1/28 – 1/31: Spain

Cadiz: What an amazing day! After having breakfast on the ship we out on deck to see the view; the sun was just rising so the sky was pinkish. The first thing you smell is, of course, the ocean but then there was a hint of citrus. Come to find out – and you’ll eventually see in my pictures – there are orange trees everywhere! So my friends and I got together and went off to explore. Not before in line for 45 minutes though – something was wrong with the electronic scanner so we had to sign out manually – 800 or so people at once. Halfway through they got the machine working and trips took off.
My first field practicum was called “Women in Cadiz” but it was really more of a general tour and not a historical account of women in the region. We drove around old Cadiz first – the “hand” of Cadiz – and then walked to specific spots. We went to the Archeological Museum where we learned a little about the long history. Cadiz was once called Galed and is one of the oldest cities in Europe. Originally settled by the Phoenicians and then by the Romans. After the museum we went to one of the many lookout towers (there are 128 just in Cadiz) where they had a telescope-like device to show the entire city on a screen. There were hundreds of narrow, glass stairs to get to the top of the tower. It was an amazing view, with ocean on almost all sides. After the tower we walked to the partial Roman theater that was only discovered around 1980. Crazy. We were able to walk down into it and the tunnels that ran underneath it. It – along with almost all of the older buildings and structures in the old city – was made of something they called oyster stone. It’s made out of shells and other sediments and was used due to its high durability; it withstands humidity and rain and all matters of precipitation. The coolest thing about coming out of the Roman theater is glancing around at that point and seeing the variety of architectural styles; directly next to the theater you can see the style from the Arabic migrants, then a Spanish style stone building with bright trim then a traditional Catholic cathedral and then the ocean. Amazing. Thousands of years of history standing next to one another – really close to one another due to the lack of space. According to our tour guide, there are no houses in old Cadiz due to its limited space but it’s all like 5 story apartment buildings.
Next we went and had a traditional Spanish meal. Phenomenal; hands down, the highlight of my day. It was appetizer after appetizer – tapas is what they call it here – and all delicious and uniquely flavored. There was amazing bread, potato salad made with olive oil and onions, fish pâté, fish and eggs mixed with something else, fried balls of ham and cheese, fried eggs and prawns, salad, and then the main course was sautéed onions and peppers and mushrooms and with a pepper sauce and a pastry with prawns baked into it. Delish! During lunch I was lucky enough to sit with the faculty and staff. Super nice people and they’ve all traveled extensively. After like almost 2 hours we headed out for a little walk before resuming the tour. I stumbled onto my friends during my walk so I opted out of the rest of the tour – museums and cathedrals are really only so interesting to me – and what a good decision. My friends are hilarious. They were just heading out to go to Castillo Santa Catalina. Except they ALL had to pee; the problem being that in Europe if you’re not a customer, you can’t use a bathroom. So we start walking and come to…an electric porter potty. Seriously brilliant and a little odd. From the outside it looks like a spaceship with the exterior look of a pole. You put .20 euros in and a sliding door opens and VOILA! Porter potty with sink. The seat has an automatic plastic seat cover and once you get out the toilet flushes and the capsule ‘sanitizes’ itself. Crazy. Continue on.
So we’re walking to the Castillo along the coast – which in most places around old Cadiz is bordered by rock walls – and so we look over the edge of the wall onto the rocks; cats everywhere! Literally at least 30 cats just from where I stood. Apparently Cadiz has a problem with cats so they just keep breeding and they live in colonies on the rocks, eating fish guts and trash, etc. It was sad cause they were all pretty cats and I hate seeing animals uncared for. I just kept thinking that if Matante Parise lived here she would adopt them or be one of the residents that come out and feed them. Oh and it seems that everyone here has a dog and they like to walk them.
So we finally make it to the main gate of the Castillo and start walking towards it – it’s like a ¼ mile walk on a cobblestone pathway/wall towards the middle of the bay (it literally sits in the middle of the Bay of Cadiz). There was a man on the beach finishing a sand sculpture of a crocodile. We get to the gate and it’s locked – apparently it’s only open during summer tourist season. So we just chill on the rocks and wall for a bit, take some sweet pictures of the water from the waves spraying up through holes in the rocks and then walk back to the ship. Quick dinner on the ship and change to go out to Flamenco night with like 200 other students. After a half hour bus ride into the country – during which something busted our windshield and left a bash the size of a softball – we get to a hacienda, all lit up and everything. We get off the bus and there are waters everywhere with drinks – wines (or vino) and sweet sherry made right in the area. They direct us to a small arena and we watch a few dances, a horse show, and then out came the bull for the bloodless bullfight. It was a baby bull so it was cuter than anything but that little thing could still run wicked fast. After the ‘fight’ we went in for the non-staged show. We sat in a candle-lit room and drank sangria and vino and ate tapas of cheese and meat strips. The dancing was phenomenal. The loud, ignorant, and some drunk SaS-ers were not. The dancers actually had to shush the room as one point. The dancers were so intense, as was the guitarist and singer. The man dancing was amazing – he never broke his concentration – and it felt like his eyes were burning into you. After the dancing we went back to the ship and got dolled up to go out. We actually ended up walking around in circles for about an hour before we actually got good enough directions to find a bar. Side note: I’ve learned that in Spain you have to ask at least 3 different people for directions before you get what you actually need and none of them know what any of the streets are called. So we finally found a packed bar where they had 1 euro beer and good music. We danced like crazy and all got good and tipsy – except for our designated walkers – and had an amazing time. Kat almost went off with a bunch of Spanish guys who apparently thought she was a prostitute but one of our friends took care of it. And then we all wandered back to the ship around 3am and passed out.

Seville: We got up around 6:30, ate breakfast, and took off for the train station. We took the 8:50 train to Seville along with a bunch of other SaS-ers. When we got to Seville it was a little ridiculous; we were a group of about 20 or so people just looking like dumb tourists in the terminal. Everyone wanted to do something different so we were trying to figure out who and where and what and so finally just decided to walk and find a hostel. During the walk a bunch of people decided to split up. A few friends and I went back to the train station to find out about trains to Granada and put our stuff in a locker until we came back. We caught a bus to what we thought was old Seville but ended up on the wrong bus so we just stayed on the bus for the ride until we got to the end of the route, which was kind of close to where we wanted to be. It was past lunch by the time we got off the bus so we found a little restaurant near old Seville and had a delicious meal for 6 euros; I had pasta and fried little fish and flan. If it wasn’t for D and Rhina we would’ve been lost the entire trip; the areas we visited weren’t English-speaking friendly so we depended on their fluency in Spanish a lot. Anyways, after lunch we headed into old Seville to find the Cathedral where Christopher Columbus was buried. We found the church and a bunch of stores. I walked around while some people went in the church. Then after what seemed like hours, we all headed back toward the bus stop. We stopped along the way to have some ‘chocolate con churros’, which is the most amazing hot chocolate in the world and some hot, donut-like pastries. We got back to the train terminal and found out that there wasn’t a train to Granada so we just went back to Cadiz; we figured staying at the ship would save us money and we would try to go to Granada the next morning. Well when we got back to the Cadiz terminal and checked for trains to Granada we found out that it was going to be a pain to try and get back on time so we were bummed but decided to look for something else to do before we went out that night. It was around 9pm and we hadn’t eaten dinner yet so we went to try and find somewhere for food; everything was closed! Finally we found this little place that was closing but the old man who ran it said he would keep it open just for us. He was funny – he told us this story about why he had a menu special called the “Obama Meal”. Side note: Spain’s times for when places are open, suck. Seriously, things are open at like 11am until about 1 or 2 then they close for ‘siesta’ until like 5pm. Then things are open from 5-9pm and then they close again and the bars open around 10 or 11pm. It’s ridiculous. Anywho, so we ate a yummy dinner; French fries and calamari or beef, and then we went out until about 3am and came back with a ton of energy and decided to hang out for another hour, playing truth or dare and just talking.

Jerez de la Frontera: So we slept in the next morning but we had decided to go to a little town nearby called Jerez de la Frontera to go to an Arabic Bath. So after eating on the ship we went to the bus station to catch the next bus. While waiting for the bus Victoria and I decided to have a café con leche and chocolate. Badddd plan. I felt so sick by the time we got to the bus terminal in Jerez that I thought I was going to puke. Their coffee is sooooo strong. Ick. Anywho, we got a map and started walking toward the Baths, stopping at a store on the way so that I could pick up something to settle my stomach. There were sooooo many orange trees here! It took forever to find the baths; mostly because the Spanish suck at giving directions and it wasn’t on the map we had but eventually – after asking for directions from like 4 different people – we found the baths and my 4 friends all went in for a bath and a couple of them for a massage too. I didn’t want to spend 27 euros on it so I decided to go walking around while I waited for them. It was such a great feeling just walking around a beautiful old city in Spain; I got whistled and looked at a lot because I’m a white girl walking around in a t-shirt (during what is their winter) and clearly not knowing where I was going. It was really cool though cause I saw some very different areas – not tourist-y at all. And I met some really nice people; a man who handed me a glass of sherry even before I had fully walked into his store, an older gentleman who let me use the bathroom in his café, a man who spoke broken French who helped me with directions and some kids who wanted to talk English to me. I walked back to the baths and my friends and I walked to the nearest bus terminal to catch the bus back to Cadiz – we felt really proud that we had found our way around a non-tourist city and experienced something no one else had done. When we got back we knew to go straight to the restaurants before they closed so we found one that was definitely aimed more towards tourists and ate this rice stuff that wasn’t as good as everything else I had eaten; really bland. So we go back to change before going out. We hurried so that we could exit through the close port gate that closed at 11pm; well we got there 10 minutes before and they had already closed so we did what any lazy American would do…we jumped the fence. We went and did a little bar hopping running into a bunch of students from the ship and I ended up walking back early cause I get sick of the bar scene and 3 nights in a row had been enough. Showered and crashed. I spent the next day looking for souvenirs, bought myself a scarf, sent Meredith a present, walked through the open-air market and bought a kilo of fresh strawberries for 2 euros since nothing had been open for late breakfast. We had lunch on the ship, walked around a little more until I found Dramamine and a calling card then went and used the pay phone near the ship to call Mer. Talked for a few minutes and then back to the ship to eat dinner and get ready for Morocco.
And now it’s Morocco day and we’re sitting near Gibraltar waiting for the seas to calm so we can bunker for fuel. I had to work a lot today and all I’ve done otherwise is sleep and journal and do laundry. You see, I packed a lot less clothes than most people and so I had to wash my clothes in the shower/sink by hand today because they only do laundry here every 2-3 weeks. Longggg friggin process but at least I have stuff to wear in Morocco. The women on the ship have been told that we have to dress very conservatively while at port because it’s a primarily Muslim country and showing too much skin or bringing too much attention to yourself can be dangerous; in which case I’m glad I at least packed the few long-sleeved shirts I did. Today was long but because of the rough seas we have a little bit of extra time before we make port in Morocco; it’s screwed up pre-booked trips but I’m personally thankful for an extra 12 hours to recuperate and get caught up on stuff like homework. I hope everyone’s safe and happy and you’ve enjoyed my ridiculous account of 3 days of insanity. I loved every minute and can’t wait to experience some real culture shock; Spain was too touristy for my taste so I’m really looking forward to getting to Morocco. I love and miss you all and can’t wait to tell you more.