I forgot to mention the night before we met a guy from Ohio named Rich. He was really cool! He was living in Spain and learning Spanish for the past 6 months (I think it was 6 months) But anyway we ran into him the next morning at breakfast and he joined us. I love meeting random people and so far I’ve meet so many great people who are just so nice.
After breakfast and chatting with Rich for a while we headed to the bus station in attempts to get an earlier ticker back to Cadiz which was a success! We swapped our 630 tickets to 330 tickets. We spent the next few hours hanging at the bus station catching up on facebook & writing in our journals. The bus arrived in Cadiz around 8.
That night a small group of us (Shelley, Ariel, Loryn, Damian & I) decided to take it easy and go out to dinner back to where Ines worked. She was so happy when she saw us it was so cute! Anyway we enjoyed our tapas & sangria while laughing and sharing stories of out travels. Ariel, Damian and Loryn went to Savia so it was nice to hear what they were up to over the past few days. Ines hooked us up again with 2 free shots each. After dinner we headed back to the ship around 1 and had an early night to rest and get ready for our last day in Cadiz. Some rest that I really needed!!
My last day was very low key. I decided to skip breakfast on the ship and slept until about 9 then headed into town to meet up with people who were taking advantage of the free wifi at the Cathedral. After posting some pictures to my blog there I ran into Maria and grabbed some breakfast with her. We ended up hanging out for most of the day and filled out postcards & searched for peanut butter (which was not a success) – So we just stole it from the ship at dinner time (shhh!)
We ran into Jeff who was grabbing some food and found out that he hadn’t tried paella yet!! So we told him he had to try it and headed to the Cafería Andalucía and grabbed some paella & sangria (of course). We spent most of the remainder of the afternoon there chatting and drinking and snagging people who were walking by to join. We headed back to the ship around 4 to beat the crowd who would be rushing to get there by on ship time (6 pm).
Well now im sitting in my cabin and we are on our way to Morocco. We left Spain around 8 (I was napping) and tomorrow at 9 AM we have a diplomatic debriefing which is where someone form the embassy will come and tell us what not to do/ what to wear/ how to cover up ect.. It’ll be really interesting going to Morocco. I’m really excited for it but some people are nervous. We’re going to be there for the last day of Ramadan – which is a month long of fasting where the Muslims will refrain from eating, drinking & sex from dawn to sunset. I’m pretty sure it ends on the 10th. We also have to dress really conservative. We can’t show our knees, shoulders, and absolutely no cleavage or tight clothes at all – It’s going to be a change for sure!! Well its 1230 (really 230 but we gain 2 hours going from Spain to Morocco – they don’t have daylights savings) so I’m off to bed! Glad I’m done with all that blogging :P
Adios! I’ll add more after Morocco. Thanks for reading & email me :) HLCOOPER@semesteratsea.net
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Granada y Cadiz, España! Day 4 & Day 5 9/7/10 -9/8/10
Granada, España! Day 3 - 9/06/10
We got up early for La Alhambra which is a huge palace built in the 14th century. It is so big that after spending 4 hours there exploring the palace & gardens there were still things that we did not see! Every corner you turned there was something even more amazing there. The thing I like the most about La Alhambra was the walls and how intricate everything was. There were carvings and bright tiles everywhere you looked. I can’t imagine how much time went into building this!
I also love the Palacio de Generalife which was a summer palace for the kings in the 1300s. The palace overlooks the cathedral and la Alhambra and is just a short walk through gorgeous gardens and tall hedges with openings overlooking Granada. I can’t really describe how amazing this place is I’ll be posting a lot of pictures once I can get to some good wifi & have the time. So you’ll just have to wait :)
After spending the morning at La Alhambra we headed to a bar nearby and had some tapas & lunch – it was really good after that we had a nice siesta (nap) and took advantage of what the Spaniards do! That evening after our siestas we got ready to head for some drinks before sunset to watch it set one more time over La Alhambra. We took the bus to an area called Plaza de San Nicolas where we were told was a very nice area to watch the sunset. We wandered around the area (which was very small) and found an outdoor restaurant called Juan Ranas and enjoyed our company & drank sangria while the sun set.
Once it got dark we headed back into the town and we headed back into town to grab some dinner. Over the past few days I’ve gotten so used to eating dinner around 9 or 10 - or even later like almost everyone in Spain does. We found a really nice restaurant and then headed back to the hostel to drop off the girls who wanted to stay in for the night.
Maria, Sarah & I took advantage of our last night in Granada. We went bar hopping for a few drinks then ran into 2 guys at an Irish pub who recommended a “disco” around the corner. One of the guys names was Romeo which we all got a kick out of!! Romeo did not speak English at all so Maria was our translator once again and his friend (I think his name was Ismial) did.
Well anyway the 5 of us walked around the corner to the disco – and because it was a Monday night it was pretty dead but it was still a blast. Romeo was an amazing dancer! It was like the stuff you see on the movie step up – I tried dancing with him but oh my god I could NOT keep up! Haha We ended up hanging out with the boys till about 3 or 4 then they left and we headed back to the disco so we could keep on dancing .. It was so much fun. We didn’t end up getting back to the hostel until about 6 AM that night!
Granada, España! Day 2 - 9/05/10
Man oh man! The morning after was a pain in the butt! I hadn’t finished packing for my trip to Granada and I got a wake up call from me dear friend Shelley at around 8 AM to catch out 9 AM bus to Granada. I was in such a rush to get ready but – I made it! 4 of us (Me, Sarah, Maria & Shelley) headed to Granada for 2 nights mainly to see La Alhambra. After the 4 ½ bus ride – consisting of lots of sleep - we arrived in Granada. The city is pretty big but everything is so close together and all the houses are so cute & small.
Our hostel was in the Albaicín area of Granada & was very close the La Alhambra and everything the tourist would want to see so it was great. Almost everything was walking distance and if not there was a bus stop right at the bottom of the street to take us there. When we arrived the first thing we all did was shower and get ready for the day. It was around 3 when we headed out to the internet cafe to get in touch with a friend who missed the bus. After that we went to a place called Oh!LaLa for a late lunch. We each got a different paella & of course our usual sangria.
After refueling we headed out to explore. We had the most amazing ice cream that Maria & Sarah’s cab driver suggested. It’s homemade & man oh man I have never tasted anything better then it! After that we headed across the street to the Granada Cathedral and did a tour of it. You weren’t allowed to take pictures but I got some really good ones. The ceilings were SOOO high and there were HUGE wood carvings that were floor to ceiling on just about ever wall. There was just so much detail. Here is a picture so you can get an idea of how elegant and detailed it was: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Andalusia_hl_20060811_006.jpg
After the Cathedral we did some shopping and exploring the city. That night we went out to Sacromonte which is known for its cave district & flamenco dancing. The bus ride there was very interesting. The streets are so narrow and they are packed with people – I don’t understand how people do not get run over!! The busses just squeeze past! And when they turn corners they barely slow down and just blow their horn to warn oncoming cars – we almost went head on into a BMW that was flying around the corner but he had to back up so we could get past. I have a fun video of the bus rides around Sacromonte :D
We headed there around 7 pm to see the sun setting over La Alhambra – such a gorgeous sight. You can see La Alhambra on a hill across the way and bellow is the city and with the mountains in the distance it is just amazing! While we were waiting for sun set we walked up into the hilly city to see the neighborhood – we ran into a small restaurant and there was 2 older men sitting at the bar listening to music. One man started dancing for us and speaking in Spanish to the other man. Luckily! Maria speaks Spanish and as they talked she began to laugh and repeat what they were saying in Spanish. He was telling the other man that he brought us here form far away to see the sights and was joking around saying we were with him. Too funny!
We head back into town once the sun set and grabbed some Pizza at a place called Nemrut Doner Kebap. It was really yummy! After that we had a little search & rescue mission for one of the girls who decided to go out and search for a pay phone at 1 AM. But she was fine and ended up heading back to the hostel and we didn’t know she was there for about a half hour. Besides that the night was a lot of fun! While we were searching we ran into a group of SASers and got free shots at a nearby bar – 19 of us! It was too funny all of us jammed into a small bar. After hanging out there for a little we went to a bar called Tranta because our waiter had a crush on Maria and gave us drink vouchers for it. ;) It was a pretty cool bar but we were so tired and only stayed for a drink then headed back for a good nights rest because we had La Alhambra tomorrow!!
Sorry for the long posts :P I just don't want to forget anything!
España! Day 1 - 9/04/10
I woke up so early with everyone to see the ship pull into Spain. It was around 630 AM (and I couldn’t sleep the night before!) So everyone was dragging themselves up the stairs. But when we got outside all you could see was smiles! .. LANDDD :-) The sun hadn’t risen yet so all you could see was boats to the sides of us and the lights of Cádiz in the distance. The tug boats pulled up next to us around 7 – 730 to guide us into port. When we were close to the pier we had to turn the ship around (the tug boats did all the work) and parallel park – which was pretty cool for a 590 foot ship!
Everyone got off the ship around 9 after we were cleared and we were on our way. There was a decent sized group of us and we headed out to explore the city with no real destination. We ran into some cute little garden areas with fountains and flowers everywhere and had a few photo-ops which came out really nice! Our first stop was to see the Cathedral although we didn’t go inside the outside was gorgeous and the steps were filled with people hanging out and taking advantage of the free wifi in the city. After seeing the Cathedral & the Yellow Dome (a big building right behind the Cathedral with an amazing gold colored dome) we went to a nice little café for some coffee. Which I ordered all on my own in Spanish! Yay!
After some shopping & wondering the group of us ran into some other SASers who were having some sangria (YUMMM) & paella at a restaurant called Cafetería Andalucía. The food was amazing and we all had a great time chatting and sharing our plans for the next few days we had in Spain. Later on we ended up running into the same group of people and I tagged along with them and headed to the beach. The beach had a beautiful view with a lot of little boats but there were a lot of rocks in the water so it was interesting with the random drop offs! We all relaxed for a while and had some wine (very warm wine – ickk) and enjoyed each others company.
Later on a few of us went searching for some food while others stayed back at the beach. We went to a little restaurant that was across the street but for some odd reason they stopped serving food so the 4 of us grabbed a beer instead. At the next table of was a group of hilarious Spanish guys. They would break out into clapping & song randomly after a few songs and seeing us laughing we all got to talking. They were so funny and friendly they even bought us a round of beer. Score!
After hanging out there for an hour or 2 we headed back to the ship to get ready to head out. That night a group of us went out to a restaurant called Restaurante San Francisco Uno for some sangria and tapas. Tapas are small dishes of food that are served at most Spanish restaurants. They are really cheap (about 2 – 4 euros a dish) and some places with even bring you free tapas if you order a drink. It’s really cool and a great way to try new things (I EVEN TRIED SQUID!!! Yep. I did!) Well anyways we each ordered a ton of tapas and shared with the group and after about 20 plus sangrias throughout the group and joking with the waitress (my friend Shelley was our translator for the night) we ended up getting free shots on the house! Woo! Our waitresses name was Ines and she was so sweet to us and I don’t know how she did it with 10 non-spanish speaking people at the table!! She ever gave us vouchers for a free drink at a bar around the corner. – which is where we headed next! :P
It was about 11 - 12ish when we headed to the bar and the place was dead. People don’t start going out until around 1 – 2 for the night. (Oh! But listen to this children LITTLE KIDS – even babies will be out playing in the squares or out eating with their families until 12 or even later!) But anyways so we used out vouchers then decided to just hang out there and dance and have some drinks. After a while the club started filling up and we were the only Americans (which was pretty cool) and the youngest people there! Which was pretty funny!! Regardless we all had an amazing time on our first night and even though I lost my ID and had to pay 25 bucks for the new one & how rough the next morning was - it was all worth it! The group of us got back to the ship around 530 .. I really don’t think clubs close .. the night life is great. Adios!
Photo Update from Spain!
