The Cádiz Carnaval

        In 2009 I saw an advertisement for a trip to Cádiz in a local travel agency window. Cadiz is only an hour and half away from Olvera. The trip cost 12€. and left Olvera at 7pm. returning the following morning at 9am.This was for the annual Carnaval of Cádiz. I had always wanted to see a carnival.
        I had never been to the English version, Notting Hill, in London. I thought this would be like them, with fantastic floats and costumes.
        I had no idea what I was getting myself into until I met the other passengers ready to board the minibus.    

          The coach left from the Olvera bus station at 7pm. and arrived in Cádiz at
around 9pm.  The delay was caused by the traffic entering  Cádiz from outside.
All the way down from Jerez the traffic built up to an eventual gridlock as you
entered  Cádiz. I was in a minibus with fifteen young girls in party mode.
         The other lines of traffic waiting to enter Cádiz were full of youngsters
wanting to join the party. I was sat next to the driver so I could not see what was happening in the back of the bus.
        I did see what was happening in the lanes of traffic alongside us. The boys were mooning from their car windows and people were getting out of their cars and passing round drinks in plastic cups and rolled cigarettes. The traffic jam was already a party in it's own right.
       When we did get into Cádiz at seven o'clock we were dropped off opposite the Plaza de España.  By now everybody was high on the atmosphere that was developing in the streets.  This is when I realized I had made another mistake. Everybody had brought their own drinks. Shoulder bags, rucksacks, carrier bags. All were full of bottles of booze and mixer. I had assumed that the bars would stay open all night. I was wrong. At two o’clock in the morning all the bars closed.

        If you had closed the bars half way through a party in England you would have had a riot. This would have been an invitation to civil war. All these youngsters drinking huge amounts of alcohol, taking drugs and smoking Marijuana was an army primed and ready to fight.
       Yet I never saw fighting or drunkenness, (Although everybody was drunk.) I never saw a policeman all night.  I watched bands in the streets, groups of people singing. Everybody was dancing and happy to enjoy themselves.
       I am not sure of the actual figures, but I think there must have been between three and five thousand youngsters in the streets of Cádiz that night. All in fancy dress, very happy, very drunk. I faded pretty fast. I used to work 12 hour nights, but I cannot drink 12 hour nights. By four o’clock I was laying on a park bench waiting for the dawn. All around me were the savvy Spanish youngsters in sleeping bags laying on the grass. The more energetic were still partying.
    When the minibus picked us up in the morning I was happy to sleep in the comfortable seats all the way home. As we neared Olvera some of the party chicas began to awaken. One of them kept calling from the back of the bus. She could speak a little English We arranged to meet again. She knew me though I did not know her. She lived very near to my house, but on the other side of the road.
    Her and her mother turned out to be long term friends. Cádiz Carnaval, which at first looked like a mistake, turned out to be one of the best moves I ever made. It was also the best party I ever went to.