After our
first full week of school (which for me ended on Wednesday – 3 days weeks for
the win), Charlotte, Shannon and I hopped on a bus Thursday afternoon and went
to Cádiz. We arrived, checked in to our
hostel, and set out to see the sights.
Shannon had spend a few days there before coming to Barbate so she
played tour guide. We first headed a
little more into the old part of Cádiz until we found the cathedral. Unfortunately it had closed a few minutes
before we arrived so we didn’t get to go inside but we’ll definitely be back.
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| Cádiz Cathedral! |
To
understand what we did next, it’s helpful to know that the old part of Cádiz is
at the very end of a peninsula. Back
when the old part was all there was, there was (and still is) a huge wall that
separated the city from the rest of the peninsula, and today you can walk along
this wall, as well as around the perimeter of the old part, so basically all
the way around the end of this peninsula.
After the
cathedral, we made our way to the outside of the peninsula and started walking
around it. We got out there right before
the sun set and it was GORGEOUS. If you
looked out over the waters of the Atlantic you saw an amazing sunset and if you
looked back at the city you saw incredible architecture basked in that special
glow that only comes from a setting sun.
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| Not too shabby. |
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| Cathedral in the background! |
At the very
end of the peninsula there is a walkway that leads out to a
castle/fortress. We walked out a little
bit but the castle was closed for the day.
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| Shannon looking gorgeous in front of an ancient fortress. |
We
continued on an stumbled upon some amazing gardens, which is right around the
time my camera died. Sigh. Charlotte has pictures but she is the worst
at posting them. One of these days I’ll
get around to stealing her camera and posting some.
Once we
made the full circuit of the old city, we were pretty hungry so we got pizza
from this awesome little place near the cathedral. After nomming, we went to the apartment of
one of Shannon’s friends from her first few days here. The girl is Dutch and is here for the year
doing Erasmus and lives with other students from all over Europe. She was having a little get-together and
there were people there from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK,
and the USA, and a few others I think, but we all had Spanish in common. Some of the people there from Cádiz taught us
a few new words and phrases that have come in handy many times since.
Charlotte
and I called it a night early (read: 2:45am), and headed back to the
hostel. The next morning, Shannon and I
had to get up in time to leave our hostel at 8 to go to the extranjería and apply for our NIE
cards. While waiting in line, we met a
group of auxiliares who are placed in Ubrique, a small town known for its
leather goods. Surprisingly, everything
went well (except for the part where the security officer practically flung my
phone across a hall and then acted like it was my fault) and we were out of
there by 10, with nifty little papers that allow us to claim our cards sometime
in the next 45 days.
Once back
at the hostel it was naptime for Shannon and I, but Charlotte, who had not come
to the extranjería, was ready to go. We
slept and she went off on her own adventure.
When I woke up a few hours later, I went to meet up with her at the
beach near the castle we had been at the previous night. It was open so we went out to check it out,
and we crossed paths again with the group from Ubrique.
After
exploring for a while, we set out to meet up with Shannon near the gardens from
the night before. While we were walking
there, we again ran into the group from Ubrique. We promised them we weren’t actually stalking
them and shortly after we all found Shannon and decided to go find something to
eat/drink.
We were
sitting at an outdoor café when we invited the three British guys one table
over to join us. They are doing
internships in Sevilla and were in Cádiz for the weekend. Charlotte loved getting to hear some British
English for a change, she was getting a little deprived.
With happy
bellies, we headed to the train station to meet the other Shannon! She had been delayed in getting to Spain due
to visa issues in Germany, where she has lived for the past 5 years while
working as an English teacher. The 4 of
us went back to the hostel and relaxed for a bit before getting ready to head
out for a night on the town.
We started
by going to a famous flamenco place, where we had dinner and drinks before
enjoying an AWESOME flamenco show. The
main dancer was a man with long curly hair and fantastic moves.
So. Awesome.
At the end
of the show, about 10 women (and one little kid) came on stage and each danced
for a few minutes. We’re pretty sure
they’re all one big, happy, flamenco-loving family. This little kid was so cool. He’s probably 7 or 8, and already is such an
entertainer. The red pants really say it
all.
Such a little baller.
Around 7am,
we finally made our way back to the hostel.
We contemplated staying up to watch the sunrise, but trying to stay awake
for another hour and a half sounded like a lot of work. The next morning, we came dangerously close
to missing the check out time (hmmm…I wonder why we got a slow start? Such a
mystery.), got some food, and boarded a bus back to Barbate. We were all pretty silent on that bus
ride. Again, I haven’t the foggiest idea
why.
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