I was met at the Cadiz bus station by the beautiful and lively duo Daniella and Giulia. Erasmus-mates and future roommates Mexican Daniella and Italian Giulia were an absolute blast to stay with. They communicated in Spanish but both spoke enough English to make me feel included.
I dropped my stuff at Daniella's apartment and we promptly went to the beach, picking our way through crowds of people. We bought beer, sandwiches, and bright red wigs on the way. The sun was shining, the weather was good, made me want to move my dancing feet.
I was in Cadiz at the height of Carnival or Mardi Gras to Americans. Everywhere you looked there were people on the streets dressed up in costume, people on the streets drinking, people singing in groups, people peeing, eating, anything that you would normally do in the privacy of your own home was made public during Carnival.
Pirates!!! Dressed up for Carnival
The Cadiz beach, medium tide
Erasmus group
Capoera on the beach
Sun starting to drop
Deeply in love with Life at this moment
I absolutely loved the beach. There was a large group of Erasmus students from all over Europe. I met tons of people my age and we played volleyball, soccer, swam in the Atlantic ocean (temperature reminded me of Santa Cruz), drank beer, and watched the sunset. One of the most spectacular sunsets I can remember. During the day the tide was high and several boats bobbed up and down in the small bay. In the evening, watching the sun go down, the tide drifted out, leaving the boats stranded on the wet muddy rocks. I will cherish the feeling of cold sand between my toes, the warm sun on my face, wandering around those boats snapping pictures, not wanting to miss a single second of this, but having to pee very badly from the beer.
Cadiz beach, low tide, sunset, my personal favorite picture from my whole trip
From the beach to Daniella's, short repose, and then off to a birthday dinner for Wolfgang,(can you guess which country he was from?) sandwiches, more beer and good times all around. From the restaurant to the streets. They had filled up dramatically by now, beer flowed freely, and costumes were plenty. People were making incredible fools of themselves all over the place, and it was terrific to behold.
By 2am my travels had caught up to me and I was dead tired. I was politely informed however, that this was not acceptable during Carnival at Cadiz. At 6:30am, after a night of poking our way slowly around what felt like the entire city, talking to every single person we came across and drinking enough beer to fill a baby pool, we crawled back to Daniella's and crashed. What an exhaustingly wonderful night.
Random singing group, dressed as dogs?
This photo accurately captures how I felt as the night wore on at Carnival in Cadiz. It is a bunch of men dressed in female fat-suits with bright red bikinis stretched over them, matching wigs.
