Carnaval!!

Carnaval is an extended Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday plus the previous five days), a festival set purposefully right before Lent to give everyone a chance to blow off all kinds of sinful steam before the weeks of self-restraint and sacrifice that lead up to Easter. The big demonstrative festivals I've heard of go on in places like Venice, or Rio de Janiero, but Alicantinos take a good deal of pride in their particular brand of crazy that they brought out this past weekend.

Saturday night was the big night, but there were nighttime goings-on as early as Thursday night, and the festive lights that were strung up and down La Rambla, one of the main downtown streets, had been up for at least a week. My Carnaval started on Friday afternoon, when I walked the several blocks to my host sister's colegio//grade school to watch what I sort of assumed would be the various grades parading around the schoolyard in their costumes. I grossly underestimated. I mean, sure, I saw the local policemen standing around at the busy intersection near the school, but I was surprised when my madre informed me that they were there to shut down traffic for about four square blocks adjoining the school. This was a legit parade! There were easily hundreds of parents, grandparents and siblings gathered around the gate of the school, and from inside, the strains of a marching band playing "Bad Romance" were plainly audible.

The kids trooped out several minutes later, class by class, starting with the littlest (preschool) and on up to the oldest (about 6th grade). It quickly became obvious that the costumes had been orchestrated somewhat with the history of humanity (or at least, Western humanity) in mind, as you will see from the themes we watched march by, each accompanied by parents shouting names and waving cameras in attempts to catch a snapshot of their children's (more often than not bored) faces. The progression went as follows:

The wee cave(wo)men:

Egyptians:

Romans:

...followed by Greeks (not sure why they were in that order):

"The Modern Age," which embraced a spectrum from pirates to this spectacular representation of what I can only compare to French aristocracy circa Dumas/Marie Antoinette:

Then we jumped a few years to the twenties; flapper dresses and zoot suits:

And of course, let's not forget the hippies:

...who were charmingly mixed with my host sister's class (that's her, in the lilac dress), who represented, in a word, Grease:

Jump from mid- to late twentieth century with "los Hiphop":

...who were followed by the Goths, or as my madre says, "punquis":

This is where my pictures ended, because at this point we took off to keep up with my host sister as she and her gang rounded the parade route. However, I think that these groups were followed a scattering of astronauts, aliens, and non-descript futuristic weirdos wearing rainbow wigs. Also worth mentioning is the band, who, aside from playing "Bad Romance," marched between the ages playing more traditional tunes, and bouncing right along with an enthusiasm that frankly superceded that of many of the kids.


Continuation of my Carnaval: Saturday night. I donned my ridiculously expensive fairy wings and an equally ridiculous amount of green eyeshadow, and headed downtown with a friend. In my quiet neighborhood, we felt conspicuously costumed, but once we got to el centro, almost everyone was at the very least wearing a wig and/or a silly hat and/or garish sunglasses. The plan was to head to La Cantina, a cute little Mexican restaurant, for dinner and margaritas, but the place was packed, so we walked down a few blocks and opted for sangría and tapas instead. It ended up for the best, I think, because we sat outside on a main street, and so had a constant stream of entertaining costumes while we sat and chatted.

People here seem to go costume shopping in groups, so it's totally normal to see a gang of chickens, a gang of people dressed as Sims, a football team complete with cheerleaders, a group of Lady Gagas of multiple ages and genders, a team of superheroes, a legion of Roman warriors... you get the idea.

We left the restaurant (as it was closing shortly after midnight), and headed for La Rambla. Photos do a very poor job of expressing how completely full of people and energy this rather large street was. People were walking, dancing, drinking, smoking, yelling, talking, and generally having a jolly good time. There at least three big stages set up, each blaring a different live band covering pop music in both English and Spanish. We wandered around La Rambla and the surrounding area, went into a couple of clubs, and gained and lost members of our group. We ended up outside a churrería (a stand that sells churros - which, if you don't know, are fried sticks of dough optionally doused in sugar which, ideally you then dunk in chocolate. Culturally, they're sort of a cross between a donut and an elephant ear.) After that respite, we wandered on, now losing group members in larger chunks as sub-groups went off toward their beds or toward another bar to keep partying. My walking-home buddy and I decided we were about ready to call it quits at 3:30, but got side-tracked by a potty break the neat little Irish pub it landed us in. We got home around 5am, which we thought was totally respectable, even for Spain. My madre asked me the next morning what time I had gotten in, and when I told her, she looked slightly surprised. "So, pretty early," she said. "You know, I was expecting Ali (her fourteen-year-old) and her friends to be out until at least 2 or 3, but she was home by 1!" I think at this point, I have to just give up and admit that I will never have a Spanish body clock.






That said, I leave you with this: the prize for most... notable Carnaval costume goes to these gentlemen.