Hostel la Vista, Baby

We are leaving Spain. I'm sad. 'Nuff said.

When we arrived on Wednesday I had no expectations, as you know. I didn't have any goals besides try as much food as possible, meet people, and explore.
Wednesday we spent trekking around Cadiz. In Spain, they have “tapas” which means snacks or appetizers. There are so many varieties: meats, cheeses, sauces, seafood and they are all so good. I have never been a food connoisseur but the way I ate in this country made me think I should be one. Hopping from bar to bar eating Tapas (bars in Spain are family places, not like in the US where its filled with crusty old men) is a great experience. It was a beautiful day, and I found myself smiling for no reason at all except because it seemed right.

In Cadiz we walked around aimlessly the whole day, no plans, no destinations, checking things out as we saw them, taking pictures, meeting up with friends, and eating tapas. It truly was an exploration of the unknown. There are different colored lines painted on the sidewalks that lead you to monuments and historical sites. You can't really get lost in Cadiz because it's so small and cute. A very quaint port town. It has a homey feel, and I was actually missing it when we went to...

BARCELONA!

Which is a bustling city, unlike the quaint little port town of Cadiz.

Getting on a flight at 1 PM on Thursday, I realized we were actually flying across the entire country. Our first day in Barcelona can be blocked in out in some classic traveler's crises. We learned some valuable traveler's lessons on this trip.
1.Where are our friends? A note we left on a friend's door never reached them, so they were not aware of our change in time and plans, so as we were all meeting up, we were missing one or two.
2.Which bus? Scrambling off of the ship, there were three or four buses to choose from and we didn't know which one went to the airport.. Once we found the right one, it pulled away.
3.Taxi only fits four, we have five, where are our friends and whose Danny? Another SAS guy named Danny joined our group because he was staying at the same hostel. We really needed our friends to show up so we could split the cab in the cheapest way.
4.Taylor didn't make it on the plane?!? That's right, probably the worst crisis of them all. Taylor accidentally printed out his return ticket, so they wouldn't let him in the plane. Some of us found out on the plane, some found out once we got there. (He came the second day for free).
5.Which train and where is our hostel? Finding which train was no big deal, but we had no clue where our hostel was. We hardly even knew the address and nobody knew the little street that its on. After asking the entire population of Barcelona, we found it.
6.Dinner and exploration...where did we go? I was leading the group and I thought we were heading south but we went east, so we had a hard time finding our way back. But we did.

The airport in Jerez (close to Cadiz) had much less security than any other airport I've ever been it. It was very relaxed and we didn't need to be there hours earlier.

Our hostel was AMAZING! Painted walls, each a different color, a ping pong table, books, games, free breakfast, internet, and a TV. The rooms were cool too, everyone had their own little cubicle except me I shared with Sara Weinberg (whose blog is also featured in the sidebar). We got put together like that randomly. That night we ate Xocolata Suizo (a hot swiss chocolate drink)

Barcelona Day 2
“From 9 to 3”

A long day. A really long day. Woke up and had free breakfast, then got the legendary chocolate con churros, then hit the Picasso museum. It was very inspiring, seeing one man grow and evolve so much over his life. We learned about a painting called “Las Meninas” by a Spanish artist named Velazques, which was reproduced by Picasso in 50 different ways.
Then we had tapas, saw the Gaudi park and the Gaudi Cathedral, had dinner/lunch, then went back to the hostel. During this portion, we stopped every other minute for people in our group to take pictures. Which drove me nuts. All I wanted to do was eat but we had to take more pictures. I learned two things about myself here: I'm cranky when I don't eat in a country where food is always good and always in close proximity and I hate photography. No offense, photographers out there. I respect your art in all its forms, but the effects it had on my personal travel day were far from benign. Anyway, we made it back to the hostel. Where we made some new friends:

In our room were three girls from Australia who we didn't ever really meet but there were four girls from the UK who were very friendly. We hung out with them and went out to a club and danced the night away. We all traded facebook information.

Our friendship with them is kind of an incredible thing, poetic, even. We met briefly, learned about each other's cultures, hung out, shared some laughs, and then may never see each other again. In such a short time, two groups of friendly outgoing people formed a friendship. There is something to be said for that. It made me realize that there are so many people who make great friends in the world, I will never be able to meet them all. But it's a comfort to know that you can find friendly people everywhere.

We got back to the hostel, slept from 3 30 to 6 30, which is today, then had xocolata suizo for breakfast and then flew back to Cadiz, where I had my last bit of tapas.

This was our first country, Our first foray into the world of smelly, expensive, problem-frought traveling, and I loved every minute of it. Since this trip was entirely independent, I am excited for my SAS organized trips in Morocco, where we'll be on Monday, which groups of SAS students I don't know as well as my friends from Chapman (or the UK, for that matter). I'm sad to see Spain go, I learned so much about the culture, ate so much of their food, and even picked up important words and phrases for getting around, ordering food, and keeping street vendors off of me. I will miss Spain a lot, but I have my pictures and my memories to hold on to.