Cadiz for Carnaval (Corey)

Hola todos, este fin de semana fuimos a Cadiz... I'm just kidding. You didn't really think I'd subject you to a full post in Spanish did you? As I promised before, the last post of the semester WILL be in Spanish but for now English will suffice as I tell you about Carnaval.

The 5 of us (Me, Mark, Jackie, Jillian and Zach) left around 12:30 pm after loading up our rental car with our costumes, bags, and alcohol to last us through the 2 days of festivities that lay ahead. In Europe, stick shift cars are commonplace and rental car companies charge more for automatic. Zach, being the only one who could drive stick, stepped it up big time and agreed to do all of the driving, including the twelve hour roundtrip it would take us to get to Cadiz and back.

The drive there was uneventful though the Spanish countryside is beautiful: Low rolling hills, lush trees and lots of cows and sheep. We arrived just after nightfall at our hotel in an area called Canos de Meca, about a 40 minute drive from Cadiz. As seems to always be the case, there was a problem with how we booked the room which was resolved after about 20 minutes of arguing and us having to pay another 30 euro more (were working on getting that back.)

While everyone was bitter about having to fork over an extra 6 euro, all was forgotten when we saw how nice our accomadations were: full living room and kitchen, 3 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms.

We hurried to the supermarket as it was closing and luckily, the employees were nice enough to keep the store opened while we raced around in a frenzy buying the supplies we decided we would need to sustain ourselves for two days.

After a delectable pasta dinner cooked by Zach, we decided it wasn't worth making the 40 minute drive into Cadiz (as it was already 11:00 pm) and we'd be better off getting to sleep early and saving energy for the next day.

At 10:30am we wake up for some breakfast and morning drinks.

(ASIDE: Morning drinks, in this case orange juice and vodka, is not something I do with anything resembling regularity but, when in Carnaval, one of the biggest party days in Europe, sometimes you have to bite the bullet, give it your all, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, pace yourself. Experience is always something you get after you need it most.)

After a hearty breakfast of eggs and hash browns cooked by Mark and Zach , we arrived at the main carnaval scene around 2:30 pm after finding a close enough parking garage and making 5 bathroom trips for the girls.

Our first question was the legality of the so called "botellon" or the spanish word for "drinking on the street." We didn't see many people with bottles in their hands during the day but as the night went on, it became clear there wasn't an issue as most people had full bottles of liquor to themselves.

The daytime was relatively tame with dressed up people = personas disfrazadas crowding the narrow streets moving to the various attractions located at different plazas in the downtown area of Cadiz. Having been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans my freshman year of college, I found myself constantly comparing the two cities. Here were the basic differences:

1) Mardi Gras, or better yet Bourbon Street, is filthy: littered with trash, beads, empty "hand grenades" and "hurricanes" (if you've been you know what I'm talking about), solo cups, vomit, and the occasional over-partyer. Cadiz was relatively clean. Beads, and the accompanying "flashing," are by no means part of the tradition.

2) The grand parades, with floats and colorful costumes, happen in both cities though we arrived too late to see the one in Cadiz. Zach and I were dressed as gangsters circa 1923, Jillian was our flapper, and Mark and Jackie were dressed as cowboys.

3) The Cadiz Carnaval is famous for its "Chirigotas" which is an unknown concept in the States. Basically, the Chirigotas are various comedic groups that walk around the city performing songs replete with political and sexual humor. The songs have so many verses it would put Don McClean's "American Pie" to shame. The more famous Chirigotas perform on the bigger stages set up around the city while the smaller ones perform seemingly at random in the streets whenever there is a group big enough to watch. The five of us watched a group of 7 men perform a 15-minute song dressed up as the "world's strongest man" that you would find in a tent at a carnival. They even had the old-fashioned barbells, muscle suits, and curled mustaches. It was difficult to understand the humor but the refrain was a pun on the fact that the men were so.... ahem... shall we say....well equipped ?

As we walked around the streets Mark and I split a bottle of our newest alcohol creation called Vaquero. Here's the recipe, its really difficult so be ready to write it down: 2 liters of sprite, a 5th of rum, and 2 limes.

As it got later, the typical carnaval food began making its appearances as vendors set up stands in all the major plazas: pizza, baked potatoes, churros, candies of all sorts and kebobs.

ASIDE: When talking about kebobs in Spain, in some places on the menu they appear as morisco or some variation of word meaning "muslim on a skewer." It's a pretty racist term that comes from the days when the Muslims were being expelled from Spain during the reconquista. Either way its a great late night snack.

I'm slightly embarassed to it admit it, but by 12:15am I was wiped. I guess drinking for 14 hours will do that to you, but there was a distinct moment when we were talking to a group of 20 year old spanish guys dressed up as school girls when I fell asleep for about 30 second standing up. That was more amusing to the group than it was for me, but not as hilarious as when Mark, after finishing the Vaquero, wiped his baked potato hands on Jillian's rain jacket. He swears he doesn't remember doing it.

That was, as best as I can describe it, our night. I finally got my camera working but I forgot my camera cord in the States and will be unable to upload any of my personal pictures to the blog until I get back (unless I can find one here.)

I actually won't be traveling again until the 2nd week of March when Nicole and I go to Barcelona (finally!!) I'll make sure to post some with all of my free time. After Barcelona things are getting crazy with finals, followed by an Emory excursion to Andalucia = Southern Spain for Granada y Seville. After Andalucia it's spring break, which for me, will be Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague where I'll be celebrating my birthday.

Look for Amanda's post soon about her own Carnaval experience in Ciudad Rodrigo. If you're lucky maybe she'll post the video of her dancing on a table dressed as a cowgirl, spinning her tail in the face of some enthralled Spaniards.

Esto es todo para ahora, gracias para leerlo, hasta luego mis lectores fieles.

-Corey (or as the Spaniards say: Koo-ree)

Carnaval themed words of the day:

Disfraz- Costume

mascara- Mask

Marruecos y Madrid (Corey)

Hola todos. I want to apologize for dropping the ball a bit. It's definitely been a while since I last posted but (for my part) I've been busy with school and tests and my internet at home stopped working unexpectedly (total bummer.)

Amanda beat me to the punch and got the first word in about our Morocco trip but while she was getting hassled and taken advantage of (monetarily speaking) by Moroccan men, Mark and I had one of the best days ever spent out of the United States in a small town called Chefchaouen. But I'll get to that in due time.

BONUS: I learned how to add some pics to spice up the blog so hopefully you'll have a better idea of what Morocco was like for us. When Marc adds his pictures to facebook, you'll see get to see the awesomeness that is town of Chefchaouen.

6:15 am was the wake-up call for Friday morning but even with a 3 hour bus ride to Madrid and a 40 minute ride on the metro (their subway system), spirits were high as me, Evelyn, Karen and Amanda entered the terminal and met the 8 other members of our group.

ASIDE: NEVER AGAIN will I travel in a group bigger than six. It's not that I didn't like the people on our group at all, in fact I liked pretty much everyone that was there, but, as the girls for sure can tell you, traveling with such a big group is a logistical nightmare. It's impossible to please everyone, different people want to do different things, and naturally some people get excluded when it comes to times for meals and excursions. For anyone reading this blog planning to do some traveling of their own. Take this advice to heart.

So, as Amanda already wrote, our flight was delayed between 3-4 hours which was not the ideal start to what would be, for some, a stressful trip. Mark and I even bought a little flask of Jameson at the Duty Free but when I was about to take a sip, I noticed the receipt which said: "It is illegal to consume this beverage until you reach your destination country." The airlines are experts at aggravating passengers. I could rant about the airline companies and how much I loathe them but I don't have the time, and this is hardly the forum. Maybe next post...

Keely, Laura, Jessica and Maddy waiting in the airport for four hours.

So we reached Morocco but our hotel we were staying in, Hotel Tarik (named after the Muslim general who invaded Spain in 711 AD), requires you to pick up vouchers from a travel agency before you can check in. In most places, this wouldn't be a big inconvenience, but in Morocco, this could not have been any harder. Once our group arrived (in 3 separate taxis), we had to ask for directions in a mix of Spanish and French before we found the place.

I was expecting Tangiers, where we stayed, to be filled with sand dirt roads but the city was surprisingly Cosmopolitan. It actually looked a lot like Tel-Aviv, big buildings with a main strip right on the beach, clubs and restaurants everywhere. They even had a two story McDonalds featuring the "McArabia." Don't you love cultural imperialism?

A small picture of Tangiers

After securing our vouchers, the travel agent told us to walk along the main strip and we'd find the hotel in about "12-15 minutes." I don't know if this guy had ever been to the hotel, or was converting minutes to Dirham minutes (the Moroccan currency) or something like that, but we walked for a full hour (without getting lost) before we found the place. There was literally nothing there except the beach.

After a nice dinner (pizza and mint tea for me)and some resting in the hotel room, spirits were restored and we went to bed early with growing excitement for the one full day we'd have in Arica.

From green shirt to black jacket: (Mark Me, Laura, Maddy, Keely, Evelyn)

Here's where my story differs from that of Amanda's. As I said before, it's nearly impossible to do a trip with 12 people since everyone wants to do different things, or in this case, too many people wanted to do the same thing so we had to split up. Four girls went to the Medina (market) in Tangiers, 6 girls went to the beach town of Asila for the day, and me and Mark, being the only two guys and the most ambitious, decided to take a 2.5 hour excursion (that's 2.5 hours, one way of driving) to the mountain town of Chefchaouen.

For 20 euro we were driven there and back along with 6 other Spaniards on vacation from Andalucia (southern spain), and given a guided tour of the town all day. Though the Spaniards were hard to understand (the Andalucian accent is very difficult, even for Spaniards) they were very cool and looking to have a good time like us.

Chefchaouen is built into a set of cliffs in the Rif mountains, and looks like something out of Lord of the Rings (Minas Tirith? or maybe star wars.) Either way it was like stepping back in time: No cars, few, if any women outside, no TVs, narrow and dirty street, and a general lack of infrastructure. During our day there, we heard the muslim call to prayer from the Mezquita 3 of the 5 times it happens each day.

Our driver dropped us off with our guide named Achmed, a small wizened old man, who wore a fez and seemed to know everyone in the city of about 45,000 people. Though we didn't notice it at first, he walked around the entire day with a pinch of snuff on his hand which he was snorting up his nose periodically as he walked us through town. After about an hour, his nostrils and upper lip was brown from the stuff. Hopefully Mark will upload his pictures and post them as a supplement to this entry.

The only negative part of our Chefchaouen experience came when Achemd brought us into a rug shop to supposedly "show us how the rugs were made." It turned into 30 minutes of awkwardness as the proprietors of said shop showed us their wares and pressured us into buying something. We were finally allowed to leave when one of the couples caved after bartering for a 30 euro rug.

After walking around the city until 2:30pm, the eight of us (achmed didn't eat with us) went for lunch at an authentic Moroccan restaurant called Cafe Hassan. It was a little pricey, 12 euro for a meal, but the food was well received and Mark and I got some more delicious mint tea, the drink of choice for most Moroccans.

After lunch, our group was granted access, with Achmed's help, to the roof of this restaurant for what can only be described as one of the best hour's I've spent in my life. The sun was shining on us on us, we drank some more mint tea, had a beautiful view of the city, took some great pictures, and Mark and I bonded with the Spaniards over some of Chefchaouen's famous local delicacies.

The rest of the day was spent checking out the markets in town, buying cool sweatshirts like this one, (that's Mark) and walking around an ancient walled garden. Needless to say, by the time we got back to the hotel around 7:30pm, we were very satisfied with our day.

The next day was your basic traveling until we got to Madrid and the 12 of us finally split up to get back to Salamanca in whatever ways we had planned.

ASIDE: Contrary to all Midnight Express beliefs about the strictness of Moroccan police and security, the airport security was so lax it was startling. There was barely a bag check, one metal detector, few glances at my passport. Either way we all made it back without ending up in jail for ten years.

So once we all split up, me Amanda and Evelyn arranged to spend the day in Madrid and catch a 7:30 pm bus out of the city, giving us around 6 hours of free time. After a disappointing lunch we found this incredibly cool market with fresh food (breads, shellfish, sushi, gourmet pizza, candy and an equal amount of wine and beer stations.) Here's a picture of us inside the market:

Suddenly out of money, we walked to the Plaza Mayor, tried to take pictures with a guy in a mickey mouse costume, and filmed Evelyn and Amanda doing some not-so-sober one-handed cartwheels over across the cold stone pavement of the plaza.

Amanda and Evelyn with Mickey in the background

Somehow we made it to the bus with 4 minutes to spare where I promptly fell asleep until the bus pulled into the bus station in Salamanca.

So that was our trip in brief, without the excruciating minutiae of every single boring minute and this post is still spilling over into its 4th page. Thanks for being so patient with my infrequent yet lengthy musings loyal readers (all 5 of you.) I think I may have actually gotten my internet working but with Cadiz for Carnaval coming up this weekend I don't see myself posting anything new between now and next Monday.

Hasta luego,

-Corey

Words of the week- In honor of Morocco here are some commonplace spanish words taken from Arabic:

Almohada- Pillow
Alfombra- Rug
Alcazar-Palace
Aceituna-Olive

Morocco... A Gem (Amanda)

NOT. Just kidding, kind of.

We just got back from Marruecos yesterday and it was quite the interesting weekend. First of all, there were 12 of us who went which was a big group to be traveling in. Overall everybody got along really well and we were all very patient with each other, but 12 is just generally a bit too big for a vacation like this. Corey, Evelyn, Karen, and I took a bus from Salamanca to Madrid (made a stop in some pretttty cool places/went to the bathroom in a town worse than Avila), took the metro to the airport, met everybody there, and then our plane proceeded to dilly dally (the nerve) for about 3 hours. The delay was annoying but it was actually not as bad as it sounds because everyone was in really good spirits and we had a pretty good time in the airport. We all bought our own share of duty free goods... I bought lots of chocolate, Corey bought lots of alcohol, claro... and finally we were off!

Immediately after arriving, we were ripped off by the cab drivers, dropped off in the wrong place, lied to by the man at the travel agency, and then all 12 of us walked over an hour to the hotel which was supposedly 12, MAYBE 15, minutes away. Finally we got to the hotel and we were exhausted... it was a LONG day. The hotel was not anywhere near the center of the city, and it was nice but reminded us all a little too much of The Shining. Evelyn and I shared a huge porch with Maddie and Karen which proved very useful for later events (and had a beautiful view of the ocean). We all made our way to dinner... we were incredibly famished and starting to get cranky and all we wanted was some authentic Moroccan food. So naturally, we had pizza, crepes, and gelato. IT WAS AWESOME. Then we went back and spent the rest of the night on our porch, and Mark, Corey, Evelyn and I had bonding/bondage sesh #1. A lovely end to the crazy day.

The next day we all split up... 6 of us went to Asila, a little beach town about an hour away, Corey and Mark went to another little town further away (which I'm sure Corey will blogear about), and the rest of the girls stayed in Tangier. Our trip to Asila started off great- we had a tiny cab with 7 people squished in, our driver Mustafa (que pasa, mustafa) was this wonderful little man who spoke all sorts of different languages. The ride was full of laughter, excitement, and all things good in the world. The town was really beautiful and quaint and the people there were very friendly. They had great little markets and it was a really nice, relaxing day. UNTIL we went into the new city, where everybody was starting at us and we were clearly in the wrong place. A fruit vender and another Moroccan man got into a big screaming fight over us being there and it was so uncomfortable and awkward. Then we went to eat (the best food of the trip by far, very authentic) and when the bill came, we realized they had charged us 3 times the amount it should have been. Fighting ensued and finally we left after paying a price that neither party agreed upon. Then on our way out, they tried to make us pay to use the bathroom and we didn't have enough small coins to do so, so we just left feeling very defeated and beat. The ride back was a little dark. Then even sweet Mustafa ripped us off when we got back. It was just a very frustrating day.

Back in Tangier, we went to the market which was a very cool experience.... a little scary especially because it was just us girls, but I'm glad we did it. There were tons of people and it was a really authentic Moroccan experience. That night we went to dinner at a similar place as the first night (European food... but so much and so good and so cheap), then Keely, Laura, and I walked back into town (terrible, terrible idea) and although we had a really fun time, it was definitely not safe and pretty scary. Literally every group of men we walked by (which was a lot- there were no women out at all) had some sort of disgusting cat call for us. One man sang us happy birthday which was refreshing (?) and hilarious. We got a cab back eventually (not before buying some necessary Principe cookies). Then we went back and had another great session in Corey and Mark's room until very late in the night. The next morning we pretty much just woke up and went to the airport (btw we got free breakfast in our hotels both mornings which was DELICIOUS. The highlight of the trip).

But this is where the fun part REALLY began... after we landed in Morocco, Corey, Evelyn, and I stayed in Madrid from about 1 pm until 7:30 when our bus left for Salamanca. We walked all around the city and found this incredible market that we spent over two hours at. It was in this building that had all sorts of stands- wine, beer, sushi, bread, baked goods, seafood, ice cream... everything. I think it is safe to say when we left, we left behind any leftover money we had from the trip (which was a lot) and our dignities as well because we were three incredibly drunk Americans walking around Madrid at 4 pm. It was one of my favorite days I have had since being abroad (and that is tough competition). We went to a few more bars on the way, burger king, and of course a convenience store to buy our daily ration of Principe cookies. We also made a stop in the plaza mayor to do some cartwheels. They were one-handed... it's fine. We eventually made it to the bus station just by chance and walked onto the bus at 7:26 pm. We have no idea how that happened, but somebody up there was definitely watching out for us.

Anyways, it probably sounds like it was overall a bad weekend, but despite all of the stressors in Morocco, we all had a REALLY fun time being together and the experience was definitely worthwhile. We incorporated the word "Africa" into almost every one of our sentences all weekend, which alone was worth the trip. It was a solid weekend for sure but I am very happy to be back in Spain.

Next weekend we are going to Ciudad Rodrigo for Carnaval. We're leaving Saturday afternoon and instead of getting a hostel, we are taking the first bus back in the morning- 9 am... so hopefully our fiesta stamina doesn't let us down and we can make it all night. Then two weekends later, off to Barcelona to meet up with the rest of the Suite 501 inhabitants (Anne, Adriana, and Jess), which I expect shall be one of the best weekends of my life. En serio, I am so excited. I also just booked the first ticket for spring break to Brussels. The plan is Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, then Budapest. I obviously can't wait and am ready for it to be next week (but I don't want it to be March yet, I am loving it here way too much. I love the idea that we still have four months left. THANK GOODNESS).

Pues, tomorrow I have an intercambio with a Spanish girl that I met last week, which I am really looking forward to. On Wednesday I'm planning on going to back to Erasmus, this very cool bar near the plaza, for their weekly intercambio party. We went last week and had a great time, so hopefully this becomes a habit. Ok, enough... I could write about a million more things but you must be very tired from reading all of this. I'll try to make some really interesting things happen to me in the next week so I have something good to write about. Maybe some more one-handed cartwheels? I don't know, I don't know if there'll be time.

Adios, muchas gracias por leer!!

Amanda