Spain today, Morocco tomorrow!

Spain, Day 1: My first day in Spain was spent on a walking tour of Cadiz and getting used to walking on land again. They actually recommended that we take seasickness meds to counteract the "landsickness" we may get. Cadiz is so different from northern Spain.  There are palm trees and what the tour guides call, “Muslim castles.” I found myself photographing buildings and textiles.  I’d never seen architecture with such a Moorish influence before.  After our tour, we took time to regroup and then headed out for a night of sangria and tapas.  The tapas were mostly fish based and many of our meal choices still had eyes.  I’ve been forcing myself to try everything (from fish paste to whipped fish croquettes) but when there are eyes staring at me, it becomes a bit more trying. 

Day 2: I woke up early and joined my group to see Spain’s “white town route.” Specifically, we traveled by bus to Acros and Ronda, which are two small Spanish towns where the buildings are all uniformly white.  Ronda was beautiful.  Within two hours, we had gone from ocean town to steep mountains.  Our Spanish tour guides were proud to show us around their town.  Hemmingway apparently lived there for a while, and Ronda is also home to the first bullfight arena in Spain.  If I can ever figure out how to load pictures, there are some good ones from this trip.  The day concluded with another late dinner and sangria.  Cadiz is a safe town of 185,000, so I could wander (with 3 friends) at night safely searching for a restaurant.  We arrived at an open square, hoping to find the Cathedral, where there was free internet.  (Cadiz recently got a new mayor who put free Wi-Fi in all the important areas of town. We are very thankful to her.)  Instead of the Cathedral, we found an Italian restaurant, where we all happily munched on pizzas.  We left the restaurant around 11pm to find locals with their cameras out.   On that Thursday night, there was a group of 15-20 Spanish men suited with fake pregnant bellies.  A small, gray-haired, scruffy man, dressed in fully female nurse attire, led them down the street.  I still have no clue what was going on.  I do have a wonderful photo though.

Day 3: The original plan for this day was to go to Granada and spend the night there.  I had planned this with 3 friends, and we had booked a hostel and museum tickets a week in advance.  We went on Day 1 in Cadiz to book a bus ticket to Granada and discovered that there were none left.  We even checked the bus leaving at 3am. Nothing.  We all lost about $40 because of this misadventure. So the below is all plan B for the day:
After two late nights, and an alarm that is certainly not loud enough for me, I missed my 6am alarm to head to Donana National Park.  It sucked. I woke up two hours later, disappointed, but knowing there was much I could do that morning.  I spent the morning getting lost in Cadiz, doing a bit of shopping and completing a few application things on the free internet.  The only thing I had left to do was find colored pencils for my art class.  It had been a long morning of being lost and apologizing for not speaking Spanish when I finally found the art shop.  The shop had the radio blasting and the one clerk busily helping customers.  I had no clue how to ask for the colored pencils I could see behind the counter.  Suddenly, the radio switched from Spanish techno to Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark.”  It was exactly what I needed to convince me to say once again, “Lo siento, no habla espanol” and point to what I wanted. (I’m sure that Spanish is horribly misspelled.)  After that, I found my way back to the ship to have lunch and pack.
Here’s where the story gets complicated: I had planned over dinner my first night in Cadiz to go to Seville with one of the guys from my field trip on day 3.  The idea was for us to go directly from the field trip bus to the train station, and meet up with our friend Aaron in Seville at 7pm.  I had already missed the field trip, but was determined not to miss Seville, as it is home to the world’s third largest cathedral.  I arrived to meet the field trip bus to find my friend, Derrick, at 2:15 - 15 minutes prior to their intended arrival.  At 2:45 I was still waiting, and had no clue what to do.  I hurried back to the ship to knock on the door of another friend of mine on the trip.  She told me they had arrived on time and that Derrick wasn’t sure what to do, but had decided he would go ahead and take the 3pm train alone.  I glanced down at my watch and saw it was 2:54.  Crap. There was no way I could make it to the train, but I had told Aaron and Derrick two days before that I would meet them at Oasis Hostel at 7pm.  I immediately went to the bus station (directly outside of port), bought a ticket, and hopped on the 3pm bus to Seville, hoping I could meet them as planned.  I got to Seville at 5 and had time to explore on my own, which I loved.  I saw the Cathedral and Alcázar, though only from the outside, as both the church and castle closed at 5.  Seville is beautiful.  Long ago, it was home to a world fair, and thus the buildings represent styles from many different countries.  It is the capital of Andalucia, the province of southern Spain, and I counted THREE Starbucks.  Oddly, when I ordered my grande skinny latte, it was the only time that a clerk did not attempt to respond to me in English.  I found our meeting point with 15 minutes to spare.  At 7:15, neither of the boys were there.  I should note that this was NOT a big deal.  I assumed (accurately) that the boys had run into each other earlier in Seville, and Derrick had told Aaron that I missed the train and assumed that I never got to Seville.  That’s fine.  I spent another hour window-shopping before catching the bus to go back to Cadiz.  This was not how the night was supposed to go, but as far as I’m concerned that I got to see the cathedral is all that matters. 

Day 4: We departed at 6pm, so this day was mainly for errands.  We researched and thoroughly planned our Japan trip (we are officially booking transportation before hostels!) and spent some time in the grocery store and post office.  The ship departed that night at 6pm, heading towards Gibraltar, where we would dock for fuel before heading to Casablanca.

Currently: I am sitting on my bed staring at Gibraltar rock.  We are supposed to be halfway down the coast of Morocco, but due to strong winds, were unable to get fuel earlier.  Our entry into Casablanca is now delayed from 8am tomorrow to at some point tomorrow evening.  I am fortunate in that the trip that I have planned to Marrakesh does not leave until day 2 in Morocco, but it still is a day spent seeing land but unable to get off the ship.  Bummer.  My Marrakesh trip will be exciting.  I have booked reservations at a Riad (a Moroccan b&b) for 14 students, although we will not be all together during the day.  This means that should some of us want to bargain at the leather market and others hike in the Atlas Mountains, we can split up and still have guys in both groups.

That’s about it for now, sorry for the lack of pictures and that this is a bit dry...  When I figure it out, I’ll upload a few pictures from Spain and Morocco.