Tuesday 6 March 2012

Mardi Gras

I knew that the Mardi Gras carnival was soon, but it didn’t realize it was actually tonight! I got talking to the guy on the reception desk who informed me that people from the hostel were meeting up and going to see Mardi Gras at around 6:30.  He also pointed at a white board near the front door and said that every night when the hostel were going on a night out the time people should meet up and the venue will be written on the board.  Hanging around underneath the whiteboard at the prompted time might be a good way for me to meet people in the hostel.
I had a few hours until Mardi Gras so I went food shopping.  I haven’t eaten a decent meal since I got here and I was starting to feel it.  I went onto the internet to find what Australia’s equivalent to Tesco or Sainsbury’s was.  I actually did a bit of shopping the first night I got here at a local convenience store and got completely ripped off.  So I definitely didn’t want to go back there again.
 
On the internet I googled Australian supermarket and I quickly found what I think is Australia’s biggest, and I was very surprised.  It’s Woolworth’s!  They didn’t go bankrupt in the UK they just emigrated to Australia*.  
(*This is almost certainly not true)

After buying food at Woolworth’s I met up with people from the hostel bound for Mardi Gras.  During the walk into town the weather quickly turned from cloudy to rainy.  I really wasn’t expecting rain in Sydney, I had it in my mind that it only rains in the UK and everywhere else in the world enjoys never ending sunshine.  We got to a point along the route of thecarnival only to find that the streets where already packed full of people.  Some people were even standing on boxes to get a view.  As for us the only way we could see thatcarnival was via a big tv screen mounted high up on a street corner.  It was weird seeing what was happening on the street just behind me through a tv screen in front of me.  Thecarnival kicked off with the “dykes on bikes” where loads of lesbian and gay motorcyclists drove slowly along the route making as much noise as possible.  After they past there was a long gap until the rest of thecarnival caught up, I think there was some sort of delay.  By this point the rain was getting heavier, one of the people I was with kindly shared her umbrella with me but it didn’t stop me from getting soaked.  Everyone around had umbrellas and they were just bouncing and dripping water onto me.  The umbrellas also kept blocking the tv screens.  I had to keep moving my head in order to see the tv screen.  After nearly an hour I felt like I had seen enough of Mardi Gras, I was soaked through and thecarnival was becoming a bit boring.  It was just the same thing over and over again.  A lorry would drive by with a DJ and some amps blaring out music followed by some people in fancy dress waving and occasionally doing a cart wheel.  Some parts of thecarnival felt more like a demonstration than acarnival with people walking by with signs saying the law needs to be changed or saying “God doesn’t make mistakes” referring to the whole religion vs homosexuality debate.  Overall Mardi Gras was alright, but I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn’t got soaked and if I could have actually see it in person.










Not a great view.


No comments:

Post a Comment