September 3 2010 ? Cadiz, Spain

ESPANIA! 
We woke up around seven in the morning.  Though I wanted to pull the pillow back over my head, Ellie jumped up immediately as she saw the lights outside—we were pulling into the Spanish harbor of Cadiz (pronounced CAH-dith), a coastal city that is one of the oldest in Europe.  We got ready quickly and went to go get breakfast, watching the sun rise as we chomped on French toast and looked out over the white city, spires jutting out all over, looking like a dream.  The jean shorts I got are far too big for me already—I know I should be glad that I’ve lost weight, but mostly I’m upset that they don’t fit too well!  Still, perhaps all the Spanish foods will change all that.
After watching us pull into the harbor, Ellie and I got ready for a while.  We were meeting Lorelei and Nathalie to go get bus tickets for Seville around 10am, so we waited for a little while before heading up.  It was close, humid hot when we got off the boat—five minutes out and we already all had sheens of sweat, which pretty much stayed until the sun went down.  The high temperature was 105F, apparently.  Anyway, we headed out around the water to where we’d heard the bus station was, though apparently it had moved locations four months ago, so it was actually right next to the ship near the train station.  But we saw the Plaza de España, which is a very Lady Liberty-esque monument to the constitution of 1812.  We got our bus tickets for Tuesday at 9am, or at least Ellie and I did, Nathalie and Lorelei are going tomorrow, and are going to come back Wednesday at 11pm.  It should be totally fine because the bus ride is at most two hours.  We then went to go get tapas, because Lorelei and Nathalie hadn’t gotten lunch, and I was antsy from standing there so I immediately set off to wander us into a good place.  We found an excellent one and sat outside, ordering tapas to share.  One was a kind of meatball in a sauerkraut sauce, one was an incredibly tender pork that literally melted in your mouth (I can’t remember the Spanish name for it, but it was incredible), THE BEST dried sliced sausage I have ever had (I believe it was called jambon de something, and it was a specialty of Spain, soaked in olive oil and sooo good) and paella.  I tried the local beer that I’ve heard is excellent (Cruzcampo) and it was delicious.  We had a great time talking about our trips we’re going to take and meeting up in Seville. 
Nathalie had to go back to the ship for a city orientation tour, but I prefer to blaze my own trail—I’m not even going to lie, I was getting antsy when everyone was obsessing over the map when we were looking for the bus station (though I know that we couldn’t have just hoped to stumble across it, haha).  Fortunately, Lorelei and Ellie were more than happy to explore that way, so we did a lot of “that way looks cool, let’s go that way!” types of walking around.  The first thing we saw across from the pier was the Palacio de Congresos, the Congress Building, though I was heading towards one of the spires I had seen while coming into the port—the Iglesia de Santo Domingo, the Santo Domingo Church.  We couldn’t get inside, but it was a very beautiful building.  It’s always an incredible experience being anywhere in Europe—you can just feel the historical energy in things.  After that we walked around through narrow street ways, seeing people pulling baskets up from the streets that had been delivered by mopeds, seeing dogs pee EVERYWHERE.  No one cleans up after their dog, and I’ve seen three wild cats today.  Anyway, we found a Flamenco hall, where Lorelei (she speaks Spanish fluently) inquired about a flamenco show, and later found a tiny stop that sold cheap clothing—Lorelei and Ellie both got things (a bikini and a sweater) but I think I’ll save my money for later.  Unfortunately, my favorite cheap sunglasses broke here, so now they only have one ear… thing.  I just tried to wear them anyway—the sun was relentless. 
A traffic jam was broken out in front of this great old wall, so we hiked uphill alongside it.  At the top was a view of an incredible ocean—turquoise blue.  Cadiz is a bit of a peninsula, so the water is all around us.  We stopped at a shop to get ice popsicles, which was welcome against the sun, and walked along this ocean coast for a while until we found Catedral—literally just the Cathedral, in Spanish, it has no other name.  It was gigantic and rested in front of a big square, where a lot of people were taking advantage of the free wifi (I don’t know how you could get off the ship to get on your computer, but okay).  The real treat, though, was paying 3,30 euro to climb the tower alongside the cathedral.  It didn’t have stairs but just sloped upwards—we took lots of pictures, me trying to live up to my role as “someone who has taken film classes.”  At the top it was an incredible site to behold—the highest view in all of Cadiz, laid out before us.   On one side, a gigantic golden dome, part of the cathedral.  On another, what looked like a statue of Neptune looked sternly out at the square.  You could see the ocean on all sides, and we could even easily spot the MV Explorer resting near its dock!  We pointed out lots of neat places that we could go before descending back down the stairs and stopping at a café for some water—we were all pretty headachy due to just how hot it was. 
Ellie and I had to meet for our Flamenco night SAS event at 5:15 (or so we thought), so we headed back to the dock.  My sense of direction has improved so much with all my traveling—I don’t know street names at all, but I can get where I need to go relatively quickly, if not in a slightly roundabout way.  At the ship we discovered that our trip actually left at 7:15, not 5:15, so we sat and ate dinner on the ship (using the most of my tuition money—the food also betters dramatically in port anyway).  I dressed up in my purple dress and slapped on some makeup, which some people commented on because I must just look like a slob when I’m as usual.
Then we were on the bus and away!  Julie and Jared sat near Ellie and I.  We drove out into the dry golden countryside, talking about movies, until we got to a little orchard with a small stadium.  A woman greeted us with a platter of sherry, which was a local specialty.  There was dark (sweet) and white (dry).  I didn’t think I would like sherry so I tried to get the sweet one, but I got the dry one instead—definitely not my favorite.  There was a matador sitting on a horse near the stadium, and the horse’s mane was all braided.  I took a picture near him and around sunset we went inside the stadium, sitting outside. 
First there was a horse showing with the matador and two flamenco dancers.  It was incredible—it was like the horse was dancing along with the music, and the flamenco dancers were incredible as they spun with the horse—it was almost like they were communicating.  It was especially amazing when they started using these red fans, swirling them this way and that as the horse circled and danced.  It was very beautiful.  Then we watched a cow-training, which is kind of like a bull fight except they use “cows” (they haven’t earned bull status yet) to see if they are brave enough for actual bull fights.  The cow was so cute and tiny!  Most of the time he looked at the guys with their pink sheets of fabric (they mostly used pink, they only brought out the red once) skeptically, though watching him paw at the ground before charging was incredible.  His horns had the points ground off so it wouldn’t be fatal if he got a headbutt in, but he was still pretty fast—he would have been able to do some damage if he had been able to turn quickly.  There was this kid who must have been a matador in training, because he looked like Justin Bieber and when he got in the ring the cow just looked at him like “what are you doing.”  He dropped his red cloth a couple of times and by the end the entire crowd was cheering for the cow to knock the kid on his ass.  There were a couple of touch and go moments, which were pretty exciting.  They even brought out a second cow, who stuck like glue to the first one—there was a bromance going on (bullmance?). 
After the “bullfight,” we hopped in the bus to take a short drive over to the flamenco hall, where tapas were waiting for us on circular tables, as well as sangria.  A waiter came by with wineglasses of red and white drinks—I asked him what it was.  “Vino,” he replied, which I assumed meant wine, but it seemed to mean sherry instead, because I took the glass of red and was taken aback by how thick and syrupy it was.  I do not like sherry one bit, though I suppose I’m glad I tried it.  There was parmesan cheese cubes, salami, and thinly sliced ham, as well as something called a Spanish tortilla, which is almost like a very potato-y quiche.   Jared  was giving me a lot of crap about trying the sherry (he doesn’t drink), because apparently if you drink at all it means that you just drink to get drunk, which I didn’t appreciate.  I don’t understand why if a college student is drinking, it is assumed that they want to get totally smashed.  I just like trying things.
Anyway, the flamenco show was the most incredible dancing.  There was a woman in a white dress, two women in red dresses, as man in black, a singer, and a guitarist.  The woman in white danced with the man first—flamenco is so incredible because every movement is so precise, with heads snapping to the side, I really love it.  My favorite was the two women in red did a dance that was just so incredible angry and passionate, it didn’t even need words to describe it—it was just so very raw.  It was absolutely astounding.  The man too did what was almost a lot of tap dancing, and the woman in white stole the show at the very end with her dance that kicked up the skirt trailing behind her.  At the end, the two women in red invited people up to dance, and Julie and I immediately rushed over.  We tried to imitate as closely as we could—sometimes they would teach us little Spanish dances that went with the songs we were listening to, which I believe were popular Spanish music of the time.  The Macarena came on, which of course was a crowd favorite.  By the end, everyone was up and dancing—it was definitely exhausting, but a great time. 
Back on the bus, Julie said something like “I wonder if we could get everyone to sing Don’t Stop Believing,” which of course I was totally down for.  Our bus ride was incredible—the entire bus sang passionately (and probably slightly tipsily) “I’ll Make A Man Out of You,” “A Whole New World,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and a couple others that people attempted but didn’t get too far (“Build Me Up Buttercup” was one).  On the way back, Jared had challenged me to sing “Be Prepared” from the Lion King (he somehow didn’t believe that I knew all the words) and we sang in very Scar-ish voices.  I was definitely living it up, singing loudly and proudly.  A professor shouted, “This is the FIRST DAY in Spain!” and we all cheered ecstatically.  It was an incredible feeling to think that there are going to be one hundred more days like this. 
We got back at midnight, which is when Spain actually gets exciting.  We saw Aaron and a couple other people who wanted to go out and get drinks and tapas before going to a club, so I decided to go (but only for the tapas, because I had a hike the next morning).  We walked over to a street laden with bars and hung out, ordering the couple of tapas they had left and munching.  There was a strange shrimp paste, a salmon with mayo that was divine, and a spinach lasagna we all took bites out of.  Then the group slip, Ellie, Tabby, Steven and I going back to the ship.  We thought we were going to bed early, but then they came into our room and we discussed Spain, which slowly got onto the subject of immigration and health care, as well as September 11th.  It got intense for a little while, as Tabby and I had conflicting views on both immigration and healthcare, but it worked out.  
I tried to work on this blog, but by then it was 3:30AM and I had a hike at 9:00.  I will do September 5th’s blog tomorrow (the sixth).  I’m kind of bummed I’m not actually physically journaling, but the spine is already falling apart, so I don’t want to take it around too much.  And I’m sorry I haven’t called folks yet—it is impossible to find an international phone card, because there are no gas stations or superstores around!  But it’s my #1 priority for tomorrow, in which I have no plans, so expect two days of blogs tomorrow.  :)