Spain (Cadiz) – Port 2
Day 1 (2010/09/04)
After an entire week at sea, we were all very happy to finally be in Spain. We decided to wake up early to see the pilot and tugboats bring us into the port as the sun rose. Cadiz is a relatively small port city in southern Spain. The streets were mostly pedestrian oriented so it was easy to get around by foot. We grabbed some coffee in a nice and walked around a bit stopping at the beach to cool off. We stopped at an Italian restaurant for lunch and I tried sangria for the first time, awesome. After lunch, I met up with Kate and Shannon who I had planned to travel to Sevilla with ahead of time. The train ride was uneventful but I passed the time chatting with some other SASers. The first thing we all noticed about Sevilla is that it is hot; the temperature was about 40C/104F when we arrived. Our hostel was located in central Sevilla so we took a public bus which was very nice. We stayed at the Garden Backpacker hostel which I would definitely recommend. They had fairly nice rooms, very friendly staff, an awesome rooftop terrace and a garden/patio/bar in the back. After some limited nighttime exploration of Sevilla we found a very expensive, elaborately decorated restaurant in the English Quarter call The Mafia. It was late-ish and we were exhausted so we went back to the hostel and crashed.
Day 2 (2010/09/05)
The hostel we were staying at offered a city tour for a 5 Euro donation so we decided to sign up. The tour guide was slightly drunk from the night before and decently funny. We stopped by another hostel and picked up 15 or so Belgian girls. It gave me an opportunity to practice my French skills which, I was reminded, are lacking. I started a couple grammatically sketchy, poorly understood conversations but it was fun none the less. It was Sunday and Spain is still very Catholic so little was open. We walked around quite a bit, stopped by the Jewish quarter to check out some shops. The hostel staff was awesome and was able to point us to one of the very few restaurants that were open that night. I got fried zucchini tapas and a beer to cool off after the hot day. We joined everyone in the garden for a couple rounds of honey rum shots and got a pitcher or two of sangria. We found some Americans who were staying at the hostel and talked with them until the garden closed.
Day 3 (2010/09/06)
Kate and Shannon decided to spend the morning shopping so I quickly escaped to try and find Ariel and Loryn who had arrived in Sevilla the night before. I couldn’t find them at their hostel, but luckily I saw them at a restaurant nearby. We walked around a bit and grabbed some tapas. The sun was really beating down so we stopped at a café along the river for a pitcher of sangria (I was pretty much addicted at this point) and a plate of olives. We visited the Archivo de Indias which contained many historical documents from the times of Spanish colonialism and imperialism. There were some original documents from Columbus which was cool. Everyone had been spending too much money in Spain so we went to the Mas supermarket and picked up some food to cook for dinner back at my hostel. I got a big portion of fresh tortellini, pasta sauce and a peach all for 2 Euro which is a bargain in my book. Kate and Shannon were back at the hostel and I watched an old, independent movie called Paris, Texas. When that was nearly over I took advantage of Euro shots and bottomless sangria at the hostel and set out to meet Ariel and Loryn and find some food. We bumped into John, Jess and Courtney who were all SASers I hadn’t met before. We found some tasty seafood tapas of some sort and went back to our hostels to call it a night.
Day 3 (2010/09/07)
My last day in Sevilla was set aside for the historic stuff. I ate some breakfast crepes with Ariel and Loryn at a nearly café and said my goodbyes as they had a bus to catch back to Cadiz. I went with Kate and Shannon to visit the ancient cathedral called the Giralda. It had an impressive bell tower which offered an equally impressive view. After another trip to the archives, the final destination was the gardens of the Alcazar. To be honest, it was a bit of a disappointment but for zero Eruos it was no big loss. We went back to the hostel to prepare for our return to Cadiz. We met another SASer, Tabi, who was also staying at the hostel and watched The Virgin Suicides before taking the bus to the train station. Three hours and half a liter of sangria later I was back in Cadiz. I found a few people back on the ship to get dinner and couple drinks with. The baby squid tapas were noticeably delicious as were the pitchers of sangria.
Day 3 (2010/09/08)
I didn’t really have much planned for the last day in Cadiz. We went to the tower of the local cathedral and got some internet in. I tried to soak up as much good food as I could before returning to the ship. I had some great coffee and a bunch of chocolate churros. We walked through the open market but we’re not allowed to bring unsealed food back on the ship so we didn’t buy anything. I dropped my last 4 Euros on a stamp and some things at the grocery store before heading back to the ship. It wasn’t long before we were on the open ocean again.
