My good friend Austin from Colorado is doing a semester at sea, and fortunately for both of us he was going to be making port in Cadiz, a city in southern Spain while I was doing my study abroad in Madrid. Austin and I were roommates freshman year at Saint Louis and lived on the same floor as my current roommate in Spain, Brandon. We coordinated a trip for the three of us meet up in Cadiz this last weekend. As has become typical with me on this trip, transportation, the getting from A to B, was difficult to the point of comical. Needless to say, the trip to Cadiz was no different.
Having Fridays off from school is a luxury that really promotes travel and Brandon and I decided to maximize our trip by leaving for Cadiz on Thursday night, that way we could have all of Friday to play. There are two ways to get to Cadiz from Madrid: train or bus. Obviously the train is faster and more expense while the bus is slower and cheaper. For those of you who don’t know this about me, I have inherited a lot of characteristics from my father. Another thing that you might not know is that I occasionally (and lovingly) refer to my father as the “Cheap Bastard.” With these two pieces of information in hand the choice between bus or train is very clear (even clearer when you incorporate a third piece of information: the Cheap Bastard is bankrolling my trip). We took the last bus of the night out of Madrid at close to one o’clock in the morning after meeting some fellow Americans in the bus station. They were also taking a weekend trip, theirs to Sevilla, a city not far from Cadiz (keep this in the back of your mind, they come into play later). We were slated to get into Cadiz at 7:45 AM. Believe me, over seven hours on a bus isn’t nearly as glamorous as it sounds, but Brandon and I chatted for a while, popped a few sleeping aids and drifted off. There was a pit stop about halfway between Cadiz and Madrid where we again met up with the same group of Americans from Toledo going to Sevilla but we were soon back asleep on the bus.
I woke to the sound of Spanish gibberish over the loudspeaker and a good number of people standing up, putting on coats, and gathering luggage. I looked at the clock, it was a quarter past 7, too early to be in Cadiz but it sure looked like everyone was getting off the bus. I asked the women ahead of me in Spanish if we were in Cadiz, she said “Si, Cadiz.” Good enough for me. I woke Brandon, got my stuff together and got off the bus. I still had doubts as to if we were really here so I asked another man once outside the bus if we were in Cadiz and he gave the same answer the woman had given before. It was dark and I had never been here before, who was I to question their answers even if we were in Cadiz a good half hour before we were supposed to be there?
Austin was going to meet us at 9:30 when he got back from Sevilla so Brandon and I got a few cups of coffee and started killing time. The dual bus/train station had machines where you could buy a ticket and displays for arrivals and departures. Both Brandon and I found it strange that there would be arrivals and departures for Cadiz on those boards since we were in Cadiz, but we didn’t let it bother us too much.
At this point I know what you’re thinking and you’re right: clearly we were not in Cadiz. I suppose Brandon and I chalked up the anomaly of Cadiz being on the arrival/departure boards as “those crazy Spanish, trying to sell you tickets to place you already are!” or something like that. No? Not buying it? Well look if you’re reading this you’re obviously a friend of mine so cut me some slack okay? I really thought we were in Cadiz.
After coffee and bread, washing up and sunrise we decided to take a walk around. I hadn’t done any research on Cadiz before I left, but I did know that it was a coastal town (obviously since my friend doing a semester at sea was making port there) so Brandon and I set off to find ourselves an ocean. After walking about 8 blocks in every direction and someone saying “I think I can smell the ocean this way,” we found ourselves landlocked. One of us said what the other was thinking and we went back to the train station, where I asked an employee there what city I was in. I felt a little like Robin Williams in Jumanji when he comes out of the game and asks what year it is, I mean honestly, how often do people come up to ask what city they’re currently in? She said that I was in Jerez. I bought a train ticket and informed Austin that we would be late.
Cadiz is nice. No, Cadiz is really nice. Cadiz is the San Diego of Spain, only nicer. Yeah, that’s the kind of nice I’m talking about. We met up with Austin and his friend from semester at sea named Bubbers. We spent the day walking around, enjoying the sun and the palm trees. We found a little park and took a bus to the beach. It was windy and in the low 60s but it was by far the most pleasant day I’ve had weather wise in this country. I put on a green pastel polo and let myself get carried away by the promise of sun. Later that night, the rain came and we wound back and forth among the tight little streets from bar to bar until we settled on one that was infected with semester at sea students. We rubbed elbows and downed drinks. The semester at sea kids were anxious to be off the boat for the first time but mostly I was having a good time with Austin. Brandon and I left before Austin did and wound up taking an incredibly indirect route to the hostel, but made it there safe and damp.
The next morning we met Austin and Bubbers in a park so they could get internet access and all of us could enjoy the sun. To say the park was pleasant would be an understatement. It was the kind of place that you could spend the entire day just sitting and watching. It seemed like all of Cadiz had come out to play that Saturday morning and I took my camera out to snap a few pictures of the locals. I even caught some kids playing soccer on tape. There’s a video of these two Spanish boys play fighting. I’ll post both of the videos at the bottom of this entry. Austin and Bubbers had to get back on the boat to get down to Morocco. This was a day earlier than we had originally anticipated, and having seen quite a bit of Cadiz Brandon and I decided to take a train up Sevilla. We said our goodbyes, bought our tickets and were in Sevilla around 7:30 that night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzgY7CVmn7k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypn_c92bOG0
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