Hola amigos! Estoy en Espana! It is our first port and I am having an amazing time. It took a long time to cross the Atlantic. We left Monday evening, and arrived 8 days later on Wednesday morning. I had a great time on the crossing, but I was definitely ready to see land again. After 8 days I had a great pair of sea legs; so great that I actually felt like I was swaying when I was standing on solid ground yesterday. All of the people who were seasick the first few days felt better by the third or fourth day. Most people are incredibly nice, we had a fun time. The atmosphere was always charged with the excitement created by 720 students about to circumnavigate the globe. I have made a ton of friends!
We arrived in Cadiz at 8am yesterday. It was still dark when we got there, Spain arbitrarily changed their time zone to be in the same zone as the rest of Western Europe, so the sun doesn’t rise until 8:30. That works for the Spanish lifestyle; most businesses don’t open until 9 am, and Spaniards don’t eat dinner until after 10pm. A group of 16 of my friends and I departed at about 9. We set off without a general plan or direction, but the town of Cadiz is only about 5 square miles. The city was built first in 1100 B.C., and since has been an integral part of Spanish defenses. There are many bastillions on the waters edge protecting the city. The city is surrounded on 3 sides by water, so it was very hard to get lost. It was difficult, however, to keep a group that large together, so around 11 we split into smaller groups. I stuck with my friends Tim, Jonathan, and Isaiah. We walked through the Cadiz gardens and stopped to have some tapas. Tapas (pronounced with short a sounds, tah-pah) are like appetizers and are served all day. The food in Spain is DELICIOUS! The biggest thing to do in Spain is tapas con amigos. Friends will get together for an hour or two and drink wine, eat tapas, laugh and talk in the cafes. I practiced my conversational Spanish with waiters all day.The first round of tapas I had were like a brisket in a tomato sauce, and were delicious. In Spain, lunch isn’t served until 3 or 4, so the tapas held us over until then. We emerged from the heart of the city and walked along the beach to a fort built on an island about 200 meters from shore. I loved the architecture. From the fort we could see the rest of Cadiz, and we noticed a large cathedral in the middle of the city. We headed off in that general direction, wandering through the old stone streets that meandered through the city. Suddenly, a large plaza opened in front of us. It was the Plaza de Catedral, with, you guessed it, the large Cathedral rising in front of us.
After seeing some other SAS students in the plaza, we paid 6€ for admission to a museum on the history and ruins of Cadiz and a trip to the top of the Catedral. The view was spectacular. To the south was the ocean, the west was the fort we had just come from, to the north was the tops of all the buildings in Cadiz, and to the east was the rest of the Catedral and more buildings. We spent maybe 30 minutes up there. I took a ton of photos. We then went to the ruins, which were really interesting because of all the different conquers of Cadiz. There were indigenous people, who were conquered by the Romans, and then the Spanish, to the Moors, and finally back to the Spanish. By this time, after all the walking, we were hungry for tapas again. We sat in the plaza right in front of the Catedral at an outdoor restaurant. The 12 of us ordered a few pictures of sangria and more tapas. Sangria is a mix of wine, sometimes a hard alcohol like gin or brandy, and a lot of fruit. It is delicious! With the pleasing sangria, I also had the best shrimp and garlic dish that I have EVER had. They were delicious, they were served very hot in boiling olive oil. I actually went back on the last day in Cadiz to eat some more.
After more exploring, which was the theme of the day, we headed back to the ship for a quick siesta. Around 9 that night, a few of us went back out. The IT guy for our ship, named Bob (or Sparky), is an excellent musician. His goal is to play with bands in every country he goes to. He set up a jam session with some local jazz artists, who turned out to be excellent musicians. Before the show, we got more tapas and sangria. They were, again, delicious. At the show, which was more of a lounge and bar, I had my fist glass of sherry. Sherry is supposed to be the best in Spain. I’ve never had sherry before! I headed back to the ship pretty early that night, because I wanted to be up early for the 8am train to Sevilla!
P.S. I actually did start this blog post in Cadiz, but I’ve gotten a lot busier than I expected. We now have a week at sea between Morocco and Namibia, so I can write out and post what I’ve got in my journals soon!
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