Carnavale

Hola!
This weekend was the celebration of Carnavale. To explain Carnavale it is like a weekend long halloween, without all the candy. Everyone dresses up and when I say everyone I mean kids, adults, babies.... Parents were literally matching their little kids, their spouses etc. Kids would go out in huge groups of the same costume. I'll explain day by day as I go.
We don't have class on fridays so everyone goes out to the bars and clubs thursday night. Being a student of the United States I am part of a group called Erasmus. Which basically sets a location for abroad students and local students to meet up and talk; It is ALWAYS at a bar or club.
So Thursday night we had an Erasmus event. We went to a club called "The Loft" Where we drank and talked. I think it is the best way to practice your Spanish and it is pretty fun because you speak your best Spanish and then the local students who usually don't speak good english speak back to you in their broken English. It works out great because everyone is practicing. So obviously we lose track of time and start heading home around 3 AM. We are in our costumes (un disfraz) Me and my buddy are bulls and the Metro is closed so we are on an adventure to find a taxi. Bilbao is extremely safe and its ok to walk around in the middle of the night. There is absolutely no one out on the street including cars. We finally find people and ask them for a taxi number to get home. This place was a police station (guardia civil). Their police stations here have cops standing outside with huge guns. This isn't a normal gun, it is about 4 feet long and they hold it with two hands. But with our liquid courage and need to get to bed we feel its totally fine to pester them about a number. They are extremely nice and they walk us in to their reception area (still holding guns). We get a number and an address of where we are and head out. We sit and talk to the cops for a few minutes until our cab comes. I get home at about 4 AM.
Friday- Is a beautiful day. I go for a run on the beach when I get up. Sunglasses finally come into use as the sun blares down on me. As I run I pass all the kids dressed up as animals, superheros, you name it I can't help but smile. After my run, I get a call from a Spanish student whom I had met the night before asking me if I wanted to meet up for a coffee and a chat. Since I am here to practice Spanish I take her up on it, get showered and dressed quickly and head to the Algorta plaza. I thought this was going to be awkward at first, but she turned out to be really cool and understanding of my broken Spanish. We sat there for about an hour and a half talking and watching as they set up for the festivities of the night. Families are out until at least midnight during these nights. It is pretty insane. So after my chat, I go home put on my costume and head out for the night. Another Erasmus party, a whole new club. I have to take the train by myself to meet up with my friends. Its about a 10 minute ride, but its embarassing being the only 20 year old in a one piece suit. I thought I got stared at because I was American. An American in a bull suit is even worse haha. People are laughing at me all over the place. Whatever I will never see them again. So I meet up my other bull and we head to the club. This was an amazing club. Every club here has go go dancers dancing on stages. So it is quite interesting because you never see that in the states. As well as having go go dancers, they had food on the bar for the taking. They had cookies and treats. It was amazing. Me and my buddy are talking to all these people when up comes another bull. A Spanish kid wearing the exact same costume as us. We immediately started jumping around with this kid who is EXTREMELY intoxicated and hilarious. We become the life of the party and there were people taking pictures of us left and right. So if you end up stumbling across me in a bull suit somewhere on the internet, don't be surprised. This turns into another late fun filled night. A tangent: Before I came abroad i heard from people and books that its normal to stay out all night, and grab breakfast with all your friends after you leave the club. I have yet to do the breakfast thing but it is not normal if I don't hear the birds chirping as I walk home.
Saturday: Another beautiful day in Spain. I was bored so I called a friend who lives in Algorta and we decided to walk around. I, obviously, wore my bull costume. We walk around for a few hours and Algorta suddenly becomes bustling at about 6 o'clock. There is a huge festival with a band. They are speaking Euskara so I don't really understand what is going on, but they do form a conga line type of thing and I really wanted to jump in, but it was either little kids or adults and I would have definitely been out of place so I was forced to just watch. They were also serving hot chocolate, that literally looked like steaming pudding, but the line was too long to grab some, I will probably try and get some of that today. So after that I head home to eat and head out for the night. We head to the center of Bilbao and immediately stumble upon a street festival. There are people playing music and others dancing. We then walk to a real Carnavale. This thing had kids rides as well as places selling wine for the parents. It was great. We just walked the streets and people watched. Took pictures with every awesome costume we saw. We did not end up going to a club but we just walked the streets until abour 4:30 AM. Once again the streets will still packed at 4:00 in the morning! We leave and get on the train to head home, and start talking to some Spaniards who were just heading to the club. Asked us to join, but we are not that hardcore.
Sidenotes: Carnavale was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had. Its something that you dream of experiencing in your life. "I was in Spain, for carnavale." Halloween has nothing to it, there is just that vibe and passion in the air that Halloween could never achieve.
One more thing: This was probably the most annoying weekend because with a one piece suit comes the problem of no pockets, what do you do when u have to pee, phone rings etc. So I had to unzip and rezip myself probably 200 times. I didn't know the word for zipper, or "to zip" for that matter so I really couldn't ask any Spaniards for help either without sounding like an idiot.
The first picture I posted is of Casco Viejo at about 2:00 in the morning, completely packed.
Second is of us in our costumes I thought I had more pictures of me in my costume, guess I was wrong....
The third one is in Gran Vila, this is the street carnaval going on
Enjjoy!!!