So Spain was awesome despite some rough moments, but generally an awesome place and I had a great time. Hopefully I'll have some pictures posted later tonight if I can find an internet cafe when I'm let off in Casablanca. The ships location in the port was nice, literally right in the middle of the city of Cadiz (pronounced CAdiz). Here's the breakdown:
Day 1 (Sept 4)
Got up really early to watch the sunrise as we pulled into our first port. It was beautiful watching it come over the mountain range in the distance, and we could soon see the big cathedral's dome and the city coming into view. Obviously we were all pumped to get going and finally get off the ship. So it was me, Amanda, and Kelly. Amanda I met a couple of months ago at OSU and we got to hang out a few times before the trip started and decided to do Spain together. Amanda met Kelly on the ship and she had no plans so she joined us as well. So we got off the ship, kissed land, and started moving right away to meet up with David, who was Amanda's friend from England who was meeting up with her. We had some fun learning the city and wondering around, made our first Spanish friend, a stray dog, and finally was able to get to David's hotel. The four of us then went to the cathedral that rests near the ocean. It was great to get inside there and look at it, it reminded me a lot of my time in Rome and seeing those churches. We went down into the crypt which was very creepy, but cool to see. I had a lot of fun listening to my fit echo around the walls of it. After that we decided to get some food, and at this moment I completely forget what I had, so not too memorable. (I also forgot my journal, so was not able to right down daily what I did, but lesson learned, not happening again!)
After lunch we went back to the ship and headed to the other side of the city (maybe 15 min walk) to go to the beach, which was beautiful. So cool to be on a beach and see cathedral rising right by and just the older European vibe the whole city had. As we were walking down the ramp I remember looking down at it (it was packed of people) and asking Kelly, "So I don't have my glasses on, so I can't really tell, but is that lady topless?" Kelly looked for a bit and said, "Oh wow!" Unfortunately, it's more or less all the women who no longer care what anyone thinks about them who decide to go topless, but it was definitely the first so called "culture shock" I had. It felt so good to be in the ocean, especially after a week of being so cramped on the ship. I got some sun and just had a great time living in the moment there (and did manage to find 1 hot topless girl haha).
After the beach me and Kelly headed back to the ship to get ready for our night of Flamenco dancing. So we got back and got ready, and headed to the pier to meet the bus, and found out we would go to a bull fighting ring first and see a bloodless bullfight and some horse like stuff. The bus ride was about 25 minutes to a ranch outside of the city, and when we got there, everyone gave each other looks, and I remember saying, "Wow, I didn't realize we were in Mexico, not Spain." The ring was just a wall with a small section of seating on one side, and just was not what any of us expected. But when in Spain, right? So we were greeted with a welcome drink of wine (Kelly doesn't drink, so that meant two for me) and we proceeded into the ring. The start was some kind of dancing between two Flamenco dancers (girls) and a horse. Sounds weird, but the horse was obviously well trained, and it basically "danced" by using its feet to keep the beat and such, but I don't think I could describe it without showing a video. They then brought the "cow" in for the fight, and this was too see if the cow was brave enough to become a "bull". The most entertaining part of this fight was the 20 minutes it took for the cow to go back into it's holding pen after they were done. We then went about 10 minutes down the road to a hall to watch the Flamenco show. We had some tapas (tortilla espanol, mmm) and had a glass of wine and all the sangria we wanted (awesome!). The show started, and it was really interesting. The dancers were very good, and most of the show is individualized, basically showing off there skills, it was crazy how fast they could move their feet. Almost exhausting just to watch!
So I came back to the show and even though it was 1130pm and we were leaving the next day for Seville, I wanted to go out. I'm now convinced Europeans enjoy telling you they know where the nearest club is and then taking great fun in seeing how long the Americans will follow them around the city for. NEVER found a bar with the two groups I was with (ditched one group for another after 30 mins of walking).
I have to go now, that was most of Day 1 but I have a diplomatic briefing to go to for Morocco now (do me a favor, if you run into one of these crazy U.S.A. priests who are planning on burning Korans on Sept. 11th, smack them for me, seriously. What fools, I hope I don't run into any repercussions for there stupidity). I'll post the rest later today!!
Adios
