Carnival!

"Yo ho, haul together, hoist the colors high.

Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die."

Dressing-up is definitely up there on my favorite things to do list. Today's character: Pirate. Goal: Make it into the parade.

All over the world, people have been celebrating the last days before Lent with parades, food, drinks, music, costumes, and so on. In the US we'd refer to this as Mardi Gras, but in Cyprus it's called Carnival. Today, we went to join in the celebrations in Limassol. It was insane. It was 20x more intense than any Fourth of July parade I'd ever been to. Groups of Egyptians, Michael Jackson's, Scottish men, Fat Chef's, Mariachi dancers, Vikings, and Hippies flooded the streets, throwing confettiand spraying silly string in all directions. Music blaring. People dancing. I love parades. My friend Matt and I both dressed as Pirates and were determined to walk in the Parade. Finally, a group of Pirates came through, and being the awesome people that we are, we hopped off the sidewalk and became a part of the entertainment. After being yelled atto get out of their group and almost having an angry Pirate mom run me over with her child's stroller, we snuck in the back and successfully walked through the Parade; smiling, dancing, waving, and posing for pictures like we were meant to be there. Definitely the best part of the whole day. I could seriously dress-up and walk in a parade any day.

Happy celebrations everyone! Now go put on a costume and have some fun :)