Sitges Carnival happened between the 12th to 18th of February 2015.
I have never really celebrated Carnival as in most countries that I have lived in , Carnival was not a big thing. Eating pancakes on Pancake Tuesday is maybe the only celebration I have had during these festive times. So I was more than happy to plan a short trip to Sitges for the famous Sitges Carnival.
I have seen many brochures and heard a few friends talk about it and say it was great! I decided to check it out by myself, with a friend. So we headed to Sitges on Sunday 15th to watch the adult parade (as opposed to the children one that happened earlier) at 8pm.
The streets were not as busy as expected at first. So we walked around the town quite freely. It was full of dressed up people and dressed up tourits and there was a nice atmosphere. You know the kind of atmosphere that takes over a town when a party is about to happen. It reminded me of Saint Patrick’s day in Dublín: happy people, drinking in the streets, waiting excitedly for the parade to come. Then, we saw a bunch of people lining up for a seat in the tribunes. “Errr, sorry, where can we get tickets too?”…”You just need to queue”…Great! One hour and loads of life analysis later, we finally got to sit. And what seats! The thoughtful organizers got us blankets from a famous houseware brand. Nice….So while people were envidiously watching us comfy and warm, we watched the parade like VIPs. I queued for one hour in the cold, I deserve this!
And so we saw: tinkerbells dancing with Captain Cooks, troups of unicorns, every famous English person from the Spice Girls to Prince Charles and Freddie Mercury, characters related to Priscilla, Queen of the desert and many more to name them all to be honest! The costumes were great and looking at this parade, I wouldn´t think that Spain was in recession as they keep on repeating to each other over here. All the participants were very motivated to bring out the best of themselves. It was a feast for the eyes and for the imagination to watch them marching and to try to name and place each group to a period, to a story, to a region. I particularly like that all age groups (except for kids) were represented in this parade. I assume these were inhabitants of Sitges that were selected to march.
I would have stayed longer but the voice of wisdom, in this case, of my friend’s called for a way home around 10. It was sunday night and monday was a schoolday. So we left. And then there was the second part of the carnival, the one behind the scenes. All the bars full of party people and happy Drag Queens dressed up with fabulous dresses and heels so high I wonder how they can walk. We did not have much time to really hang out though. If I come back next time, I will spend the whole night to enjoy partying in the streets not only watch the parade.
The only negative and it was a big one: we found out that the train to Barcelona was stopping between 10h30 and 1h30 am. After the first minutes of disbelief, we went to look for the bus. A few buses dropped by, vomiting tens of drunken students each time but we had to wait a while for the ones going to Barcelona. By the time it was our turn to hop on, it was 1h15 am :(. We have been waiting almost 2h30 in the cold. At least, we bounded with our fellow passengers, waiting desperately for transportation. So this is a warning! If you go next year, get psychologically ready for the cold wait!