Friday, February 24 – Sunday, February 26
CARNAVAL!!!!!
My lovely roommate, Carmen, is from Chiclana de la Frontera which is a town in the province of Cadiz. During the whole month of February, Carmen and Jose (her boyfriend) would watch these amazingly elaborate performances every night at 9pm on TV. Of course, I became quite the fan of them myself. We would watch them together, I wouldn’t be able to understand anything they were saying, Carmen would be crying from laughing so hard at the hilarious skits and Jose got a kick out of seeing Carmen trying to explain to me what was so funny through her tears. This was all in preparation for the famous, Carnaval de Cadiz at the end of the month.
Carnaval is a weeklong celebration with Catholic origins. It is very similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, minus the flashing. People get dressed up, there’s lots of music, everyone is in the streets, drinking and enjoying all of life’s luxuries before the dooming start of Lent. The first weekend I chose not to go to Cadiz simply because I didn’t want to deal with all the crazy botellon-ers in the streets and the bus ride back to Sevilla at 9am without having slept. Plus, I wanted to experience more of the culture behind the celebration and not just the celebration itself. So, I decided to go home with Carmen the following weekend for Carnaval en los pueblos (or towns).
Friday we spent on the train and then at night we went into Cadiz proper to catch up with one of Carmen’s friends and watch some of the live performances. That night, I sampled some of Cadiz’s finest seafood…. raw sea urchin and barnacle, mmmmmm delicious. Carmen tried to convince me that they are “rico” but I have some objections. We had some crab and these MASSIVE shrimp, which I concurred, were “rico.” After meeting up with Tanner and Scott (two guys from App who came down from Valencia where they study to celebrate in Cadiz) and David (a guy from App who is studying in Sevilla as well) we headed home, we were pooped.
Saturday we got dressed up in our Carnaval finest (or as best as an American can do on a student budget, basically, I just bought a bright purple wig and wore some crazy colors). Carmen on the other hand, had a handmade costume that matched her friends’ who were part of a performance group. She was dressed as an astronomer with a bright blue set of shorts and jacket and a sparkly top hat with planets orbiting it. She was adorable and they gave me a spare hat, so I kind of blended in. We went to the center of the city and got in line for the parade. YES, I was in a parade in Chiclana, probably the only American too, ha! It was one of the coolest things I’ve done since I’ve been in Spain. I felt so immersed in the culture and I got to throw confetti at the kids while drinking my sippy cup of rum and coke (what, I’m 21 now). On Sunday we went to the beach for a while and grabbed a tinto de verano with Bertie, Carmen’s brother. His real name is Alberto but I have dubbed him Bertie. I think he likes his American nickname. Then we spent lunch at home, Carmen’s mom made a yummy cocido, a dish typical from Madrid that has chick peas, green beans, carrots and three or four different kinds of meat. We went into downtown Chiclana to grab a beer with the guys and meet up with some of Carmen’s friends again before heading to the train station to go back to Sevilla.
I had such a good time with Carmen in her home town. Her family is so precious and welcoming. We talked a lot about food, this seems to be a recurring theme among my conversations with Carmen and her mom taught me a new phrase, “comete pan” which is used a lot by Spanish mothers. It means, “eat bread” which is a staple among the Spanish diet. Carmen’s mom served us fresh bread for every meal and was astounded when I told her that in the US we don’t eat bread for every meal.
I would have to say, that that weekend was one of my favorites since I’ve been in Spain. I loved seeing the place where my Carmencita grew up, I’ve heard so much about it, it was great seeing it and experiencing the wonders of Carnaval there with her.
Tuesday, February 28
Feliz Dia de Andalucia!!
For those of you who don’t know, I have an imaginary exotic zoo. I have moose, sea lions AND flamingoes, among other animals in my imaginary zoo. One day, I will own at least one of the animals, the most practical of these being a hedgehog, I feel. Anyway… there is a national park in Huelva (a province that borders Sevilla) that’s called, El Parque Nacional de Doñana. It’s the largest national wildlife/nature preserve in Europe and luckily, only an hour and a half from Sevilla! I’ve wanted to go since last semester and one of my friends, Alison, was planning a trip there on el Dia de Andalucia. Entonces, I went!
We caught an early bus to the town of El Rocio which is on the edge of the park. El Rocio is a precious little town where there are a lot of fiestas in the summer time. It actually doesn’t have many residents but a lot of people travel there to have celebrations, spend holidays, etc. It also looks a lot like the setting for a Clint Eastwood movie, ha! Meaning, it looks like it could be in the American Southwest. All the roads are sand roads and a lot of people travel using horses instead of cars. People wear cowboy boots and the Spanish version of cowboy hats; it’s really quite a sight. The streets are dotted with cafes, tapas bars and shops that sell flamenco attire.
We arrived at the visitor’s center where we were going to catch our guided tour of the park. We piled into the minibus and we were off on our adventure! Our guide was very knowledgeable about the park and gave us a lot of information over the two hour tour. Unfortunately, it was quite foggy that morning, so we missed a lot of the animals, which was a bit of a letdown. On the other hand, I took some really artsy photos of the trees (see Facebook album).
After the tour, we visited the town a little bit and settled by the marshes (the park is a wetland preserve too) to watch the FLAMINGOES and other birds that were feasting on whatever there is at the bottom of the marsh. We headed back in the early afternoon and I chilled on the river with my lovely lady friends for a bit. It was a great Dia de Andalucia.
No comments:
Post a Comment