Spain has the second most celebrated Carnival next to Brazil. During the break we road tripped from Reus to Valencia to Alicante to Granada to Madrid and ended the madness in the Canary Islands, Tenerife. It was a jam packed 10 days filled with laughs, brilliant memories, great food and last but not least thousands of drag queens!
Before I present you the photographic evidence I'd like to give a shout out to my dad for teaching me to drive stick (Can't believe I made it all 803 miles without dying) and my buds Jenna, Callie and Kaydin for allowing me to swipe their pics!
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After 3 hours of logistical complications we finally had our silver bullet Hertz rental and were ready to rock and roll!
VALENCIA
For the first part of the trip we couch surfed and stayed with Henrik Malcharek, an awesome guy from Germany who fed, sheltered, introduced and guided us around Valencia. Thanks Henrik!
Valencia ciudad viejo
There were lots of awesome murals like the one below all around town
A gigantic crowd gathered for round one Las Fallas fire bombs (I say this instead of fireworks because fireworks are sparkly things that light up the sky for your viewing pleasure, these were definitely fire bombs that blew smoke and made enough noise to render you deaf). Good times!
Team Awesome
Chillin at a park after watching the fire bombs
Henrik took us to a park that had a giant playground in the shape of a giant man
Jenna loved sitting on the shoe
These are real bathroom signs
Round two fire bombs at the beach
On our way to Alicante! Along the trip there were several toros like this one.
ALICANTE
Callie and I making our way to Castillo de Santa Barbara in Alicante
The unofficial Great Wall of Alicante
Alicante's bull ring
Alicante, Alicante, Ali Ali Cante, Ali Ali Cante!!!!!!!!!!
View of Castillo de Santa Barbara
Sunset overlooking the harbor
GRANADA
Since we refused the 60 euro GPS system with our rental it was up to our Google print outs, Callie's phone and our instinct to get us around. All three failed us miserably when we got to Granada. I ended up on a very narrow, curvy, cobblestone one-way that nearly decapitated our mirrors! Luckily we made it out without any damage. Needless to say I was very happy to have remembered to pack my deodorant and to have been in wine country after that adventure. Phewf!
View from our hostel rooftop
A panoramic view of the Alhambra from Mirador de San Nicolas
Our hostel had a big paella dinner for us that night - it was delish!
The next day we went about exploring the city and shops - Jenna caught me trying to get creative with my camera (that's me bending down)
We stopped at a bar for a canya and tapas - of course they had a big brass bull at the entrance so we had to climb on top and take a picture.
On our last day in Granada we visited one of the last Moorish strongholds left in Spain from the 14th century - Alhambra. The palace and fortress were built for the last Muslim Emirs in Spain.
A panoramic view of Granada from the Alhambra
The fortress has gorgeous architectural details at every corner
Jenna and I getting our model poses on
The inside of the palace has gorgeous mosaic tiles...The scarf I'm wearing below was hand painted to match a section of the mosaic tiles.
MADRID
Jenna and I posing in front of "El Oso y El Madroño" statue that is located in Plaza de Sol
Jen in Mayor Plaza
The White House of Spain
Since we had a 6 am flight to Tenerife the following morning we decided to stay out all night classic Spanish style. We ended up at an Italian mixer serving free food. The guy leaning on Jessica's shoulder declared his love for her in hopes that she would marry him and get him his American papers. Hilarious!
The only way to smuggle your purse on Ryanair without having to stuff it in your bag. Obvious much?
TENERIFE
After spending most of first day recuperating from the previous week we rented a car and visitedTenerife's volcano, Teide.
The drive was gorgeous!
Climbing over the wall to grab a picture of the landscape
We were all craving island beach weather so bad we wore beach clothes, unfortunately for us we didn't quite have our thinking caps on and were freezing!
On the road
On our way down the mountain to the beach there were tons of banana farms
The black sands of Los Gigantes beach
It's a double rainbow!
The roomies in our Carnival getups. I was a fortune teller, Callie was a cowgirl and Laura was a zebra. I'd say we get an "A" for effort, but most of the costumes we saw that night really put ours to shame. They sure know how to dress up in the Canary Islands. Keep scrolling down and you'll see what I mean.
There were crowds everywhere!
Smurfs?
It's very typical for men (even straight ones) to dress up in drag during Carnival.
One of these guys got a new camera :( I never got mine back after they took the photo. Luckily Callie had a copy on hers.
Cute little tots parading around town
Snow White never looked so goooood
A news crew was walking around interviewing people along the street. All I said was "hola" as they walked by me and they knew I was a foreigner. Once we said we were from the USA they immediately wanted an interview.
Below are my favorite pictures from the whole trip! I think you'll get a taste of the hilarity and controversial costumes that went down in Tenerife, Santa Cruz.
Parades and parties all week
It's raining men!
Callie posing with a "gospel choir singer" - just wrong
