Last night I went to Carnaval in Sitges, a seaside town known for its gay party scene among other things. We left on a train somewhere near 11:00 p.m. and the train station was packed with people in crazy costumes. There were a lot of pirates, doctors, bumble bees, mimes, fairies, and afros, but basically everyone did something a little different and there was no unifying theme. The train to Sitges was completely stuffed to the gills. We were standing the entire time and pressed against people we didn't know. But there was a party atmosphere, and 100% of the people had been drinking and everyone was in a different state of intoxication. We sang songs in Spanish and English like "I Will Survive," "Satisfaction," "My Girl," and this chant:
Alcohol, alcohol
Alcohol, alcohol, alcohol
Hemos venido
a emborracharnos
Y el resultado
nos da igual
Rough translation is "We've come to get drunk and don't care what happens."
After the stifling hot train ride, which lasted about a half hour, we poured out into the Sitges train station. There were tons of Mossos d'Esquadra, or Catalan police, everywhere. After a bit of a delay we were channeled into a security area where they gave everyone a quick pat down before releasing us into the street. We more or less followed the crowds and ended up near the parade. We got to see a bit of the parade, which was like Gay Pride/Mardi Gras/Cirque du Soleil rolled into one, before heading for the beach. It took forever to get anywhere because you were wading through crowds no matter where you turned. I took the precautions of CIEE and the Barcelona club promoters to heart and did not bring anything but a small money belt inside my jeans.
We finally ended up at the beach and met up with our other friends under a tent by a giant sound system. Almost everything seemed to be sponsored by Estrella Damm, the local beer. It was like an outdoor club. We danced all night on the beach. At one point some random guy was walking around holding out his palm covered in cocaine saying "20 euros! 20 euros!" Someone was carrying around a live rooster. There were some people being too rough plus the usual Spanish sexual forwardness (one girl in our group had a terrible time with some boys harassing her), but other than that I don't think we had any problems. As the night wore on it became too risky to venture overly-close to the waves because of the constantly flowing streams of urine from dozens of boys lining up at the same time. Then again, as someone wise told me, "Thousands of fish pee in the ocean every day."
Keep in mind that EVERYONE had on a costume of some sort. So even though I have been to plenty of festival-type events like this, I have never seen the same level of "wild partying" because the costumes lend an air of total outrageousness. It eventually got very very cold and we were ready to leave by 5 in the morning. Between waiting for our friends, walking to the train station, waiting in the super long line for the train, and waiting on the platform for the train to arrive, we did not leave until probably 5:45. The train ride back was much better as everyone was "tranquilo" and we actually got seats. Overall a long night but a lot of fun.
By the way, this video is not from Sitges; it is just a random video I found online of people singing the song.
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