I survived the Cadiz Carnival!

Wow! This past weekend was beyond amazing! As you can tell, I went to the Cadiz Carnival this past weekend. This is an annual Carnival that takes place in Cadiz, a beach town in southern Spain. During the day there are a variety of parades and performances that occur. They have different singers and dancers dressed up in costumes, unfortunately I was not able to see the performances that took place earlier on in the day. I went to Rota on Friday which is another beach town close to Cadiz. In Rota there is a U.S. Military Base and on base they have an American grocery store. My friend who lives in Rota is good friends with some of the military guys and she is able to get yummy American food whenever she wants it! On Friday when we got there we had a low key night. We made some guacamole, salsa, and tacos! It was delicious.

On Saturday we made our way to Cadiz for the Carnival! We took a ferry there around 3 in the afternoon and we were able to spend the whole day there. By the time we got there most of the parades were over but we were able to eat some lunch and hang out on the beach for a few hours before our night began. This is kind of like their Halloween because everyone dresses up in silly costumes. I noticed that people here in Spain usually dress up in groups and are all dressed up in the same thing. Opposed to in the States where we usually pick a theme such as Disney Characters, and everyone dresses up as a different character. Here they pick one thing and all dress the same... Shows how us American's like to be unique.

For example: We ran into a group of 10 men dressed up as Waldo... My friend Carrie was dressed up as Waldo as well so she had to take a picture with them! Once they saw her they all started to sing and dance around her as if she was part of their family, it was pretty funny.

Check out some of the other costumes:

Raquel found another little princess :)

This is the sunset that we saw while we were resting on the beach, it was BEAUUTIFUL!

AANND I dressed up as a Panda! I don't have very many pictures of me with my Panda outfit on.. but you can kind of see my Panda hat here!

The people at the Carnival stay out all night drinking in the streets and having a good time. It was so lively and just a fun place to be. The streets were literally FLOODED with people. Spaniards come from all of Spain just to go to this Carnival. It was neat because all of the bars had walk up bars set out on the street so if you wanted a beer you didn't even have to go inside. You could just walk up to the bar outside, order something, and keep walking. There were random drummer groups that would go around playing songs and they would stop in the middle of a street and people would just crowd around them and dance to their music. Most people stay out ALL night. As for me, I took the 1am ferry back home but the majority of my friends took the ferry back between 5-8am the next day. I was not prepared to stay out all night like that in the cold!

I highly suggest if any of you are in Spain in February that you go to this Carnival! It was great!

On a random side note: I have a story I would like to share. At work I get breakfast almost every other day. I always order toast with butter and strawberry jelly. There are only two workers in the little cafe in my school so they know my order by now. SO the owner of the cafe asked me if I wanted to try the homemade jelly that his mom made. I said sure, just being nice. The jelly is this Lemon tart flavor that is good, don't get me wrong, but I don't want to eat it everyday for breakfast, I would rather eat my strawberry jelly! After I was was done eating he asked me how I liked it and I told him it was good. Now, every time that I order toast with jelly he gives me the same jelly that his mom made. I do not have the heart to tell him that I would prefer the other jelly because I don't want to insult his mother's jelly! SO I am stuck, maybe i will just stop ordering my toast with jelly.

These are the hardships that I have in Spain, over what jelly I have with my toast each day. haha... rough life, I know.

Well, this weekend I leave to go to Switzerland to meet up with Megan! Me and 3 other friends will fly into Geneva and spend the night there. Then all of us ( including Megan and her friend Bonnie) will go to Montreux to see Chateua, a famous castle there. The next day we will go hiking near the Rochers de Naye ("Marmots' Paradise, The mountains around Hauts-de-Montreux are threaded with forest trails, isolated villages, caves, grottos, and wildlife. Rochers-De-Naye itself is home to an odd little compound called "Marmots' Paradise" where marmots from all over the world live in an observable system of underground burrows.

After Montreux we will work our way back around Lake Geneva, not sure exactly where yet, but we are looking at stopping in Vevey and Gruyeres and eventually getting to Lausanne where we will spend the night. On Tuesday we will head back to Geneva to see Megan one last time and we will head back to Spain on Wednesday!

I am so excited for the trip, I can't wait to share with you about my experiences!

Besos!