Sea Urchins and Public Urination

Boom boom boom boom.  The beat of the drum pounds through the warm air.  Metallic sounds come from people playing tin cans, others from playing cheese graters.  Boom boom boom, the sound grows louder.  As my host family and I make our way down the winding streets, the number of people grows fast.  Liter Cruzcampo beer bottles are lined up on the side of the road next to empty black prickly sea-urchins.  The smell of beer, pee, and seafood creep into the air.  Boom boom boom, the crowd gets larger and larger and suddenly I cross into a street that is packed from one wall to the other with people squished together like olives in a jar.  We push our way through the dense circles of people drinking, smoking, peeing, talking, dancing, shouting, jumping.  Shrimp bodies litter the streets with their eyes watching the hectic scene unfurl.  Cádiz has become sieged by pre-carnival partying.  The beach is currently filled with partiers, the streets are littered with innumerous empty bottles of alcohol, people are drunk, dancing, eating, socializing, all in a frenzy that is typically Spanish.  I can only wonder what Carnaval will be like if this was just pre-gaming…