Never one to turn down an opportunity to see costumes and parade floats, I started scoping out the carnaval situation. Unfortunately, airfare southward was already out of my price range. I wrote the whole holiday off as a hopeless case when I received a lovely notice in my inbox from www.spanish-fiestas.com, which described not only the crazy costumes of Cádiz and Tenerife, but also the spirited festivities in Sitges, a small city some 30 minutes and €3 from Barcelona famous for its film festivals, carnaval parade, and gay scene. Done and done.
For anyone who has seen New York's Village Halloween Parade, it's basically a lot like that - plus floats, confetti, and choreographed dancing. Themes ranged from a basketball team, the players of which all wore the number 69, doing a Jock Jams tribute to an "authentic" Russian number performed in front of an elaborate onion dome float. "Calle Ocho" played about three times within the first 40 minutes I was there, and drag queens abounded, some of them far too convincing. The whole thing was about as Dionysian as you could get. And it wasn't even midnight yet.
At that point, I ran quickly to check the train times. It was raining and I knew that I probably wouldn't be a happy camper if I was sticking it out until 4 or 5am. Of course, immediately after leaving Andrea, Lindsay, and Eugene, the roads behind me were blocked off and I could no longer get to the beach to meet them. So I did the only thing I knew to do in this kinda of dire situation; I met some kids who spoke English, politely declined their offer of Sangria from a carton, and danced with a very gay Queen of Hearts wearing a gold cape. And then I hopped on the next train to Barcelona as if it were any other night.
The only bad thing about all of this was that I had to miss espinning. But that's the sacrifice you pay for such a gay time. Heh heh heh.
<3
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