For those who are eager for a high-class travel journal entry, you may want to skip this one….we took a short break from the serious, cultured lifestyle…
This past week, Carnevals are taking place all over the world–from New Orleans to Rio, to here in the south of Spain. We went where we heard was the best Carneval in these parts–a town called Cadiz, which is also possibly the oldest city in Europe.
Its basically a huge street party for 10 days. One unique part about the Cadiz carneval is the costumes–which most people wear in coordination with a group of their friends. And then theres these roaming groups of singing, dancing and performaning artists(in matching costumes of course)–theyre called murgas.
JESSICA SEZ: all the cadiz folks come out to party for this one. the young ‘uns fill the streets at night, and the less young fill them in the day, when it’s only slightly less crazy. sunday afternoon, the plazas were teeming with families, many in costume (at least the kids), and everyone was enjoying the murgas and taking in some sun in outdoor cafes. that’s what i call family entertainment!
ANDREW RETURNZ: We drove down to Cadiz with some heads from the Spanish language school were taking classes at. Tremendous props to Evert for driving both ways, and Dino for taking care of Jab, among other things.
Also significant about this weekend adventure, it was our first time touching the Atlantic ocean from the other side. The last time we were in the ocean was in New Jersey at my man Mike’s beach palace. So when we first got to town, we chilled and gazed at the water, looking for America.
But Carneval belongs to the night, and so CLICK HERE TO WATCH A MOVIE I made showing some of the revelry, chaos, music and costumes. (6 MINUTES LONG) I left all the video clips in chronological order, and I think you can kind of get the taste of how things get more chaotic as the night goes on.
We only went for one night. Debatably, it was enough; although the day time was pretty cool too, and a bit mellower. I got to eat some fresh sea urchins, cut open right in front of you. (Jessica sez: “they’re gross, i’ll stick to oysters thank you”)
36 hours later, we were back in Granada. So fast, not sure if it happened at all…feliz carneval a todos!!!