Espana es muy bonita.

So I have firmly decided that I LOVED Spain. I now understand why people study and live here for long periods of time. We arrived on Wednesday, January 28th and at first it was a little confusing to get off the ship. They called us off through our hallways on the ship (we’re organized by seas; similar to the residence halls…I’m in the yellow sea). But, even with that, it was a long line to get off the ship. After lots of nervous feelings and excitement we eventually were off and explored the city of Cadiz! I walked around a bit in Cadiz after we purchased our train tickets to Granada. I was pretty nervous at first because even though I am an experienced traveler…most places I have never been myself with people I don’t know very well. I called my mom once it was a semi-reasonable time for her to be up (around 6 am Phoenix time, 2 pm my time). It was so good to hear her and Amanda’s voices after 8 days at sea with just e-mailing. I explored the port city for a few hours and was able to see the cathedral in town. Later that afternoon, I proceeded to get on a train with three friends towards Granada. The train had one stop and we arrived in Granada after four hours. We were able to eventually found our hostel after an hour or so of wandering and had a very nice room with four simple beds, along with a shower and sink. It cost us around 12 Euros, so it was pretty cheap.
After dropping off our backpacks and checking in, we wandered the city in search for some food. The most helpful thing during this trip was being able to speak Spanish. The type of types and shoes I brought were important, but being able to communicate with people was so great. It helped immensely everywhere we went. If you are reading this and do not know another language, I urge you to learn one. It will benefit you a lot more in life than you might think. Being able to communicate with people from different places around the world is a once in a lifetime experience within itself. I spoke to a nice couple on our way to Granada, they were so interested in why we were visiting, if we liked Spain, told us places we needed to see and explore while we were there. It was just lovely. Anyways, in Granada we had a very nice late dinner, with paella, some bread, olives, wine, sangria, and it was all delicious. They had meat hanging from the ceiling, which was a little fun for our vegetarian friend who came along. We continued to go to a few bars and did a little salsa dancing later that evening. The next morning we woke up early to see the Alhambra Palace. It was a trek up to see it, but was totally worth it, and the landscape never seemed to stop with beautiful architecture, views and gardens. It was really amazing to walk around and see the history which had happened within those walls. I highly recommend looking up the place on Wikipedia or Google and just learning a little about the history. It was amazing.
After that we explored the city on our own, hiked around and found a cute little place for lunch. I think one of my favorite things in Spain was the food. Pretty sure I ate twice as much as I did on the ship. The sangria and wine was just incredible. It was definitely worth the wait and not paying for wine on the ship. The sandwiches are known as Bocadillos, which were delicious. They were simple, usually with manchego cheese (which I am not obsessed with and going to buy a pound when I return), some cured ham, or some other type of meat. We had croquetas, which are similar to fish sticks, but not frozen; they are lightly breaded and have a cream sauce with fish on the inside. The sangria was soooo good. I loved trying new things when it came to food, especially desserts. But I’ll talk about that a little later. We continued to explore, hit up the grocery store and a candy shop before getting on the train. We meet up with a few other kids from the ship and headed toward Seville that evening.
Once arriving in Seville…it kind of turned into mass chaos. The friends I was with, they reserved a hostel and we went there first from the train station. Close by there was lots of shops and well known brand names. They had a Starbucks, Sephora, H & M, and a bunch of other stores. This reminds me too that Hagen Daas had been everywhere we went, a little strange. Since I didn’t have a reservation at their hostel (which was full), I had to go off on my own to find another room. I ended up missing my roommate, Kristina who was supposed to be there waiting for us, but they got lost. We ended up bumping into each other in the street in Seville and the hostel I found was packed with SAS kids. So, it really did work out but it was very frustrating and scary that you don’t know where you were going to sleep that evening and its 9 pm. We ended up going out to this little restaurant with a bunch of SAS kids I didn’t know them at all, but since I was the only one who spoke Spanish, I ordered a little of everything. It ended up being a blast and I made a ton of new friends! Everyone tried something new and the wine was delicious.
We went to a few bars that evening and just talked and walked along the river in Seville. It was beautiful. I ended up bumped into Kristina (my roommate), so that was good too. Between walking and talking, we returned around 3 am in which people were just starting to go out. Spaniards are crazy. I could never live their lifestyle. They eat around 10:30-11 pm till midnight or so, go out dancing at 2 or 3 till 7 in the morning. Breakfast consists of coffee, (café con leche) or chocolate con churros…an 18th century VERY VERY thick chocolate drink with a piece of churro for breakfast. You chocolate lovers would have gone berserk. It is so thick you can barely move your spoon around in the stuff. But, man is it good. They have croissants, and a few other pastries. You then eat lunch around 1ish till 3 or 4, and have tapas (light appetizer snacks) between all meals, all day. Hence, why I was literally eating all day long.
The next morning in Seville it was quite chilly but eventually warmed up in the mid-afternoon. Kristina, our friend Zack (who goes to U of A, who would’ve thought), and I went to the Cathedral de Seville which was HUGE. I mean, I’ve been to the Vatican, but this was just as incredible. It is the largest Gothic Church in the world. It just kept going and going. You can take 44 flights to the top tower and see the entire city. I am going to try to update and upload some photos, but I’m not sure how to do that. If anyone does and is reading this, PLEASE e-mail me. The cathedral was also the site where Christopher Columbus was buried (which was sweet) and had some beautiful paintings that were hundreds of years old. It was an incredible site to see. We then continued to see the Alcazar Palace and Gardens. It was incredible to see the detailed art and carvings in the walls and ceiling. The gardens in the back seemed to never end and were beautiful with flowers, trees, and fountains. It was like you stepped into a movie…but centuries old. We ended up bumping into my South African professor and his wife. This continued throughout out trip, they are such a nice couple.
My pictures from Alcazar are just gorgeous. I hate to brag, but they’re pretty much spectacular. I did a lot of black and whites. Some of my friends took 500-600 pictures this trip, I think I’ve taken a lot of photos of everywhere and everything in the past…but when will I use ALL of those photos in the future? That’s just so many of them to take in a few days. I personally think it’s important to capture the moment, the taste, or how something looks…and then move on to be there in the moment and enjoy it without looking through a lens. That’s just my approach to it, and I think it will continue throughout the voyage…I took a little over a hundred pictures and I am happy with how they turned out.
We continued to enjoy Seville, have some tapas (olives are sooooo good here) and explored the city. We saw another museum and the Plaza de Espana which was fascinating. Please look it up. It’s so cool. We couldn’t figure out what they use it for now, so I’ll have to look it up later. After some more wandering, we made it to the train station back to Cadiz. When we got on the train, there were a few other SAS kids and it was pretty chilly when we arrived in Cadiz. We walked back with my professor and his wife again and were happy to get on the ship and eat a little something. A salad was something we hadn’t seen in awhile. After Kristina and I napped for three hours, we woke up around 11:30 pm and missed most of the rain but it was windy and cold. I want to say around 40 maybe, but that’s just a guess. We ended up just having some wine in town, some cheese, and tried a tortilla Espanola. Which we wanted to try before we left, it was like an omelet, with scrambled egg, onions, potatoes, and some ham on top. It was delicious. It was nice to just talk in a little restaurant over wine and eat yummy cheese and bread. So European, how cool were we?
The next morning we woke up early and wandered around Cadiz, which I would totally go back to. It’s such a cute little town, good shopping (we didn’t buy much though, cause everything on the tags said exported from China or India…uh duh. We’re going there…so no point). We saw a museum on Cortes which was amazing. It was really incredible, and saw a women’s hospital museum, but it was under restoration so we just saw some of the courtyard. The best was exploring the fish market in Cadiz. It was similar to the Fisherman’s Wharf in San Fran or Pike’s Place in Settle, but no gloves and more people. It was really fun, and some of the fish were totally still alive, they also sold a lot of fruit too. I had a late lunch with some friends after that, which was incredible. We tried the traditional dish of tostado y tomate, which is toasted simple bread, you spread this stuff which is basically tomate chopped up very very fine, with no clumps. You put olive oil first, then the tomate stuff, then some salt and just eat it. It was delicious I had a brie and manchego cheese sandwich and added the leftover tomate stuff to my sandwich. It was heaven. It was just so nice to sit outside, in the sun, with friends, and eat in Spain. Who does that?? Afterwards we got back to the ship to pick up our laptops and tried to find internet. I tried to connect with mom through Skype, but we kept getting dropped. I might try again somewhere else, it was tough this time. Right before we got on the ship, Kristina and I needed one last sweet something before we had ship-food again. We went into a pasteleria (pastry shop) and told the woman to pick her favorite pastry. It was literally heaven in food form. It had a chocolate top with flaky goodness and then this thick cream like center. Oh my gosh, it was soooooo good. I will never forget how it tasted. After getting back on the ship before we left port, it was so nice to see our friends and professors all back from their adventures in Spain. Some people went to futbol (soccer) games in Madrid, Seville, and Barcelona. Some traveled up North and along some beach towns. It was really fun to be back to somewhere known to us as home. We spent that evening going through photos and catching up with friends. It was so nice to be back, relaxed and back in our cabins instead of a random hostel, in some random city, in a random bed. Though I enjoyed every minute of it, I’m happy to be back as well. Today we are going through lots of Morocco stuff, with traditions, customs, money, and all about the country before we get there. It’s going to be a long day, but I promise to update about Morocco when we return. I’m hoping to make a trip to Marrakesh or see the Sahara Desert somehow.
All for now and I hope everything is going well back home, please feel free to e-mail me. I would love and have enjoyed hearing from all of you.