We?ll Always Have Espana

I know this is late, but I got really busy with planning for and traveling in Morocco. 

Spain:  September 4- 8, 2010

The ship got into Spain on Saturday, the morning of the fourth.  Kelsey and I proceeded directly to the train station and luckily made it there and got our tickets to Seville just before the huge crowd of about 200 SAS students showed up.  Some of them waited in line for almost 2 hours for their train tickets.  We did have to wait for about 30 minutes.  I was feeling pretty queasy possibly from switch to moving constantly on the ship to not moving at all, or possibly from the heat in the train station.  After we had our tickets, we got some water and waited for our train.  At that point, the bag that I had all of my overnight supplies and clothes in broke and I was left awkwardly carrying around a very heavy broken duffle. 

The train ride was great, except for some obnoxious SAS students who thought it wise to have beers in the morning before boarding the train and some that brought their beers onto the train… We got to Seville and transferred to the train that would take us to Madrid.  Once arriving in Madrid, Kelsey and I walked around lost for a long time trying to read the maps and look for our hotel.  We found it after about an hour of walking and lugging my broken bag around the city.  The hotel was really nice and was in a great location.

We asked the hotel concierge for some suggestions as to where we should go for food, shopping, entertainment…  We made our way to the Metro station and bought a 10 ride pass. Upon arriving in our first stop, Sol, we walked around for a bit, admiring the grand architecture and the cobblestone streets.  We had a snack at a little “bar” (bars are everywhere and they are not bars like in the US, they serve tapas and coffee) and walked around the city some more.  We went to the Palacio Real around sunset and took some beautiful pictures.  We had dinner outside around 10 or 10:30, which is the normal time that most people in Spain eat dinner (yikes!).  Kelsey and I had a nice talk and got to know each other.  We had bread, salad, queso manchego and red wine (which wasn’t my favorite at all, haha). 

The next day we had a goal to go to El Rastro, which is a huge market on Sunday mornings in the middle of town.  We took the Metro to where we thought it was and started walking around and couldn’t really find it.  We walked through the Plaza Mayor, which was so gorgeous, but very touristy and crowded.  While we were walking and still looking for El Rastro, Kelsey’s shoe broke, so we gave up trying to find the market and instead looked for some new shoes for Kelsey.  After we found some suitable shoes, we stumbled upon a really nice indoor food market called El Mercado de San Miguel.  They had so much delicious looking food like fresh fruit, olives, meat, seafood, wine, bread, cheese, croquettes, chocolate, and baked goods.  I bought some fruit, olives, and a little calzone sort of thing filled with beef.  It was probably the best meal I had in Spain.  In the late afternoon we went to the Prado museum because it was free from 5 to 7.  I saw some of the paintings that I had heard so much about in European History, like “the Fourth of May” and a lot of crazy Goya paintings.  In the evening we ate at a really delicious vegetarian restaurant in the middle of a square.  I had some gazpacho and a Coke (ahh Cokes with real sugar, mmm). 

On Monday we got up and went straight to the Reina Sofia.  We saw some really amazing art like Picasso’s “Guernica” and many other Picasso pieces.  I really loved all of the Dali pieces as well.  My favorite painting was definitely “A World” by Angeles Santos Torroella.  They let me take pictures of all of the art so I’ll put some up eventually. We explored some other parts of the city for the rest of the day and ate in a small bar for dinner.

The next day we got up early to catch the train to Seville.  When we arrived in Seville it was mid morning so we had tortilla Espanola con jamon e queso (soooo good).  We took a bus that was supposed to take us to the cathedral of Seville, but I guess we got off on the wrong stop and we ended up walking around confused for a while.  When we finally found the cathedral we paid (I convinced them to give me the student price, even though I am not a student in the EU, haha) and went inside.  It was HUGE and really elaborate.  We walked around Seville the rest of the afternoon and bought some souvenirs.  I got a Real Madrid banner and a pin for my collection.  We also went to the post office and we had to wait in line for about an hour to mail our postcards. 
We decided to take an early train back to Cadiz and relax the rest of the evening. 

Once I got back to the ship I showered and unpacked.  I found out that the cathedral in Cadiz has free wifi so we all went there to use the internet for a while.  Later a bunch of SAS people all went to a little bar to have drinks and dance. 

On my last day in Spain I walked around the flower market in the square and went to Carefour (grocery store) to get some snacks (I did not have much luck…).  The ship departed at 2000 and headed straight to Morocco. 

So all in all Spain was really nice and a great “easy” start to this voyage.  I dug up a lot of my Spanish and I was able to communicate pretty darn well.  The public transportation was pretty good and reliable and people were generally really friendly.  Spain was not exactly as I was expecting, but it was a great experience.  It really got me excited to one day go to Italy and use my language skills there!  Because if I can get by with the little Spanish I know in Spain, then I think I will be just fine in Italy! ☺ 

Well I hope everything is going great in Colorado, or wherever you are.  Send me emails.  I will try to write back as soon as I can.  And I will try to upload some pics, but I cannot do that on the ship because of the limited internet.

Love,
Michaella