Carnival and Calçotadas
Like all responsible Catholic countries, Spain spent the week prior to Lent throwing party after party to get all of the indulgences out of its system. I was told that the neighboring town of Sitges has the best carnival celebration in Catalonia, so I headed off to the beach town with a friend one Sunday. We showed up early in the morning to beat the crowds and see the sights before it got over run with partiers — what we didn't realize is that the sights are pretty minimal. The quaint fishing town doesn't have much to offer aside from a nice coastline, so we wandered our way around, taking in the tranquility of it all.
Tranquil, that is, until noon, when the town came alive for the children's parade. This version has all of the music and confetti as the big celebration without all of the drinking and smoking performers. My big surprise during carnaval was that it's closer to Halloween than it is to the Brazilian style of carnival. I can't tell you how many Spidermen I saw walking around, but the award goes to the babies dressed up like chickens in feathered onesies.
We lounged around on the beach for the rest of the day until it was time to catch the big parade at night. I'm no saint when it comes to being patient, but I can generally wait contentedly for things, so trust me when I tell you that carnival takes for.ev.er. Due to early classes the next morning and not wanting to be out until the sunrise (you only make that mistake a few times) we had to leave to catch the train back. After 2 hours of waiting we only actually saw 6 parade floats and failed to get a good quality picture, but I'm still going to lay claim to having seen carnival.
Another weekend my Study Abroad program took a day trip to Girona, a town known by cyclists for its lax doping policies and recognized by Netflix junkies for its appearances on Game of Thrones. In all seriousness though, Girona is known for its prestigiously maintained Jewish Quarter and the town is full of little side streets to get lost in. The city's cathedral is gorgeous (and surprisingly chilly) and the 90 stairs leading to its doors sufficed as my workout for the day.
To cancel said "workout" I couldn't resist the suggestion to stop for ice cream, so we went to La Bombonería and ate the best ice cream of my life. Yes. My life. The woman who owns the store makes all the flavors herself (avocado, ricotta, white chocolate, hazelnut...) and deserves a Michelin star or something because the ice cream was hands down my favorite part of the trip. Centuries old architecture and history included, a girl has to have her priorities.
The arrival of March cues the beginning of the end of calçot season here in Catalonia, meaning it's time to eat them to your heart's content before it's too late. One of the region's strongest traditions is that of the calçotada - a neighborhood gathering where they cook sweet onions over an open flame and gorge themselves on a number of other local dishes. Eating calçots requires a bit of technique and I'm not entirely unconvinced that we were invited mainly to provide entertainment for those who actually know how to eat them. Due to being roasted over a fire, the outer layers are charred and covered in soot, meaning that to get to the edible part you have to do the dirty work (literally — my nails were blackened for hours) and peel off the outside. It then gets dipped in a red sauce and you oh-so-elegantly dangle the onion above your mouth before finally eating it.
As you can see from this post, there was a solid month spent in Spain without any forays into other countries. Although I was initially frustrated with the full schedule that didn't allow for foreign travel, I'm glad that I finally had the chance to regain lost sleep and get to know more parts of Spain. Not to worry though, last weekend saw my first completely solo trip out of the country, and I'll be updating you on that just as soon as finals are over. In the mean time, I'll be trying to hold onto my sanity.
