Carnaval

Carnaval is where Mardi Gras comes from-it's a big pre-Lenten blowout. It's like Halloween + the Macy's Thanksgiving parade except that it lasts 5-6 days and involves big brass bands. We started out in Donostia on Saturday, where there was a lot of heavily choreographed dancing in the streets and on elaborate floats, with lots of references to American culture and a few more arty touches, like Don Quixote and the guy who played a several-horned instrument.

It was alright but definitely the main attraction was carnaval in Tolosa, a city that was once the capital of Gipuzkoa, and is famous for its sweets. Chaos reigns, with families and groups of friends organizing to make their own floats and blasting deafening reggaeton and techno and ska while brass bands march up and down the streets, dancing. Everyone was wearing costumes, with penguins, mops, families of potatoheads, and unidentifiable others. The floats were out of control and included a NASA spaceshuttle with smoke coming out the end and an enormous replica of the Titanic inside a bottle, with a man dressed as a captain sitting up at the top, inside the bottle. This YouTube video gives a pretty good sense of the feel of it. I hope everybody enjoys their Mardi Gras over there-I have a couple days off to regain my hearing. A note about the pics-just click on one to start the album, they're difficult to view as arrayed below.