Day 10 (01-28-09)

España. We made it. It doesn’t really matter to me where we are at this point. After 9 days at sea, I’m just happy to have my feet on solid ground. As my friends and I departed the ship around 10am, we went to do what every person in the world should do immediately when they get to Spain… EAT. The food is so good here, and the only thing Spaniards do all day? Eat. It’s tremendous. Restaurants typically have a set eating schedule, and we were made aware of this before getting to port. Breakfast lasts from about 6:30-10. Snack time from 11-1. Lunch, the biggest meal of the day, runs from 2-4. Another two rounds of snacks take place between 5 and 9, and then dinner runs from about 9:30-11:30 (I had Octopus and it was really good. Not squid or calamari… octopus. It was purple and everything). As our guest lecturer (A man named Sir David Geis, author of 14 books on Spanish culture, knighted by King Juan Carlos, several-time University of Virginia Professor of the Year, etc) told us, if you come into Spain trying to eat like an American, you’ll starve to death. It’s true; looking for a more substantial meal at snack times is a very hard thing to do, as most kitchens are closed and employees are taking part in the best activity in which a person can indulge: SIESTA! Nap time. I love it.  We can learn something from Spain. 4 hours on, 2 hours off, 4 hours on… yeah, I could get used to it.

While I could give you a detailed play-by-play of the day’s meals (pot roast with potatoes and Sangria at 1pm… beautiful), I wouldn’t want to make you TOO jealous, so I’ll stick with the highlight. Churros con Chocolate. Remember the churros you can get in Mexican restaurants or school cafeterias? These aren’t those churros. These are more like funnel cake in stick form, covered with granulated sugar, deep fried 12 times, covered in butter, thrown in a vat of some other unhealthy grease-like material, covered in sugar again, and then served to you with a thick, warm beverage that is essentially the best hot chocolate you’ve ever had, only four times as thick.

I’ll give you a few moments to reflect.

Can you taste it yet? No. You can’t. But I did. Because my life is awesome.

I’m sorry, that was mean and inappropriate. I’m just really excited and I’m still a little hopped up from all the sugar and caffeine. Anyway, back to Cadiz. I was surprised this morning when I got off the ship and saw palm trees. Palm trees in Spain? It makes sense with the Mediterranean climate, but I never really thought about it. Today, it was about 70 degrees outside as we wandered the narrow, cobblestone streets. Cadiz reminds me a little bit of Lucerne, Switzerland. It’s a smaller European town, very outdoorsy, and it’s surrounded by water. I was surprised how few people speak English here, which sounds like an ethnocentric and typically arrogant American statement, but compared with other European countries I’ve visited in the past, English is far less widely used. It’s more of a challenge; I can put my 3 years of high school Spanish to the test. Yes!

Side note: Even after making two separate appointments with my bank to tell them about my trip abroad just to make sure nothing would go wrong… lo and behold, the first time I stopped at an ATM machine, both my check card and credit card were denied. And, being 8 hours ahead of the Mountain Time Zone in Boulder, I had to go 8 hours without cash. Most of the food I was buying was inexpensive and many places have minimum spending amounts for credit cards. But I pressed through. I spend $20 on 13 minutes of phone time for a call back to Boulder, settled the matter, and now I can use my card again. Let’s hope the same thing doesn’t happen in Morocco. Yikes.

I’m spending the night tonight on the ship and heading off to Sevilla tomorrow.  Some more general exploring will ensue and then a group of us are going to try to find a hostel where we can spend the night. But apparently several of them are already booked with the other 500 SAS kids that are spending tomorrow night in Sevilla. Oh well, we’ll figure something out; we’re resourceful.

¡Hasta luego!