After spending our first few weeks in India being constantly on the move, the reintroduction to classroom and dorm routines these past two weeks has been making me even more restless than usual (which is saying a lot). The time had come for our next adventure - and what better excuse than Carnival weekend in Goa? So we joined forces with three Polish students (Ewa, Zakaria, and Michal) who are studying in the Geopolitics Department with us, and were on our way to the land of beautiful beaches! None of us had been on an Indian train yet - something that is considered a sort of rite of passage for wannabe world-travelers such as ourselves. So by the time we pulled out of the station on Friday afternoon we were already one step closer to completing our official Bucket List and becoming honorary Indians. | Friday Night: Indians in 'Train'-ing |
Saturday Morning: Backpacking, Baga Style | We arrived in Goa around 9 pm and head straight for Vasco da Gama, a city we had somewhat randomly picked from a list of the main Carnival locations. Our cab driver made a few comments on the way about it not being somewhere meant for tourists, but that description has never worked on me the way people want it to and I just became more determined to see it. It wasn't until we reached the city that we understood what the driver had been trying to tell us. I'd spent the drive trying to think happy thoughts about how we would arrive to find a town alive with music, decorations, and lots of generally Carnival-ish energy. Instead, we were greeted at every corner by the silence of dark windows and CLOSED signs. |
It only took a minute with the hotel receptionist to learn everything we needed to know about the Carnival, including what had been the key detail in all of the confusion - turns out the 'Goa Carnival' is actually one specific event that travels between several different cities over the week, instead of being one day of multiple places celebrating. I guess that 'list of good Carnival cities' we used as reference had actually been a parade schedule...oops?
We set out early the next morning with fingers crossed that we might still have a chance at tracking down the Carnival. Fate did us one better and less than an hour later a bus was dropping us off at the entrance of Panaji, Goa's capital city. We arrived with plenty of time to find a hotel before the festivities began that afternoon - or at least it would have been plenty of time if there were any hotels to find. Apparently Carnival weekend is not the most ideal time for a group of 5 to be seeking out rooms in the capital city... We tried to fill the time walking around the city, but knowing we still had to find another destination with the possibility of rooms was making us restless. The last thing anyone wants to do on a short weekend trip is waste almost an entire day waiting for something better to happen - even when that something better is a Carnival parade. | Saturday Afternoon: Arabian Sea Encounters |
It wasn't long before we felt we had seen enough of the decorations and floats while walking around to satisfy our Carnival curiosity. After all of those days spent hyping it up to ourselves and each other, we made the executive decision to just skip the event entirely. We figured it would be a much better use of our time and energy to head towards the nearest beach town and see where plans might go from there.
Saturday Evening: Indian Sunsets | It was only a few more hours and two more buses before we made it to the famous Baga Beach, and just one glimpse of the water was enough to make up our minds about staying put for the next day. It wasn't long before we found some spare rooms - and with nothing else to worry about for at least 24 hours, we head straight for the beach. We spent the next 10 hours swimming in the Arabian Sea (another bucket list cross-off!), watching the sunset over dinner, and hanging out with the most entertainingly eclectic mix of locals and tourists that we’d met along the beach. ......Carnival who? |