Carnival 2011 Is Just Around The Corner

Carnival is just around the corner and Barcelona is getting ready. It has all the costumes, parties, and craziness you would expect. It´s all about letting your hair down; breaking all established order and decorum; spontaneous, active participation. It all starts on Fat Thursday ("Dijous Gras" when the Carnival King makes his triumphal appearance. Blamed for all the evil in the world he is condemned, publicly burnt, and buried along with our sins. The high point of the week will be Saturday the 5th of March when the Big Parade (“La gran rua”) takes place. It will end with the burial of the sardine (“L´Enterrament de la Sardina”) which symbolically buries all our fun and, in theory more than in practice begins the forty days of Lent. For people who do not need complete craziness, we can put your minds to rest; Barcelona is not Rio or New Orleans. But it is a very good time and very close to our hearts, partially because it was prohibited during the Franco dictatorship until 1981 when the tradition was reignited with a vengeance.

Some serious revellers find Barcelona´s Carnival, well, a little decaffeinated. For you we have the wonderful extravagance of Sitges, the super popular seaside resort a mere 40-minute train ride from the Hotel Principal. Here the costumes are more eccentric, the fireworks crazier, the parties among the hottest in Europe. A lot of this lavishness is due to the large gay and lesbian community which helps make Carnival in Sitges an international event. So if you like your Carnival mildly spicy or red hot, we have just the plate for you.