Day 9 (09-04-10)

We’re back on dry land again in España! The process for debarkation was so much less organized than I remember. There isn’t a diplomatic briefing today, which makes getting off the ship an easier process. But there aren’t any concrete directions for doing anything. The Assistant Executive Dean called half of us to grab our passports from the Lounge, but the speakers outside barely work anymore, so none of us heard it. We picked up the passports when the “Free-for-all” announcement was made and everyone could take them. But at that point, the gangway was already open, and people were walking off the ship. No one made an announcement saying that the ship was clear for debarkation. I didn’t know we were allowed to leave until I saw a handful of random people walking out the door. No line, no organization, no anything. It was bizarre, and irritating, because I probably could’ve left a solid 20 minutes earlier if I had been aware of these things. Oh well.

The train station was swamped and the direct trains to Sevilla were booked for the next couple hours, so we took a local train to Jerez de la Frontera in hopes of transferring to Sevilla from there. Of course, the train we were trying to pick up was coming from Cádiz, and completely booked with all the SASers we had just left in the other train station. So we wandered around Jerez for a few hours and basically ate our way across town. Tapas here. Pastries there. Maybe a mojito somewhere in the mix. It was an easy, relaxing start to the trip.

I have a tendency to describe places and foods rather than people I’m with (because I figure anyone reading this would be interested in the travel aspect), but I think I might delve a little more into the people now and then, if only for my own sake. I’m traveling with two girls, Giggles and Krystal. Giggles (Kathleen) is a sophomore at UCSD from Austin, TX. Krystal is a junior at Trinity College in San Antonio and she’s also from TX. After a few rousing games of Bananagrams and Mafia (awesome card game I just learned), they decided to join me in my rambling across the country. Basically, I’ve planned some basic things that I want to do in each country, and now I’m seeing if I can con people into coming with me. First port: success.

We grabbed the train from Jerez to Sevilla and hopped a taxi to Krystal’s hostel. She booked a night in a hostel as a part of some other group trip beforehand, but decided to travel with us instead. The hostel didn’t have 2 extra beds available that night for Giggles and I, so we walked across town (in 100 degree weather with our hitchhiker’s bags) and found another. We got bunk beds in a 6-bed room shared with 2 Aussies, a French girl, and someone else that we never ended up meeting. Not bad for $20.

The two girls had never been to Sevilla before, so I showed them around. Considering I spent about 30 hours in that town 20 months ago… I actually knew my way around really well. The Cathedral and the Alcazar were closed when we went by, so that knocked off a few of our tour options, but we went to the Plaza de España and checked out the surrounding gardens. Nostalgia kicked in pretty hard at this point, as Sevilla was my first stop during the Spring ’09 Voyage, but it was great. We spent the rest of the night eating tapas and then hung out at Krystal’s hostel before Giggles and I walked back to ours. We talked to the Aussies for a while and, before we knew it… it was 3am. And we needed to be at the bus station at 9am. Goodnight, Sevilla… again.

Day 10 (09-05-10)

8am. Groan. Croissant. Taxi. Bus station.
We met Krystal at the bus station and bought our tickets for the 10am bus to Madrid. Apparently, traveling roundtrip from Sevilla to Madrid by train costs over 165 Euros. Soooo we took a bus. 33 Euros is a much nicer price. Sure, each leg of the trip takes 4 hours more, but that just gave us time to enjoy the countryside and try to get some more sleep. And hey, after that pair of 12-hour bus rides in Thailand last year, I can’t complain too much about a 6.5 hour trip.

We got to Madrid around 4:30 and went out in search of a hostel for that night and the next. I told the taxi driver to take us to the Royal Palace, figuring that it would be in a touristy area, and thus, within range of several hostels. As it turns out, I was pretty much right. A half-mile walk from the palace took us to Puerta del Sol, which sort of seemed like the Times Square of Madrid. It’s much smaller (and actually really resembled Picadilly Circus in London) but surrounded by mass amounts of tourism and several hostels. We found two great ones right next to each other, and had to split our nights between them. But they each gave us a private room with 3 beds, and a bathroom. No more dormitory-style setup. And it was the same price as the hostel in Sevilla. Nice.

As usual, we ate our way across town that evening and got some amazing dishes. Our favorite? Croquetas de jamón. Ham croquettes. They were fantastic and we got them at every meal we could. Actually, we chose to avoid a few restaurants because they’re menus didn’t have croquetas on them. We NEEDED croquetas. Breaded, creamy goodness. Just amazing. We also ordered a plate of Ham with Melon, and it was a mixture I wasn’t expecting. The melon was very sweet while the ham was salty, and they balanced each other well. After dinner, we walked to the Hard Rock Café Madrid for some drinks and souvenirs, and then aimless strolled the streets as the sun set. There was a protest on the main Avenue through town and traffic was shut down in both directions as workers flooded the streets. Something about taxes and government and typical protest-related material. I don’t know what it was about… I don’t speak Spanish. But I took a flyer, so I’ll have someone translate it for me later.

We were all rather tired after the semi-early morning, the long bus ride, and the walk around Madrid, so we decided to call it an early evening and fell asleep with no real agenda for the next day in mind.

Day 11 (09-06-10)

Monday morning. Wake up. Free day in Madrid! Yeah, we slept in. Until 10:30ish. We were hoping to wake up earlier, but it just didn’t happen. First stop? Chocolate con churros, of course. Rich, thick, chocolate-y goodness with fried, greasy, doughy deliciousness. Perfect.

So we decided to talk over to the Prado Museum to check it out. I’m really interested in art recently, and the Prado has masterpieces from El Greco, Goya, and Velázquez, with some Rembrandt mixed in, AND a special temporary exhibit featuring J.M.W. Turner. Awesome. So we make the 20 minute walk to the museum and find out, oh no! The Prado is closed on Mondays. Well that’s unfortunate. I guess we’ll have to do that tomorrow morning before we head out of the city. Sounds like a plan. Okay, now what? We were expecting on killing a few hours there. But there was a tourist bus that pulled up nearby and had a package that allowed us to ride the bus all day today/tomorrow and included admission into all of Madrid’s museums, the Royal Palace, the Botanical Gardens, stadiums, etc. 49 Euros? Great deal! Let’s go! Next stop: Museum of Natural History. We get off the bus and walk up the hill to the museum only to find a group of Australian standing outside wondering why they couldn’t get into the building. This place is closed, too. What? We look at our guidebook and find out that EVERY major museum in the city is closed on Mondays. Great… that 49 Euro price-tag was definitely worth it, considering everything is closed on our only full day in the city. Oh wait… no. Oh well. The Royal Palace and the Botanical Gardens are still open, so we made our way across town to check them out. The Palace was incredible… kind of like a small Versailles. Similar architecture, lavishness all around, awe-inspiring details. The usual. Random souvenir shopping ensued, and I even managed to run into a lamppost while looking at a map of Madrid. With my camera strapped around my body. It was the penultimate tourist moment of my life.

Afterwards, you guessed it, we were hungry, so we went to the Museo del Jamón (The Ham Museum), and got the best croquetas we’d ever had. Perfect texture. Fantastico. We officially checked into the next hostel and moved all of our stuff over to our new bedroom. Even better than the previous night’s. But of course, we were still hungry, and Spaniards eat about 16 meals a day. So we wandered the Puerta del Sol area for some more tapas and were very pleasantly surprised. Some little hole-in-the-wall place was having a 10% off special, and their mini-sandwiches (bocadillos) were incredible. One of them had cream cheese and a strawberry (among other things that I can’t remember) on top of crunchy bread, and the other had a spring roll incorporated into it. Add to that the scrambled egg/ham mix and the 5 cheese platter (bleu, goat, brie, gouda, manchego) and we were set. Almost. On the way back to the hostel, we found a quaint, local ice cream place called Ben and Jerry’s, and Krystal/Giggles indulged in some Phish Food. Naturally.

Krystal went out that night and had a crazy time wandering around Madrid with some friends, but I’m not much for insane nightlife so I stayed back at the hostel with Giggles. Easy night tonight, museum and bus tomorrow.

Day 12 (09-07-10)

We got up fairly early this morning. 7:30am. Enough time to shower, grab breakfast (chocolate con churros, of course), and get in line for the Prado museum at 9am when it opens. The museum is beautiful, and has some of Spain’s most famous works, including Las Meninas (The Ladies in Waiting) by Velázquez. Unfortunately, there didn’t appear to be any Picasso or Dalí works, but it was very impressive nonetheless. Giggles wanted Starbucks (I know, we’re in Spain and she chooses to go to Starbucks… blasphemy) and postcards, so we stopped for a few minutes before returning to the hostel to check out and grab the taxi to the bus station for a 1pm departure. 6.5 hours later, we were in Sevilla again, transferring from the bus to the train station, trying to grab tickets for the next train back to Cádiz. We Amazing Race-d (yes I just turned a proper noun into a verb… keep up) our way through the station to the ticket window and got 3 of the last tickets on one of the last 2 trains to Cádiz that night. Another 2 hours on the train got us back to our port city, and this is where my previous SAS experience really came in handy. Right before we got off the train, I made sure that Giggles and Krystal had their SAS ID cards at the ready and their bags in hand. We were already sitting near a door, so we got off as quickly as possible and power-walked our way out of the station. Also worth noting, there were about 60-75 other SASers on this train, all of whom had been gone from 1-3 nights, and were carrying their gear from those trips. I knew the importance of time in this situation, so I made sure we passed everyone else along the way, and we got back to the ship before anyone else from the train. As we walked up the gangway and had our bags searched, the line of people waiting to check-in on the ship was already stretching several hundred feet along the path. We dumped our stuff in our cabins, talked on the ship for a few minutes, and then decided to go out for food in Cádiz, and when we walked down the gangway, most of the people from our train were still waiting in line to get back on the ship. They weren’t expecting the long line for baggage checks. I could’ve clued them in, but what’s the fun in that? It was fun.

A round of food and drinks later, it was past midnight and we were drained again from another travel day. Sleep in our own beds? Alone in my cabin without 2 friends (and possibly some strangers) sharing the room with me? Weird.

Day 13 (09-08-10)

Free day in Cádiz today. More nostalgia. Chocolate con churros for breakfast. Brief walk around the city until about 11am. Some more eating/wandering after that. Grabbed some free wi-fi in a public area of the city and checked in online. Buffs beat the Rams 24-3 on Saturday. I like it. It’s so weird missing football season. Like… that’s never happened before for ANY reason. Also, I found out that the Phillies have recently retaken a half-game lead over the Braves in the NL East? Very nice.

The rest of the afternoon was spent bumping into friends in random areas of the city and sharing our experiences in Spain with each other. Food, friends, fun. All I need.

Back on the ship, food isn’t nearly as good as it has been for the past week. Expected, but disappointing. The on-ship photographer took the official SAS group photo tonight (with about 10 minutes of notice given beforehand), so that was pretty cool. Seriously though, the lack of organization amongst this staff is really baffling right now. Some kind of notice should be given when something affecting the shipboard community is involved. Whatever.

The remainder of the evening was spent typing up this blog (from Day 7 through now) and relaxing. We gain 2 hours on the clock tonight, so sleep tonight shouldn’t be an issue. But we’re in Morocco tomorrow. No time to rest in between ports. Pre-port tomorrow at 9:20am, and off we go. Casablanca, here we come! (Forgive the cliché, I’m just really tired of writing this right now, and couldn’t come up with any better way to end the damn post).