¡Hola Amigos!

I honestly hope that people are actually reading my uber-interesting updates because it’s really not the easiest task. My computer is officially nonfunctioning and my phone is now limited in its usage through so much ‘wear n tear.’ I am now on a rented computer from the IT Department, and I’m faaah-reakin’ because it’s been 3 years since my fingers have touched a PC (not to sound like a snob – wink wink – Steve Jobs is my hero).

Aaaaanyways, I’m in the UK right now! But I’m not actually *in* the UK. I’m in the Straits of Gibraltar (owned by the United Kingdom)! We’ve been docked here for a while because we were waiting to “commence refueling operations” AKA we’re fillin’ her up. We left Cádiz, España yesterday, so this post will be dedicated to divulging all of my devoted followers with a somewhat exhaustive account of my adeventuras en the South of Spain! (Notice my use of ‘en’ for ‘in’ – I’m sooo Espanish now.)

So Caroline, Hayley, Camille, Fernanda, Triana, Frances and myself disembarked on the morning of June 24th and just started walking along the portside of Cádiz. We took WAY too many pictures then headed through the town to the main square. Our first stop was Catedral de Cadiz where we toured the Cathedral then walked all the way up the side tower to see the maaaaarvelous view of the entire town. From the bell tower, we could see where the cool beaches were so we decided to trek in that general direction after we were finished being touristas. After that, we went to the Yacimiento Arqueologico Casa del Obispo museum, which was the most unique, interesting museum I’ve ever been to. It is an archeological site that has glass floors constructed above it so you walk over and around all these ruins that were used for all sorts of things throughout the history of Cadiz starting from the 8th Century BC (it was once a stable, once a cistern, once the Bishop’s residence, and MORE!). Outside of the museum we saw our FAVORITE lifelong learners (old people on the boat), Gene and Nikey Key who informed us that we were their ‘adopted’ grandchildren (through a program on the ship where you can adopt staff or lifelong learners as your family)! I was ecstatic to hear the news, especially because this is Gene and Nikey’s NINTH Semester at Sea voyage, and because they are just awesome in general (Gene told us to call him whenever we wanted at 1-800-LUV-GENE). After the museum, we hit up the local market which was fantastic until we got to the fish section. See, I was under the impression that markets were full of colorful fruits and vegetables. But apppparently that’s not the way things work in port towns. I gagged the whole way through all 5 rows of reeking fishy fish (I mean that’s the only way I can describe it?) trying to hold my composure and not look like the dweeby tourist who can’t handle her shit that I am. Once we made it through and I could breathe and reason functionally again, we headed in the direction of the beach. It only took us around 7 minutes to get there and the view was just what we needed after 6 days of being couped up on a ship. We found a restaurant on the beach where we immediately ordered a round of sangria and browsed the menu. The food was nothing immaculate, but the drinks were great. Caroline had Camarones de Tortillas (we thought it would be like fried shrimp, but it was actually little patties of batter and shrimp – which still had eyes), Camille had an ensalada con atun (tuna salad), Hayley had a bocadillo con tortilla Espanola (bread with eggs and potatoes inside) and I had a bocadillo con chorizo (sausage thingy sandwich). After some mas sangria y chupitas de ron (rum shots), we went down to the beach where some other SASers were hanging out. We swam in the water and it was PERFECT and surprisingly very warm. We came out a little beat up though because of all the rocks on hidden in the sand on the seafloor. On our way home from the beach, I started chatting with some very forthcoming Spanish 12 year-olds who may or may not have mistaken me for Hannah Montana. Then got back on the ship to get ready for la noche!

Frances and Clark made reservations for us to eat at this little hole in the wall place in the middle of town that they had discovered while wandering from their tour group. Our dinner party took up the entire restaurant (and there were only 14 of us!). I had a delicious steak and vino pinto. After dining, we walked around the ENTIRE town trying to find the cool place to hang out. We got directions from some a-hole teenagers who we learned had lied to us and told us the opposite of where we needed to go. Needless to say, Remy (who lived in Spain for a year in high school and therefore knows her shit) had some words with the uncouth teens that can’t and shan’t be repeated here. We found some place that was empty and decided to make it our hangout. Eventually as other SASers walked by and saw us, the place got progressively more crowded until the party spilled onto the street and into the plaza (it was surprising and invigorating to carry our drinks out of the bar – an act apparently unprohibited en Espana). After a while, we walked over to the discoteca two doors down and had a blast and a half! We made some Spanish friends and Caroline had a lengthy and peculiar conversation with some 70+ year-old women who told her she needed more self-confidence (pictures to come). That place closed at 3am, so all the rest of the SASers went home, but Hayley, Caroline, Camille, Clark and I went to meet Fernanda and her friend Pablo (who really loved Hayley if you know what I mean) at a local (hence LEGIT) discoteca called Barrabas. The events of Barrabas will forever remain at Barrabas, but I will tell you this: when a Frenchman asked me to “go to the beach” (a clear euphemism for “I’m going to date rape you” or worse) a red light in my head blinked “Natalee Holloway, Natalee Holloway” so I politely declined. We finally got home around 7am and were relieved to see other people standing outside of the boat (an indication that we had not been the only students consumed in our revelry till the wee hours of the morning) only to find that they were in fact *leaving* for their flight to Barcelona. We hit the hay and set our alarms to wake us in 4 hours to carry onward to Sevilla!

It was not an easy task, but Camille, Caroline, Jarrett and Aaron (our new BESTIES from California who go to SMU) were packed, lunched, and seated on the train to Sevilla by 2pm on Thursday. We talked the whole train ride (approx. 2 hours) about good restaurants to eat at in Dallas. And when I say “we” I mean me and Caroline told them where to go. Typical. We got to Sevilla and checked into our hostel (Hostal Dalis) which was the BEST place we could have stayed. It was a 2 minute walk from the main plaza and Catedral and a 5 minute walk from the river. Post-check-in, Camille, Caroline and I wandered a little and ate some little bocadillos at an internet café then went to the shopping area and couldn’t resist browsing through H&M where I bought a fashionable yet functional pair of shorts (don’t worry, mom, they were only 9€). We went back to the hostel and napped and showered. That night, Adelaide made us reservations for a restaurant on the river called Rio Grande. Spectacular. We had another big dinner group, this time with Jarrett, Aaron, Alison and Emily (our new Colorado friends), Adelaide, Lauren, Brooke, Tyler, Camille, Caroline, Clark, Frances and me! Caroline ordered fish which again had eyes, so it was a good thing I ordered paella that could have fed a third world country. The paella was muy deliciosa and it was passed around the entire table and there was STILL some leftover. It was at this point that we learned about Michael Jackson’s death, and I even teared up a little when I found out. I wanted to go buy a pair of gloves and only wear one as a tribute, but we didn’t really know where to buy any gloves so the idea was nixed. After dinner, we walked around the block where the clubs were. We found our own bar again and danced it up until we heard from Fernanda and Pablo who wanted to meet up at Discoteca Catedral (a Cathedral-themed discoteca = awesome). And at this discoteca in the middle of Sevilla, WE RAN INTO MALLORY SHARY AND MARGARET NEWMAN. I still can’t believe it – we didn’t know they were in Europe, much less Sevilla! We danced all night AGAIN and left the club around 6. I convinced our cab driver to stop at a burger place before we got home where we late-nited on some Spanish-style burgers (what does that even mean?) that had tortilla Espanola on them as well as French’s potato sticks. Yum. We got home to our hostel where the owner had found out that we were trying to fit more people in our room than was allowed, so we were forced to purchase another room (advice for future travelers: don’t try to screw over hostel managers because they will find out). Caroline and I were delegated to sleep in the new room where we couldn’t figure out how to work the air conditioning, so we opted to sleep naked and with the window open (separate beds, obvi).

The next morning, we awoke bright and early at 11am to get breakfast and café con leche at a little place in the Plaza in front of the Catedral and we had another crazy coincidence. Clark ran into his old teacher from Episcopal and while they were talking on the sidewalk, one of his classmates ran into them as well! So we planned to meet up with them for tapas that night. After breakfast, we went to la Catedral, and it was at this point that I remembered that I’d been to Sevilla on my high school Spain trip and had been to all of the tourista places that were on our agenda for the day! It was a perfect refresher to go back, and I’m happy I did. We took pictures with the tomb of Cristobal Colon (also known as Christopher Columbus!) at the Catedral and walked through the gardens and up to the bell tower (another AMAZING view). I’d actually been to a mass at the Catedral on my other trip, but when I came back, I noticed even more things that I hadn’t before. My favorite part was the wood carving of the angels in the organs. So intricate and astonishingly beautiful. Our tour didn’t stop there: we headed to Alcazar, an ENORMOUS palace built by Pedro I in the 1350s. Again, I had been here before, but it was still breathtaking the second time around. I was excited that I brought my new Holga camera, which I used for double exposures all over the Alcazar (the tile work there is one of a kind, so I would take one picture of a cool tile pattern, then contrast it against a picture of the landscapes – we’ll see how they turn out!). We then walked a lot more around Sevilla. Some others wanted to see the Plaza del Toros, but since I’d been to a bull fight there before (and HATED it – it made me so sad), I chose to head back to the hostel for a nice, long recuperative nap. We then went to meet up with Clark’s old teacher and friend from Episcopal to eat at the BEST TAPAS PLACE IN SEVILLA (and I’m so pissed I didn’t write down the name). It took them about 2 hours to fit our huge group so we spent time chatting over some vino. We finally sat down for dinner at midnight and just ordered a BUNCH of tapas. We had the most deeeeeelish goat cheese salad, almond chicken with potatoes, creamy brie and more. After all that food and 5 bottles of wine, our bill was only 120€ for 14 people – we COULD NOT believe it. Around 1:30am, we finally finished and headed out to the club scene. We went back to Riolatina where we had been the night before only to be flooded with a throng of high schoolers. At this point, we made the executive decision to go the Buddha Bar, an ‘exclusive’ club that is actually at the train station in Sevilla. The line to get in was SO LONG, but it looked really fun so we paid our dues and waited. And it was worth it. The place was SO COOL. There were 3 stories and on the top deck, there were cabanas were you could sit and swanky red couches everywhere – very posh. The dance floor was a-rockin’ as well, and we ran into a bunch of SASers which is always fun. We danced and danced until we could not stand up. The DJ played a PLETHORA of Michael Jackson songs to techno beats. He was very big in Europe. We finally went home at 6am and went straight to bed so we could wake up for the train back to Cadiz in the morning.

The next day, we got our train and slept the whole way back. All of our tourista activities had caught up with us! We got back to Cadiz around 3pm and were scheduled to set sail at 8pm, but some travelers in Barcelona got delayed so we didn’t leave until around 11. We laid out on the deck while we were in port and had some snacks from the snack bar (yummmmo smoothies).

We got a new inter-port student (and we miss Fernanda a lot!!!) named Alessandro and he’s pretty cool. He even offered to help me talk with the Apple store in Rome about getting my computer fixed. And our new inter-port lecturer, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, is also great. She’s SO smart and experienced – and she knows a TON of celebs from George Clooney to the Ferrari Family. AND she is in charge of 3 different committees in Congress – one being TSA. AND she was one of the only people to originally vote against the War in Iraq.

I have a paper and two tests the day after tomorrow so that’s pretty much what I’m going to be up to for the next few days. Well that and trying to plan our Italy trip. Only 5 days and soooo much to do!!! If you have ideas on how to hit the highlights in 5 days, email me ASAP hrkitziger@semesteratsea.net . Muchas gracias!

For more reading (as if this wasn’t enough) on my Espana adventuras, check Hayley’s blog: http://hayley-summeratsea.blogspot.com

Until next time-xoxo-HANNAH