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We are about to enter in the last week of Carnival which as usual brings many parties and celebrations in town. Spain is pretty active by this time of the year and Barcelona takes part of the colourful mood of these days, with their fancy dress processions, floats pared and jokes.In Catalonia, Carnival is also called Carnestoltes, which comes from Latin and it refers to the prohibition of eating meat during Lenten fast. The celebrations take place during a whole week of forbidden pleasure, starting with King Carnestoltes�s arrival (the Catalan carnival main character) on Fatty Thursday and ending on Ash Wednesday.
On Fatty Thursday (19/02/09), between 10.00 and 14.00, many of the city markets organise Tortillas Competitions, where it also possible to taste a little bit of this Spanish omelette and some delicious local cold meat, while attending a traditional brass band performance. On Saturday afternoon (21/02/09) the Gran Rua de Carnaval takes place, which is a colossal parade of adorned floats through a snowfall of streaming confetti.
Finally, on Wednesday (25/02/09) the king of carnival dies and in the afternoon his funeral is celebrated with the Burial of the Sardine, which is attended by mourning and black dressed people. At 20.14 in Clot Park, near to the Barcelona Hostel Urbany, everyone is invited to taste some sardine and some wine� also backpackers!
A worldwide famous carnival is the one of Sitges, especially for its exotic and extravagant style, where about 250.000 visitor from Germany, Britain, Catalonia and the rest of Europe converge every year, ready to party.
Sitges is a village located 40 Km away from Barcelona and you can reach it by train from Passeig de Gracia train station and the travel takes about half an hour.
Here the richness of clothes, make-ups, feathers and sequins is amazing. The whole week is characterised by the light, colours, rhythm and fantasy. Apart from all the usual events which take place in Barcelona too, on Sunday and Tuesday here you can also admire the beauty and the glamour of the Carnival Queen.
Sitges main celebrations are the Debauchery Parade, on Sunday night, and the Extermination Parade, on Tuesday night. This last event is also a good opportunity to see some amazing drag shows, thanks to the pretty large local gay community.
