miss). It was fun to hang out and drink, not in a bar or club, and it was the best part of the night. That night European Vibes brought us to a lame bar in a shopping mall. It was nothing special but still a fun time.

            The next day we took a short train ride to the beach in Cádiz. It was so warm that we wore bathing suits and even dipped in the water, although it was freezing. The locals once again thought we were nuts wearing bathing suits, and they stared curiously at us in their sweaters. I hadn’t seen a beach since winter break at home in Florida, so it was great to be there. One girl on my program, Ana, is from California and lives for the beach. She was so happy to be there that she was rolling in the sand and frolicking around in the water. She was so graceful that I deemed her, “a water nymph.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t nearly as graceful, and thought it was a good idea to squat a little too soon (before being submerged in the ocean) since the water was so cold. Rookie move and also embarrassing since everyone saw me, making me “the anti-water nymph.” 

            Later that afternoon we went into the center plaza of Cádiz, all decked out in costumes (see pictures below) and went to the Carnival. Everyone’s costumes were elaborate, and I made sure to take pictures with some of the better group costumes. I got a lot of attention with my hair done up. The Spaniards were pretty fascinated and only wanted to know my secret (an empty water bottle). It was a wild day and night including quite a lot of partying.