Cadiz

Before I even begin this latest post on Cadiz, there is a quick story that I have to tell. Its about how I became a superstar here in Granada. Last thursday there was a freak heatwave. After weeks of cold weather, last friday was around 27 or 28 degrees celsius. I'm not entirely sure how warm that is in fahrenheit but its close to 70 something. It was a beautiful day. My friends and I went to the plaza and bought ice cream. We were enjoying our ice cream when a news crew comes up to us and asks to film us. We say of course, why not? Later that night, we were on the Granada news and now we are international superstars. Just thought that was a pretty great story.

Now its time to try and tell the tale of Cadiz. This last weekend was the Carnaval a Cadiz which is basically the big party for fat Tuesday. Instead of one weekend, its the entire month of February but the party isn't always in the same place. Some weekends, the party is in different cities. Well, my friends and I decided on a whim to go there. We all bought costumes becuase you have to have something to wear otherwise you stand out as a loser. So I found the coolest ski suit that I have ever seen. Its one piece, neon orange and pink, with stars all over it. I also found some pink sunglasses to wear with it. I looked pretty hot, not going to lie. My friend Peter found a suit almost like mine. Together we probably were the best dressed in Cadiz.











Saturday, we boarded a bus full of college kids from all over the world. Everyone was dressed up and ready to go. We left at noon and arrived in Cadiz at five. Booking a hostel wasn't a problem because no one was planning on sleeping. We planned on staying up all night and leaving at eight in the morning. Which might have been a little early because the party was still going when we left.
Cadiz is on the coast near Portugal. It was an amazing town. When we arrived, we watched the sunset over the atlantic while drinking sparkling wine. Good times, good times. Once the sun set, we headed over to the plaza where everyone was gathered. There was a stage with performers and singers. We didn't know before we left but the way to do things was to get into a huge group and dress alike. There were groups of nuns, priests, chickens, cows, saddam husseins, terrorists, and everything else you can imagine. I went around for at least an hour just taking pictures with groups of people.





For dinner we decided to eat at a very spanish restaurant. You may have heard of it. Its called El Rey de la Hamburguesa or Burger King. It was delicious. But since we were up for so long, at around 3am i bought a sausage hoagie from a random street vendor who cooked it right in front of me. Hmm, so good. Since I'm already on the topic of food, I might as well tell you about the churros. In Spain, churros are not the crunchy, cinnamon covered sticks that we have. They are fried dough that you dip into chocolate. They are incredible. The problem is that there was a huge churreria (churro stand) and it was so packed full of people that we couldn't wait that long. They sure smelled good though.





Everyone gathered in the plazas. We spent most of our time in the plaza in front of the main cathedral but we also wandered around and found some other packed plazas. There was one with a huge monument in the middle. Hundreds of people had hopped the little fence and were climbing all over it. So of course we had to do the same. We took a few minutes to sit and relax after climbing the monument, when suddenly some random guy fell on top of us. He was apparently trying to climb up to the next level which was not such a great idea, especially since he was pretty intoxicated. We were fine but we asked him if he was ok and he just ignored us. He stood up, crossed his arms and looked out into the crowd like we didn't exist. It just made the whole experience even funnier.



I forgot to mention the beach. In the middle of the night, we all went and found a sandy beach. It was really pretty. There was a huge rock that we could climb on and everyone wanted to run through the water. Since I'm from California, I knew that it was not the best idea to have sandy feet when you had to walk around the street for five more hours. I tried to reason with them but they wouldn't listen. So I figured that meant I didn't have to listen to them whine the rest of the night. Oh, the picture is of me doing a cartwheel on the beach. Pretty sweet, huh.



From six to seven was probably the longest hour of my life. I just sat on a chair and watched people order churros until I could go back to the bus. Finally the time had come for us to return to the bus and we were so happy to have "comfy" seats. I got a good hour of sleep on the bus and then passed out when I got home. Such a great time.