During this time, there are parades pretty much from noon to night and people dress up, ranging from ridiculous costumes like Homer Simpson to simple ones like animals or cowboys. Some people even dress up at school. Every different town or city has their own parade and is filled with tons of people.
I was happy because I had three days of vacation and didn't have to go to school.
The bad part was that on Saturday and Tuesday (the most important days), the parades were cancelled because it was raining and windy. On the bright side, we had one day of carnaval.
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The first fiesta I went to was "Feria de Cocido" in Lalin. Cocido is type of Spanish food that is basically chorizo, ribs, pig ears, cabbage, potatoes, chickpeas, and ham cooked in pot of boiling water. It is rich in proteins and a lot of people find it tasty, but I don't really like it. Apart from cocido, there was also a parade and market where they sold souvenirs.
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| This is our car. |
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| This is what was attatched to the car |
During the fiesta, there is a giant parade. People who perform come from different parts of Galicia and even Portugal. After, most people stay in Lalin to eat cocido, but all the restaurants are filled with people and it is also really expensive. Because of this, our whole parade tour went to a different city to eat churrasco. (Cheaper and tastier)
The following Tuesday, it was raining so the parade in Marin, was cancelled. Instead they had a mini fiesta inside the government building.
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| This is Sergio Pazos, a Spanish actor |
The next thing I went to wasn't a Carnaval celebration, but a fiesta called "La Arribada". It celebrates the day when Christopher Columbus arrived to Bayona after the discovery of America. That is the town where the first American Indian arrived to Europe.
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Basically, they had a bunch of cool shops, animals, and also displays of antique stuff they used throughout that century.
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| Monumento a Alfonso IX |
On Wednesday, the day before school started again, we had a giant parade in Marin. It was filled with tons of people around the whole town. There were people of every age participating in the parades: toddlers to old people.
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| I still don't know what I dressed up as... |
At night, they had a festival called "Entierro de la Sardina" which translates to the Burial or Funeral of the Sardine. It is a tradition they do every year on the last day of Carnaval. It is pretty much a bunch of people dressed in black (some people with masks) and crying and screaming over a dead sardine. Someone dresses up in religious Catholic Clothes and reads a speech. After every few line he reads, people start crying. At the end, there is a band that plays music, and we all march towards the river to throw the fish into the sea. It is interesting but ridiculous at the same time, because they are crying about a fish!
