SPAIN (parte dos)

After the Mezquita, we walked around Cordoba and looked in some of the shops and stores. I wanted to find a music store, so, naturally, I stopped a woman carrying a guitar and she said there was one down the street that she would walk me to. And, to make it even better, she spoke a little bit of English. She said she learned English in Germany, which was interesting. The store, however, was closed, but the woman ran into her husband pushing her daughter in a stroller. So, that was a pretty cool experience and I walked back up the street. As I was walking, I noticed a hippie-type store that was open and went in. There were a lot of posters, incense, scarves, jewelry and other music-oriented stuff. I started asking the store owner about the music shop, and realized that he spoke English, too! He looked to be in his 20’s or 30’s, as was the woman I talked to. As Cristina had said on the train, more young people know English and this proved it, so I asked the guy why that was. He said it was because people of the older generation were young while Francisco Franco was still the dictator in charge of the strict government. The guy in the store said that he learned English in school, but it always seemed like the same thing over and over (which is the same experience I’ve had with Spanish!). Because the things from India in the store, the guy said he has actually been there a few times and that is why his English improved. That was awesome. I enjoyed that more than any frustration I had had with my other experiences with the language.

We got back to the hotel and knew that there were some futbol, or soccer, games on TV, so we tried to find a place to go for dinner that would be kind of into the game, but I think we were directly wrong, but the little bar we went to had good food, so it worked out fine.

The next day, Friday, we decided to travel back to Cadiz. Everything was going fine until we made it to the train station. We weren’t exactly sure if it would be more advantageous to take the train or the bus, and we knew we might miss it because there were only two to three trains that leave directly for Cordoba. There was a train about to leave that was actually delayed for about 10 minutes and we had just enough time to get on it. But, as the man behind the ticket counter was printing the tickets and he told us how much the tickets cost, Jordan and Shannon decided that 20 euro was too much and everyone started disagreeing. I didn’t make the situation any better by trying to yell over everyone that we had the tickets and we should just take the train. But, Jordan and Shannon said that we could split up and walked away from the three of us. So, we made the decision to stay together as a group and decline the train tickets. Instead, we were going to take the bus. There is no direct bus from Cordoba to Cadiz. We had to take one from Cordoba to Seville and then from Seville to Cadiz and the price ended up being the same. Jordan and Shannon later said in hindsight that they didn’t realize that the distance was what made the ticket more expensive than the train from Cadiz to Seville. Oh well. We got back to the ship at about 5 p.m. then I unpacked and went to get dinner with Sara and Jane and another girl, Rachel. We enjoyed our meal and I came back to the ship. I was trying to meet some other friends to go out for the night and ended up running into my roommate and her boyfriend (while it was pouring down rain) so I hung with them late into the night and had a lot of fun.

On Saturday, I got showered and ready and just as I was about to go out the door, Jane called and said they were leaving for breakfast. So, we went out with Rachel, Sara, Jane and another girl, nicknamed G (because of her Korean name).

The coffee in Spain is really, really good. Café con leche is served in smaller cups because it’s basically espresso and milk. I really, really liked it. They also drink chocolaté, which is more like thick, liquid chocolate than what we think of as hot chocolate. It was great! For lunch in Spain, you can get tapas, which are like little portions of appetizers. Some of the good ones we had were chequetos, which were like little fried dough balls with bits of ham inside them; aceitunas (olives); tortilla Espanola, which is like an egg-potato omlet; calamari; paella, which is like a rice dish with veggies and seafood mixed in; they also like to throw either French fries or fried potatoes with a lot of things – like meatballs with French fries, or pollo y patatas con queso. You can also get bocadillos, which are sandwiches on rolls with just meat and cheese. We also ate a lot of queso manchego, which I mentioned in my last post, and it was really good too.

After breakfast, we walked around and saw the Cathedral, which was amazing. I was the only one that paid to get in, but I think it was worth it. You can even walk down into the crypt below the cathedral where many of the bishops and priests are buried, along with a famous Spanish poet and writer who were from Cadiz. Then we walked to the ruins of a Roman theater that was discovered in Cadiz. The stairs of the theater were easy to recognize and you can also walk underneath of the seating in the gallery, which was really cool, especially if you consider that those stones have been there for ages. Only part of the circular theater has been excavated because otherwise, many of the buildings surrounding it would have to be demolished. After that we walked to the Paza de Flores, a small triangular plaza where there are four or five flower stalls and cafes all around. Near there is covered market with stalls selling fish, fruit and other produce. Shortly after that I broke away from the group to do a little wandering by myself.

All of the streets in Spain would be considered alleys in America. They’re narrow, turn abruptly, have little or no sidewalk and are mostly all paved by stone or tile. The streets are really cool, but hard on your feet after walking for days on end! In Seville, many of the streets were lined with orange trees! I had never known that Spain could even grow oranges, but they were everywhere. I was imagining that maybe when the oranges are too ripe they fall and hit people on the head, but who knows? Maybe the Spanish have learned to dodge them when they fall. I also wouldn’t want to be driving on the Spanish streets because some of them aren’t marked with many signs or markings. In Seville and Cordoba, they also have extra lanes next to the sidewalks for bicycles, but the motorcycles seem to weave in and out of traffic as they please. That would be pretty scary.

On ship time was 6 p.m., so I wanted to make sure I was back on the ship by 5. So, I walked to the store and bought a few snacks for on the ship. We’re allowed to bring things back, as long as they’re in sealed packages. I finally made it onto the ship safely and ate some dinner. The ship didn’t actually leave until everyone turns their passport back in, so we left at about 8 p.m.

I woke up to go to Global Studies this morning and then came back and went back to sleep to try and catch up from Spain. I woke up for lunch and sat with two guys who were trying to figure out if we were going to get to watch the Super Bowl or not. He had his Steelers jersey on, so I remembered that I should wear my Steelers shirt and cross my fingers that we’d get to see them play. We’re refueling now near the rock of Gibraltar. It’s awesome how it just juts out of the curving, hilly coast line, partly covered with vegetation. I went up and took some pictures of it – I wish I could post some of them.

I was working on this post when the 5 o’clock announcements came on and broadcast that we WILL, in fact, be able to either see or at least hear on the radio the Super Bowl! How awesome is that?! It will be about 11 o’clock here when it starts, but we’re gaining an hour tonight, so it won’t be so bad. I’m excited! Here we go Steelers!!!