!Bienvenidos a Espana!

Finalmente! I could use my Spanish in its natural habitat! We docked in the southern part of Spain in Cadiz. Shortly before docking, I learned that the “s” or “z” in southern Spain was pronounced as a “th”. So, needless to say, it was a little hard to understand the locals, saying things like “grathiath” instead of “gracias”. 

It was a rainy day in Cadiz (after the weather told us it would be a beautiful day….) but covered almost all of the small city in that one day. We walked to a castle that used to serve as a fort only to reach the entrance gate saying it was closed on Mondays. Oops. My hallmate and I went into a cathedral that was really elaborate. There was a pressed penny machine inside, I could not believe it! There was also a morgue in the basement with remains of some Spanish poets laying there…

My friend and I spent the day running in and out of the rain and walking, walking, walking the city! We were along the coast for much of our trek so I loved being by the water. We finally found the main shopping, hopping, popping district and had to eat. What a great choice we picked! I had this fried eggplant dish drizzled with balsamic glaze (did not know vegetarian options would be so hard to come by in Spain haha!) and could not have been happier. It was DELISH! Nice and very thinly sliced grandma :) We were also on a mission to find churros. I had to go into a tourism office to ask where they would be!!! We were told they were a breakfast food so no one had them. We were not taking no for an answer! You may wonder why I was having so much trouble in Spain if I can speak Spanish. Well, once I opened my mouth, people must have thought I knew much more than I do! They spoke 50000 miles a minute and whew that was tricky! I also realized I do not roll my “r”s enough.  When I asked the tourism office lady where the churros were, she had no clue what I was saying. I described long, sugary dough sticks and it finally clicked – “Oooooh, churrrros!” she exclaimed! Whoops, guess I need to practice my “r” rolling.

The next day for my business ethics class, we visited a vineyard to learn about ethics in winemaking. That was pretty cool. It was a locally-owned place and the CEO spent the day with us in the vineyard talking to us and enjoying a tapas lunch with us. THERE WERE AVOCADO SLICES AT LUNCH…..YUM!!! But probably the coolest site I saw that day was one of the Disney Cruise Line ships in dry dock. I think it is the same ship I’ve seen in the Bahamas so it was neat (albeit sad!) seeing it all ripped apart and under construction. 

Spain was our last European port. Time to touch down on a new continent…..AFRICA’s next!

=D