"Había un montón de marrecones!"

Carnaval in any Spanish-speaking country can only be described through pictures. Trying to portray in words what happened in Sitges during Valentine's weekend can only be done in two words...drunk transvestites. And so, the story begins...

On Saturday night a couple of my friends convinced me to go to Sitges with them, a beach town about 20-30 minutes outside of Barcelona by train. Tracey and Mattie picked up some cheap face masks before we left Barca so we would be ready for Sitges...we were SO unprepared. The one time in my life where my banana costume was required. Damn. We arrived in Sitges and immediately hit up a super market for cheap wine...we didn't want to dehydrate, obviously.

So we started on our journey to find the parade/party and we did! We heard a drumming sound and went running!

After the drumming had stopped...finally (it was cool for like 15 minutes...30 minutes was a little too much) we started wandering the streets and meeting up with some other people from our BCA group. We also made some new friends!

(From left to right: Shaira, Mattie, Tracey and new friends!)

We then ran into some more friends from our BCA group and our favorite drummer friends. The drummer friends were a lot more fun this time. We did some dancing, we got low and we did some hydrating. All-in-all our new drummer friends were our favorite.

(Mary y Tracey)

(Mamografías, si. Mammographies...no? nice try...)

(Left to right: Shaira, Ichiro, Tracey, Mary, Mattie)

We then decided to grab some dinner at a fine-dining establishment. The obvious choice was a great mexican restaurant filled with enchiladas, burritos and margaritas. How could we resist? Our next stop was enjoying the night-life of Sitges. We followed the crowds of people and ended on a street filled with people dressed in costumes (I now have some excellent Halloween costume ideas!). We tried to get into a couple clubs but we decided that it wasn't worth it with all the people. 

We then made our way down to the beach, which was filled with more people. It was kinda sweet though, partying at the beach. The only problem was how cold it was!

When we started to meet up with other friends after the beach, we noticed some white specks on our jackets. IT WAS SNOWING!

(Mattie)

Yeah, we were all shocked!

We headed back towards the main street hoping to run into some friends, which we did. In a town with thousands of people, we were able to run into people we knew. Until 3:30am we wandered the streets of Sitges taking pictures with random Spanish people, spending some time on the beach and enjoying the snow.

The first train from Sitges to Barcelona was at 3:30am. I have never seen so many people waiting for such a train. Luckily, Tracey and I were able to get seats! She may be small, but she can make her way through spaces the normal size person cannot. Unfortunately, fifteen minutes into our ride back to Barcelona, a kind gentleman decided that the only place he could vomit was in the row next to us. How kind. Tracey and I looked at each other and deserted our beloved seats. 

The following day, or seven hours later, Tracey and I met up to celebrate Valentine's Day. In Ecuador Valentine's Day is known as Día de Amores y Amistades, Day of Loved Ones and Friendships. So, Tracey and I celebrated with a trip to the English movie theater to see the movie Valentine's Day. It was so cute! After the movie we set out in search of sushi, but were unsuccessful and ended up café hopping.

During our café hopping, Tracey and I stumbled upon the Gaudí house. I had to take a picture because every night that Gran Hermano, aka Big Brother, comes on tv, Resu tells me that the host of Gran Hermany is the granddaughter of the owners of this building. Obviously, I had to take a picture. 

So, Tracey and I ended our romantic day and headed home for dinner and a good-night's sleep!

To see all of the photos, check out the Flickr album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasecarrie/sets/72157623650909511/