"It's Carnaval! I Do What I Want!"

Thanks to Brittany for the quote in the title haha

While in Bilbao, I learned about a fun little huge holiday called Carnaval. The only way to describe it is to combine Halloween, Mardi Gras, and Unofficial, but much bigger. In Spain, they celebrate Carnaval the weekend before Lent begins. It all started on Thursday, February 11. We went to one of the Erasmus parties and already there were people decked out in costumes.

On Friday, there was a mini-parade in Algorta. Apparently, on the Friday of Carnaval, all of the school children have the day off and they participate in a parade through the streets. There are large groups of kids that each have the same costume followed by another large group with different costumes. In the parade in Algorta, there were prisoners, bank robbers, and then policemen. I didn't fully understand this, but I heard that Carnaval is also used as a way to make fun of something in society. Either way, the kids were cute. There was also a American-style carnival set up for Carnaval weekend. One ride went around in circles with Rihanna's "Russian Roulette" playing... Random.

On Saturday night, there was another big parade on Gran Vía, the main street in Bilbao. All of the families came out dressed in their costumes. Adults were definitely really into the holiday too. While waiting for the parade to start, people would walk up and down the streets to show off their costumes. The theme for this year was Broadway musicals. They had floats from different musicals: Bilbao, Bilbao (a local musical if you couldn't guess lol), Jungle Book, Grease, Cats, and much more! I love musicals so this was really cool. It was also here that I realized how much men from Bilbao like to dress in drag...

A Transformers costume that actually transformed into a car too!

Fat American tourists

Bilbao, Bilbao

Phantom of the Opera

Moulin Rouge

My Fair Lady

Jungle Book

Cats

Flashdance

Grease

I have no idea what this was, but the drag queens were fabulous! lol

Old people dressed up at the end of the parade

I have never been a huge Halloween fan (as my family well knows lol), but I could not resist at least buying a mask. Thus, Sandra Fierce Kitty was created.

After the parade, we changed into our costumes/masks and went to Casco Viejo for Carnaval madness. There were tons of people hanging out in the streets, decked out in costumes, drinking, and engaging in other forms of debauchery. So much fun! I have to give Bilbao credit because they definitely have America beat in terms of their costumes. Instead of the usual "slutty fill-in-the-blank" costume, girls just looked cute in their costumes (there were a few of the American-type costumes too though...). And guys didn't mind dressing like girls. It was also really common for a group of friends to all dress in the same costume. We had a great night that ended at a club called Da Vinci which was packed.

Attacking bunnies...

"What are you doing?" "A-Town Down. Duh"

Dance party in a plaza in Casco Viejo

CARE BEARS!!! One of my favorite costumes of the night

Sunday, we went to the last event of Carnaval weekend: The Burying of the Sardines. Basically, they set up a large fire in the middle of this plaza and burn/cook sardines. I'm still not really sure why this happens, but I was just soaking it all in. After, you can buy a plate of sardines and eat them. I've never had sardines so some friends and I decided to share a plate. Now, these are not the canned sardines. These are fresh sardines with heads and bones. You have to pull of the head and pull the spine out of the sardine to eat it. The first one went well. The second one... let´s just say it ended with blood and needless to say I would be fine if I never ate sardines again.

So we thought that with the beginning of Lent, Carnaval would be over. We were so wrong. The next weekend, the party was in my side of town: Algorta. After a day in La Rioja for wine tasting, I get on the metro to head home and it is PACKED. There were sooo many people heading to Algorta. I walked out into the plaza and all I could see were crowds of people in their costumes and drinking in the streets again. It was crazy. There would be people just sitting on the curbs with bags filled with kalimotxo ingredients and other "dranks." A sad moment was when this girl who had to have been 12 or 13 was carried to an ambulance by some paramedics because of what could have only been alcohol poisioning. C'mon guys, really? 13?!

Getxo citizens!

Other than that though, everyone was just having fun. My friend Brittany found a random cardboard cookie costume in the metro station and that was my costume for the evening. Random Spanish people really got a kick out of that. I also came up with a song to go along with my costume. I swear I should be a songwriter...

"I'm a cookie. With chocolate on the inside"

Overall, it was a great night and I am really glad I got to experience Carnaval! I was sad it was over though. And that there was a big bite taken out of my cookie :(