Carnaval comes but once a year.
I had heard that it was "LO MEJOR!" and that I was "LOCA!" for not staying and experiencing the carnaval of Navalmoral de la Mata: I'm pretty sure everyone was right. Last year I fled from Navalmoral to experience the second largest carnaval celebration in the world, in Tenerife, Canary Islands. This year, I went running, arms wide open, three costumes in my bag, no holding back... to Navamoral. It's funny, every long break I have, I seem to run back to Navalmoral. I can't escape it! Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure this year's carnaval celebration was 10x better than last year's (minus the fact I was at the beach and exploring a volcano...) because I was with good friends, acquaintances, friends of friends, old students, and familiar faces. I wasn't a tourist hanging out with other tourists. I was one of 20+ firemen who overtook the town on Saturday night. Yeah, I was one of those people.
It was a weekend I had been waiting for, for quite awhile. Maria was coming to Spain! We had been counting down from about 200 days! We were all going to be reunited in Navalmoral and I couldn't believe the time had arrived! Maria and I met in Madrid on Friday morning to take the bus together to our old stomping grounds. We were "those" girls on the bus, the ones who talked and talked... and talked, non-stop for the entire trip. We had months of stories to share and tell! It was as if time had just paused and we picked right up back from where we left off last June.
Fortunately, one of the families from last year offered to house us in a new apartment! Brand spanking new! We were in heaven... after we figured out how to work the new hot water heater.
Friday night's festivities began with dinner, in costumes of course, at Casa Candy, a new restaurant in Navalmoral. We had all the typical dishes, like pig ears. (blah!) After, we went for drinks... lots of drinks; but the night had just begun. We ended up dancing in the
casetas until 7am or so, you know, about the time the sun was rising in the sky and all the old ladies were hanging out their laundry. You'd never have known it was so late due to the massive amounts of people still dancing/drinking in the casetas. And, it was only night one!
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| The gang! Victor, Juan, Rachel, Me, Mamen, Maria, Oscar |
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| Mas amigos en El Benito before going to the Casetas! |
Saturday day activities included: sleeping. showering. lunch.
cañas.
coches de choque. Chinese food. firemen costumes. drinks. dancing. watching the sun rise, again.
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| Drinks in the ever crowed main street with Maria and Edna! |
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| AHHHH!!!!!! TOO FUN! Everyone crashes at the same time! :) |
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| Wooo! |
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| I think we were still missing about 10 people... |
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| A sea of red. |
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| Casetas - if you didn't have a costume, you were the odd man out! |
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| Amigos! Divina came to visit us! :) |
Sunday was one of the best afternoons, as it was the day of the parade! Since there were technically no queens, (there were two who won by default) all of the parade groups (peñas) had signs that said "Remember carnaval, Navalmoral" or "We arrived just in time before there were no queens..." It's sad to think that there might not be queens in a few years, as it is such a part of tradition. Come on, Navalmoral,
animate!
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| One of the queens... |
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| Carnaval, Carnaval... Carnaval, te quiero! |
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| Remember the queens! :) |
The parade was fantastic! I'm pretty sure my favorite group was the Tornado Dance group who were dressed as monkeys. Most carnaval peñas dress in sparkly, over the top hand-made costumes, which are really incredible! But, the monkeys were very basic and they were the only ones fully masked; literally scared me they were so good with their dancing, music, etc! They were so real like, it gave you a strange, wiry feeling! They were like an army of apes who had taken over! ahh! Small kids who were in front of me before the parade suddenly were tucking themselves behind us and wiping away tears. Seriously, good job, Tornado Dance!
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| Tornado Dance dancing to Bruno Mars' "Today I don't feel like doing anything..." |
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| Planet of the Apes! AH~ |
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| The little horses on their merry-go-rounds actually moved up and down! So incredible! |
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| Paper dolls! |
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| Ferries... and a huge rabbit float! |
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| This had people dressed up from all over the world... and airplanes... |
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| Viva el mundo! Mexico, India, Japan... |
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| Fun dresses! |
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| Jaime dressed as Don Quixote! (He was one of my private student lessons from last year!) |
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| Marching band! (Super Americano!) |
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| "I can't be tamed..." birds, dancing to Miley Cyrus! |
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| Tribute to Madona! |
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| Edna as an African Queen! Que bonitaaa! |
Sunday afternoon we spent in the streets again....! We decided to visit the fair for another round of coches de choque, churros and fair food: hamburgers and fries. We quickly changed clothes and were back out at the casetas in no time, dancing along with the chicos guapos that were dancing on the bar. It's like Simon Says... they dance and tell you what to do, and you do it! So fun! We were chased by a man dressed as a doll/robot/toy who stayed in character the ENTIRE night... seriously, it was pretty scary as he would just come up behind you and keep marching!
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| Dance Along in the Canterville Caseta! |
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| Afternoon drinks/tapas with Maria, Rachel, and Mamen! |
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| Out for a tranquil night with the girls! |
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| Ok, so we found some crazy friends dancing in the Boulevard caseta... a cute little bee and Mario! |
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| Boulevard Caseta was decorated as a circus! Super guay! |
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| Attacked!!!!! |
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| Cheers! Salud! (Gracias por la cava, Dani!) |
Monday was a sad day - our Carnaval was over - but Maria's visit was not! We boarded the bus to Madrid and then the train to Valladolid... and we continued our adventures Monday evening with tapas. Tuesday we explored the city center of Valladolid and had a nice lunch in the Plaza Mayor. We went to Segovia in the afternoon and had a fantastic afternoon (4 hours!) roaming the streets, seeing the aqueduct and visiting the "Disneyland/Sleeping Beauty" Castle. Wednesday we went to Barajas Airport in Madrid to say goodbyes once again.... BUT NOT FOR LONG! (My mom and I are going to Glasgow in Easter for a visit!)
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| Exploring unknown sitios en Valladolid with Maria! |
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| In the Campo Grande Park, peacocks run free! |
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| Afternoon in Segovia (PS there is a giant Roman aqueduct behind us!) |
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| Segovia, you are so pretty in front of snow-covered mountains! |
I can't say how happy I am that I experienced Carnaval in Navalmoral - finally. It really was "worth it!" I was so happy to be back with friends, students and familiar faces. This is what living in Spain is all about: feeling at home.
Anyone thinking that life is unfair, needs to know that's not the case. That life is beautiful, you must live it. Anyone thinking he's alone and that that's bad, needs to know that's not the case. That in life no one is alone, there is always someone. Ay, there's no need to cry, because life is a carnival. It's more beautiful to live singing. Oh, Ay, there's no need to cry, for life is a carnival. And your pains go away by singing. Anyone thinking that life is cruel, needs to know that's not the case, that there are just bad times, and it will pass...
Here's to LIFE: May we make the most of every situation and live life with friends at our side, no matter how good or bad the times are!
