SITGES CARNIVAL - CARNIVAL DAY!

Its that time of year again, yes that's right - Sitges Carnival!!. The only time of the year where a man can get away with wearing a nurse outfit in public and not be judged…. not that I have tried to. 2015 was a year a to remember as the people of Sitges did not disappoint as always, this year carnival goers went the extra mile. Never had I seen such original costumes from the very creative to the absolute ridiculous this carnival had it all. It was my first time experiencing a carnival outside of the UK so I was very excited to see what I was in for. Fortunately an erasmus group helped organise the trip and for only 10€ and was also a great way of meeting new people. I made the mistake of going to buy the costume the day before. Turned out the whole of Barcelona also had the same idea. It was mental I had never seen a costume store so busy before! I was left with the very unoriginal idea of going as a cowboy… well it beats going as someone with drawn on kitten whiskers right?? Well at least my friends had as little imagination as myself, a guy with a vendetta mask, a dutch girl trying to be french and a girl who I think was trying to be a character from Great Gatsby.
When someone first mentioned Sitges Carnival!! to me I was like a dog salivating and asking a 100 questions WHEN?? WHERE??? HOW MUCH??? I saw a quick glimpse of last years carnival on Youtube and knew I had to go even if I did have work the next morning. In retrospect it was worth the hangover! The carnival lasted a week starting on the Monday and finishing on the Sunday however the last day was when the parade took place. So that Sunday morning I woke late as always and rushed everything including sticking my moustache on the wrong way, as if I didn’t look silly enough. All anyone saw that morning in my area was a cowboy running for his life with a plastic gun tucked in his pants, quite the site for people awake that time. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough I got on to the metro to Catalunya expecting loads of people to be in costumes…. I couldn’t have been more mistaken, I was the only one dressed up! So there was only one thing I could do and that was to pretend to be a cowboy by saying ‘Howdy Partner!’ to people passing by. Hey it was carnival who cares right!!

ERASMUS MEET UP!

I had never been so happy to see a clown in my life! It was a sign, I was close to the meeting point. One clown became two, then out of nowhere a group of 90s styled characters followed by a group of native americans. Finally a place where it was socially acceptable to dress as a cowboy with an upside down moustache. I remember a child walking pass shouting ‘hey look its a cowboy’… I felt vindicated!!! Few people even asked if they could take pictures with us which was just awesome… I felt like a celeb!! We finally got on the coach that took us to the Sitges Carnival!! which took us just over half an hour, it was also a good time to meet other people who were either studying, working, traveling or just felt like dressing like an idiot for one day.

KIDS TIME TO SHINE!

We got there just in time for the kids parade. It was surprisingly good! Only problem was that we didn’t have the greatest view so I was more or less tip toeing the whole parade…Not happy! Despite that the kids didn’t disappoint they came out in the most adorable costumes you just felt like snatching one of them they were that cute… not that I would of course. There were although some awkward moments which I found well lets just say inappropriate for example when a float consists of girls dancing rather provocatively next to poles…. weird huh? Luckily the rest of the floats and kids acted like kids!! it was a great taster for what we were to expect from the adult parade later that day. I was worried about one thing, something I only ever worried about back in England… Im sure you guessed it.. the WEATHER!!! It looked very bleak and wasn’t the warmest day either. But it was still early so I was optimistic things would pick up, it had to right?? I mean it was Sitges Carnival!

IS IT JUST A CARNIVAL CITY?

In between the children parade and the adults we had about 8 hours to kill!! 2 hours of which were burned at a restaurant with ridiculous service. It literally took us 2 hours to order our food!!! 2 fricking hours!!!!! If your ever in Sitges stay away from ‘The American’ I think I need to remember I am a blogger and not a critic otherwise I will rant for hours about this god forsaken restaurant!!! Okay I shall calm down, where was I.. oh right the Sitges Carnival!!. So we now had 6 hours to kill which was perfect because we were next to beach which was a great way to just sit back, relax and watch the whacky costumes that walked by. There were chickens, cops & robbers, divas, the guy from Saw, Scooby Doo, Slutty Nurses, Cats, People with tights on their heads and even Mr T!!! The list goes on and on!!! The city itself was actually really nice, I mean except for all the diversions the parade caused it seemed like a really nice place to live with loads of shops and open spaces. Shame I didn’t get to explore Sitges as much as I would have liked.

THE BIG FINALE

It was finally what everyone was waiting for the adults parade!!! …. and once again we didn’t get a good spot. The floats came down after some delay so expectations were high. They were awesome as expected!!!! The first float was just a group of devils dancing followed by a group a team of american footballers. Then the one all men were waiting for.. well the main reason I went, a float filled with hot latino, tinsel wearing, barely clothed women erotically dancing! This for me is what the Sitges Carnival is about… yes I am that shallow, can you blame me??? Have you seen the women??? I was actually really impressed at the different themes they incorporated in the parade, we had scary floats such as Freddy Kruger to cultured floats such as Romans and Iconic British people, although the British float was a huge disappointment! So there I was seeing the United Kingdom flag in the far distance getting all excited.. only to witness an awful costumer of Prince Charles and Mr Bean and a guy playing rugby. I guess the Brits doesn’t have as much imagination as I thought but oh well maybe it was just my perspective, I’m sure the spanish loved seeing Prince Charles.

VERDICT

To sum up I had such a great time and a fantastic night!! I heard so much about carnivals in the rest of Europe and now I know what the big deal is. If i was to nit pick I’d say the music could have been a bit more well different, The songs were good but just so repetitive and also the weather but thats just down to luck. Other than that there really is just something special about Sitges Carnivaland glad I had the opportunity to experience it. To those visiting Barcelona in the coming years remember to make your self available for this Carnival, it is not to be missed!!! Put it in your Calendars… Now!!! …. Do it!!!! …..Oh wait I didn’t give you the date did I. Well I dont know the exact date but its going to be around February time so GOOGLE IT!!!! Anyway guys I must dash. Hope you guys enjoyed the blog and if you already been just share your comments below, what did you wear?? what did i miss?? Absolutely anything !!!! Stay tuned
Hasan – (Senior Blogging Executive Assistant Intern Specialist)