Carnaval!

This weekend, Steph and I went to the second biggest carnival celebration in Spain (after Tenerife, according to the internet) in Cadíz. We flew from Bilbao to Seville and eventually arrived at 11pm after a 3 hour delay, and then on Saturday we took the train to Cadíz. It was crazy. On the train we knew it was going to a big celebration as 90% of the people were in fancy dress. We weren’t as dedicated to dressing up as most of the people we saw - Steph went as a vampire and I went as a half-hearted cheerleader with big sunglasses and pom poms. During the 3 hour delay at the airport we came up with two very catchy cheerleader songs to make me a more believable cheerleader. However, the songs were mainly based on us being in Cadíz and wanting alcohol so maybe not your typical cheer song.

Cadíz definitely lived up to our expectations with concerts and celebrations on the plazas, as well as lots of fireworks. It actually turned out to be an amazing weekend for speaking Spanish as we mingled with the crowds, but the Andalucian accent is very hard to understand when they sound like they’re mumbling all the time and miss off every single ‘s’ in every single word. 

We hadn’t booked any accommodation in Cadíz so we had to stay out from 2pm when we got there until 5.30am on Sunday when the first train left for Seville. Over the course of the night we discovered that when the sun goes down, even in the south, it’s still winter in Spain. Steph and I got far too excited that it wasn’t raining and it was a good 10 degrees warmer than Bilbao so we failed to bring any extra clothes or coats for the evening, and consequently we were freezing. Luckily, we randomly bumped into someone who Steph goes to uni with in Durham who kindly provided us with shelter at about half 3 when we were at our coldest.

After shivering for a solid 12 hours we returned to the hotel in Seville at about 7.30am on Sunday, slept until 12pm, and then went sight-seeing. Seville was exactly how we pictured an Andalucian city to look like, with the stereotypical southern tiles and orange trees everywhere. It was so pretty but unfortunately for us there was a garbage strike, so it definitely didn’t look or smell as nice as it could have. We visited lots of squares, cathedrals, and the bullfighting ring which was really interesting as I didn’t know that bullfighting was still popular enough nowadays to warrant 4 academies within the city dedicated to teaching the art of becoming a matador.

Although exhausting, the trip was definitely worth it to experience the Spanish carnival and explore two lovely cities.